We didn’t know mince pies back in Poland. It is something we see as traditionally British, something we liked and decided to make ourselves. Some may be surprised that mincemeat does not grow in cans on supermarket shelves. Read on for the recipe that will take some time to make, but will blow your mind.

Mince Pies (czyt. mins pajs) to nie mielony pies. Są to babeczki z kruchego ciasta, z nadzieniem z suszonych owoców, orzechów, cytrusów, tłuszczu i przypraw. Są bardzo aromatyczne, a w okresie świątecznym wszechobecne. Zapraszam do zapoznania się z przepisem.

We got the mincemeat recipe from Wiola, the author of Kuchnia Tygryska. We made our own orange peel for it, using the recipe from Moje Wypieki. The wholemeal pastry recipe came from Jamie Oliver, we used wholemeal flour instead of the plain one. The plain flour pastry recipe was taken from Paul Hollywood.

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Planning

You can make the mincemeat earlier and just focus on baking the pies afterwards. This makes it easier to plan. Accessory-wise, you will need a muffin baking tray or small aluminium forms to bake it in. We used the muffin tray.

The dough needs chilling before preparation and baking, so you can also prepare it a bit in advance and leave it in the fridge, then just assemble the pies and bake them.

Quantities: We have made 12 plain flour and 24 wholemeal pies. If you want to make a single type, you’ll have to use quantities in parentheses.

Mince pie

Candied orange peel

It’s more than you need for the mince pies. You can store it in your fridge for quite long (months).

Ingredients

A post shared by Breadcentric (@breadcentric) on Dec 23, 2017 at 4:43am PST

• 6 high quality oranges – organic ones would be best
• 2 cups sugar
• 60 ml water (1/4 cup)

Preparation

A post shared by Breadcentric (@breadcentric) on Dec 23, 2017 at 4:43am PST

1. Wash the oranges very thoroughly under running water. Use a scrub
2. Peel the oranges
3. Remove the white stuff from the peel (just leave the orange part). I used a carving knife to do this.
   Fun fact: the white stuff is called albedo, the orange stuff is called flavedo
4. Dice the flavedo
5. Put sugar and water into a thick bottom saucepan and add the diced flavedo
6. Put on a low heat and under a cover for 20 minutes
7. Then remove cover and cook for 20-25 more minutes
8. The peel will become semitransparent, the syrup will still be a bit runny
9. Transfer to a container and use as you like

Mincemeat

No pictures for the mincemeat. It’s not as beautiful as tasty.
This is enough for 36 mince pies.

Ingredients

• 450 g diced apples (not peeled)
• 225 g soft butter
• 350 g raisins
• 225 g candied orange peel
• 350 g brown sugar (normal will also be OK)
• Peel and juice from two oranges
• Peel and juice from two lemons
• 50 g almond flakes
• 4 teaspoons of gingerbread spice (I really recommend one from Primi Piatti – I’ve run it through Google Translate, I read it and it kind of makes sense)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 nutmeg powder
• A handful of dried cranberries

Preparation

1. Melt butter with the spices, sugar, juices and peels in a saucepan
2. Add apples, bring to boil
3. Reduce the heat and let simmer for about 10 minutes
4. Add cranberries, raisins and leave to simmer for 20-30 minutes until it starts getting dense
5. Add whatever’s left at this point and stir it in
6. Cool it down. If you don’t plan to use it straight away, put it into clean jars and store in the fridge for up to three months (might be longer)

Plain flour dough

Quantities for 12 pies and for 36 in parentheses.

Mince pie

Ingredients

• 375 g (1125 g) plain flour
• 250 g (750 g) unsalted butter, softened
• 125 g (375 g) caster sugar, plus a bit more for sprinkling
• 1 (3) medium egg
• A splash (a splash, a splash and a splash) of cold water

Preparation

1. Rub all the ingredients in together until it comes together as a dough. Do not overwork it
2. Wrap it in cling film, press rather flat this way and set aside to chill in the fridge
3. Roll it to about 3 mm thickness, cut out discs 9 cm wide and put them into the muffin tray and press against the tin, put the filling in to fill it up to about three quarters
4. Cut out discs 6 cm wide and cover the  pies, or go crazy with the shapes of covers if you like and sprinkle with caster sugar
5. Bake for 20 minutes in an oven preheated to 200 C
6. Let it cool a bit after baking
7. You can dust it with icing sugar and serve warm with fresh cream

Wholemeal flour dough

Mince pie

Quantities for 24 pies and for 36 pies in parentheses.

Ingredients

• 500 g (750 g) wholemeal flour
• 100 g (150 g) icing sugar
• 250 g (375 g) unsalted cold butter
• 2 (3) large eggs
• 1 (1.5) tablespoon semi-skimmed milk

Preparation

1. Mix flour and icing sugar together
2. Add diced cold butter and rub it into the flour
3. Beat two eggs and milk and add to this, work it until you get a ball of dough. Don’t overwork it
4. Put your dough on a cling film, pat it flat, wrap it around and put into the fridge for at least half an hour
5. Roll it to about 3 mm thickness, cut out discs 9 cm wide and put them into the muffin tray and press against the tin, put the filling in to fill it up to about three quarters
6. Cut out discs 6 cm wide and cover the  pies, or go crazy with the shapes of covers if you like and sprinkle with caster sugar
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes in an oven preheated to 180 C
8. Let it cool a bit after baking
9. You can dust it with icing sugar and serve warm with fresh cream

The plain flour pastry is very tasty, it almost melts in mouth (after the initial crunchiness). The wholemeal pastry is slightly healthier and quite crunchy, with the wholemeal aroma in it. The family voted unanimously for the plain flour, but both were tasty.