Our former Food Director, and previously food editor to Delia Smith, Sarah has written more than 1000 recipes for the magazine. She is also author ofFamily Baking and Marmalade; A Bittersweet Cookbookamong others.
See more of Sarah Randell’s recipes
Sarah Randell
Our former Food Director, and previously food editor to Delia Smith, Sarah has written more than 1000 recipes for the magazine. She is also author ofFamily Baking and Marmalade; A Bittersweet Cookbookamong others.
See more of Sarah Randell’s recipes
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Ingredients
2 x 411g jars mincemeat
200g small seedless red grapes
For the pastry
225g plain flour, sifted, plus extra for dusting
2 tbsp icing sugar
125g cold butter, diced, plus extra for greasing
1 large egg yolk
For the shortbread stars
125g soft butter
50g caster sugar
175g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
a little preserving or granulated sugar, to sprinkle
For the vanilla cream
1 x 300ml carton whipping cream, chilled
1 tbsp icing sugar, plus extra for dusting
a few drops of vanilla extract
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Step by step
Get ahead
The pastry case can be baked and the shortbread stars can be made and cut out a day ahead; keep the stars on asheet of baking paper in the fridge. The assembled tart is best baked on the dayyou want to serve it.
For the pastry, put the flour and icingsugar into a food processor (or mixer)and add the butter, whiz for a minuteor so until the mix resembles breadcrumbs. Mix the egg yolk with a teaspoon of cold water and add to the processor, whiz again briefly until the pastry comes together; adding a few more drops of cold waterif necessary. Alternatively, rub the butter into the flour and icing sugar in a bowl by hand, then add the egg yolk and water and mix until the pastry comes together. Tipthe pastry onto a lightly floured surface and bring it together with your hands to forma ball, then flatten into a disc. Wrap thedisc in clingfilm and chill it for 30 minutes.
For the shortbread, use a food processor or hand mixer to mix the butter and sugar together with a pinch of salt for 3-4 minutes until pale and creamy. Or, do this by hand with a wooden spoon. Tip in the flour and mix again to combine, then put the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and bring it together with your hands. Shape the dough into a disc as you did with the pastry, wrap it in clingfilm and chill it for 20 minutes.
Lightly grease and base line a 20cm x 28cm x 2.5cm-deep fluted tin (with a removable base). Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface slightly larger than the tin, then press into the tin to line it and chill for a further 20 minutes. Don't worry if it cracksa little, you can patch it up. Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan 180°C, gas 6. Placea baking tray in the oven to heat up.
Tip
The larger granules of preserving sugar add a lovely crunch but you can use granulated sugar if you like
Line the pastry case with baking paper – scrunch it first before opening it out again and fitting it in to the pastry shell. Add baking beans (or uncooked rice) and putthe tin on the hot baking tray and into the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Towards the end of the cooking time, take the shortbread out of the fridge to soften slightly.
After the 20 minutes, lift the paper and beans out of the pastry shell and bake the pastry case for a further 10 minutes, thenset it aside to cool slightly. Meanwhile,roll out the shortbread on a lightly floured surface to about 5mm-thick and cut outstar shapes using a mixture of different-sized cutters. (Bake any extra shortbread stars alongside the tart on a separate lined baking tray to eat as biscuits.)
Mix the mincemeat with the grapes and spoon into the tart case. Arrange the shortbread stars on top, sprinkle themwith preserving or granulated sugar and bake the tart for 30-35 minutes or until the shortbread stars are lightly golden.
Whisk all the ingredients together for the vanilla cream, then chill. Serve the tartwarm or cold, dusted with icing sugar,and with the vanilla cream alongside.
Chef quote
A giant mince pie with a crunchy, starry shortbread topping. The grapes in the filling add extra juiciness. If you don't have a rectangular tin, you can also make thisin a 26cm loose-bottomed round tart tin.
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Recycle: Box. Recycle with bags at large supermarket - Don't recycle at home: Film. Contains alcohol. Encased in an orange zest infused all-butter pastry, our Extra Special Mince Pies have a deliciously rich mincemeat filling infused with brandy and port for a wonderful flavour.
Ingredients included dried fruits like raisins prunes and figs, lamb or mutton (representing the shepherds) and spices like cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg (for the Wise Men). By late Victorian England, mince pies ceased to contain meat and had all fruit fillings (with suet).
A mince pie (also mincemeat pie in North America, and fruit mince pie in Australia and New Zealand) is a sweet pie of English origin filled with mincemeat, being a mixture of fruit, spices and suet. The pies are traditionally served during the Christmas season in much of the English-speaking world.
By the 18th century it was more likely to be tongue or even tripe, and in the 19th century it was minced beef. It was not until the late Victorian period and early 20th Century that mince pies dropped the meat and had all fruit fillings (albeit with suet). Even today there are traditions associated with mince pies.
Mince pies have been eaten as part of a traditional British Christmas since at least the 16th century. Then they were made of a spiced, sweet minced meat mixture (often lamb), but they are now commonly made with sweet mincemeat, a mixture of dried fruits, sugar, spices, and brandy.
Yes, mince pies can be vegan. Although the filling is called mincemeat, it's actually made from dried fruit and spices. They were traditionally savoury and did often contain meat in the past, but thankfully, today, that doesn't still happen.
On the flip side, already-baked pies that are then frozen won't have the same crispy, flaky crust as pre-freeze, but in my experience they are still delicious, especially when reheated in the oven and/or served a la mode. Most cream, custard and meringue pies do not hold up well to freezing.
In general, custard and cream pies do not freeze well. They tend to get soggy and unappealing when you defrost them. On the other hand, Stephens and Wickenden say fruit pies freeze quite beautifully. First, let the pie cool to room temperature.
Shop-bought mince pies generally contain preservatives, so if they are past their "best before" date they might still be OK to eat, they just might be a bit soggy or stale.
The Kirkland signature mince pies from Costco. For me and my family these are some of the best mince pies you can buy, and the festive season does not start for us until we get a huge 12 pack of these incredible little cakey pie things.
A mince pie is a sweet pie made with dried fruits and spices and, usually, encased in either a rich shortcrust or flaky pastry case. A Scotch Pie is a savoury pie made with, usually, minced mutton and spices and put in a hot water crust pastry shell.
The reason mincemeat is called meat is because that's exactly what it used to be: most often mutton, but also beef, rabbit, pork or game. Mince pies were first served in the early middle ages, and the pies were quite sizeable, filled with a mixture of finely minced meat, chopped up fruit and a preserving liquid.
What has changed dramatically is the mince pie recipe, having begun as savoury pies filled with minced meat, suet, dried fruits, spices cloves and nutmeg. However, the modern mince pie is filled with a mixture of dried fruit and spices that is called 'mincemeat' but there is no meat in the mixture at all.
One bite of a home-made shortcrust pastry mince pie and you'll never want to buy them again. Now you've nailed the pastry, put it to good use with one of our mince pie recipes including date and apple, brownie and frangipane versions.
Martin Fone investigates the most traditional seasonal food of all, mince pies, and finds that they really did contain meat at one time in the past. Just be grateful you never got served one made with fish...
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Prep time: 2 hrs 20 mins, plus chilling
