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frangipane mince pies, in tin 1
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Frangipane Mince Pies
Prep Time
1 hr 20 mins
Cook Time
15 mins
Total Time
1 hr 5 mins
 
No Christmas is complete without these gorgeous little morsels of almondy, buttery delight. You could describe them as mini bakewell tarts with a Christmas twist.
Course: Biscuits & Bakes
Cuisine: British
Servings: 18
Author: Gillian Thompson
Ingredients
For the pastry:
  • 175 g plain flour preferably 00
  • 30 g ground almonds
  • 65 g icing sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 125 g cold unsalted butter diced
  • 2 large egg yolks beaten with 1 tbsp of iced water
For the topping:
  • 200 g mincemeat
  • 1 tbsp brandy optional
  • 90 g caster sugar
  • 90 g unsalted butter melted
  • 2 large eggs
  • 90 g ground almonds
  • 4 tbsp flaked almonds
Instructions
For the Pastry

  1. Put the flour, ground almonds, sugar and salt into the food processor bowl and pulse to combine.

  2. Add the chilled diced butter and process until you have a mixture the texture of breadcrumbs.

  3. Start to add, one tablespoon at a time, the egg and water mix down the funnel. Pulse as you add, until the pastry looks like it's about to form a ball around the blade.

  4. Turn out the mixture onto a lightly floured surface and bring together with your hands to form a dough.

  5. Shape the dough into 2 discs, cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

  6. Roll out one of the disc and stamp out 6 circles. The circles need to be slightly larger than the tart indentations. Press the pastry down gently. Roll out your next disc of dough and repeat. Place the tray back into the fridge for a further 15 minutes to rest.

  7. Preheat the oven to 200C / gas mark 6.

The filling:

  1. Melt your butter.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs and sugar then pour in the melted butter, whilst still beating. Then stir in the ground almonds.

  3. Mix the brandy into the mincemeat.

  4. Remove the tray from the fridge and place 3/4 teaspoon of the brandy mince meat into each pastry cavity.

    Add a tablespoon of the frangipane mix over each mince meat filled pastry.

  5. Sprinkle each pie with some flaked almonds and bake for 15 minutes, or until the pastry is cooked and the tops are golden brown.

  6. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tins for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe Notes
Nigella's recipe states she makes 24 regular sized mince pies out of these quantities, using a 7cm biscuit cutter.  However, a 7cm cutter is ideal for the mini sized tarts (using a mini muffin tin) and are very cute indeed, but if you prefer more than a mouthful the I recommend you use the regular sized muffin trays and a 9cm cookie cutter.