Time to try the mincemeat out!

I used Paul Hollywood’s pate sucree recipe as I’ve used before, because I like the flavour and shortness the ground almonds he uses give it. Of course it is a bugger to work with… but lots of chilling and lots of flour make it possible!

Last year when we made these it was a nightmare to get them out after cooking. So this year I’m putting a sling under each pie to make it easier.

Another change is that when attaching the lids I brushed the whole of the lid, rather than trying to brush the edge of the side of the pie. This was much much easier, and it definitely the way to go.

So basic run was: make pastry in food processor, put in fridge to chill. Spray tray and line with slings. Roll out pastry, cut out bottoms, add mincemeat, cut out tops, brush tops with egg wash and attach. Poke hole in centre with skewer. Egg wash top and sprinkle demerara sugar on. back in the fridge before cooking.

Turns out the burning of the mincemeat in the slow cooker can still be tasted: it’s left a bitter taste to it. It’s passable in the final pie, but not great. Also the slow cooker method has made it  into a homogeneous sludge: there’s no bite from bits of apple or goo from bits of suet. So frankly: I won’t be doing the mincemeat in the slow cooker again, even if I managed to avoid the burning.

Apart from that it all went great. The extra chilling gave great pastry results (no soggy bottoms!) and the slings made them really easy to remove.

Oh I guess one final issue: I forgot to take a picture of them once they came out of the tin!