The only thing I really, personally contributed to this recipe is the pastry, so that's all I'm really going to post about. Sure I took the time and effort to go out and purchase the mincemeat, trawling through endless aisles of jars, peering thoughtfully, discerningly at the ratio of mixed peel to vegetable suet, gauging the number of sliced almonds in each. But it's not quite the same as making it yourself, is it. I would dearly love to learn how to make the mincemeat from scratch, in fact as I've got so much time off next week (three days, whoo!) I might just make that my mission, if I can find time between all the knitting and reading and wandering aimlessly.
In any case, the pastry. Pastry is notoriously fiddly; too much water and you're sunk, too little and you waste away. Pastry can make or break a desert, for no matter how wonderful the filling, how decadent the topping, a poor pastry will let the whole thing down. My favourite pastry is my mum's. I have never witnessed a bad pie come out of her kitchen. Her quiches are to die for, the one time she tried strudel exquisite (the build up to which was weeks of panic; the result of it four happy bellies); but it's her mincemeat ring and mince pies, which appear but once a year, that made the run-up to Christmas that much more exciting. Though the thought of eating one was akin to allowing someone to shoot my toes off the smell of them could not fail to announce that the holidays were upon us. When I was fourteen I actually agreed to put one of them in my mouth and from that day forth I have been a committed convert. Though Mum always used store bought mincemeat filling (flown in from Sainsbury's especially), her pastry is, was and will always be made from scratch. Her pastry is, was and will always be the best pastry ever. And yet it was only last year that she discovered the power of vinegar. The following recipe is my mum's with one small deviation: where she uses white vinegar, I substitute apple cider vinegar. The result is almost imperceptibly sweeter; however, don't let that put you off using it for savouries. Substituting salt for the sugar will turn the sweetness into tartness.
ingredients:
8 oz flour
5 oz butter/vegan marg
2 tsp caster sugar (fair trade always recommended -- it's a but coarser as it's been less refined and thus more caramelly than non-fair trade sugar)
3-4 tbsp ice-cold water, plus 1 tbsp cider vinegar
method:
Sift the flour and sugar into a large bowl. Slice the butter into chunks over top, about an inch thick. Using the pads of your fingers, rub the butter into the flour. It should take a good five minutes before the mixture starts to looks vaguely like bread crumbs, but you don't want to over do it otherwise the resulting pastry won't be as velvety.
In a separate bowl mix together the water and vinegar, then, tablespoon by tablespoon add to the flour-butter mixture. Start off with two tablespoons and fold the water in, then gently compress together. Add two more, folding and gently compressing. By this point you should be able to pat the mixture into a ball. If the batter is still very crumbly add a smidge more water, but be careful not to swamp it. If the batter is too sticky, add a bit more flour until the texture is round and smooth.
Once you have a ball to be proud of, place it in a bowl and pop it in the fridge for at least half an hour. If you're running out of time you can always stick it in the freezer for ten. It should come out the same. The pastry is much easier to handle if you take it out of the fridge ten to fifteen minutes before you need to use it.
I have pictures of how my mince pies turned out, but my guests are starting to arrive and I will never win at the Hostess Sumpremo awards if I don't go to greet them.
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