Christmas

For very rich pastry you can use one egg yolk - if so reduce the quantity of water to 2 teaspoons.

If you wish you can add 1 good tablespoon of brandy to the mincemeat one week before you use it.

Add the flour, sugar, marg and lard into a large mixing bowl. Using a rounded knife, cut into the butter and lard to start mixing it then using the tips of your fingers rub the fat flour and sugar together till you get something that looks like small breadcrumbs.

A tip from Michel Nijsten, Head Chef at the Albright Hussey is to freeze the butter beforehand and grate into the flour - it helps to create the breadcrumb-like mixture.

Then slowly add the water using a rounded knife to mix the pastry into a crumbly dough. Flour the work surface and roll out the pastry. Put into tins, add mince meat and pastry cap. Brush with milk or beaten egg and snip a small hole in the top.

Place in the over on 220 Celsius / 425 Fahrenheit / Gas Mark 7 for approximately 20 minutes.

Keep an eye on them from 15 - 20 mins as the rich pastry can easily burn.

The history of the Mince Pie

The tradition goes that the mince pie originated in through the gifts to the baby Jesus.

One can reasonably assume that these gifts were gold, frankincense and myrrh, surrounded by fruits, nuts and oil. And so little tarts in the shape of a cradle were filled with spicy fruit, nut and meat mixture - hence mincemeat.

In times gone by, mincemeat had ingredients such as ox tongue, chicken, eggs, lard, sugar, raisins, lemon peel, orange peel and various spices.

Brandy was added and the mixture was set aside to allow the flavours to blend. This style of mincemeat was more of a stew than a dessert. 

The mince was a favourite pie of many famous people, such as King Henry V and King Henry VIII, and it has been mentioned in many writings over the years.

In America the first Thanksgiving reaped a poor harvest from bad seeds, so dried fruits and local wild berries were used to make the first transatlantic mincepies.