It’s Christmas Time…..
Which must mean it’s time for mince pies! If you’ve got to the point where you’re looking for something special or a little bit different, then this is the recipe for you!
Viennese Whirl Mince Pies
This is a great recipe that gives you not only a mince pie, but one topped with a lovely, buttery Viennese biscuit to boot! Don’t worry too much about your piping skills as it all seems to come good in the oven…. says a not very efficient piper!
The quantities I’ve given here make around 18 full size mince pies but you could make these in a mini-muffin tin as well for a more bite-sized version. The pastry is a rich shortcrust and I’ll leave it up to you to decide on the sort of fat to use – you might be an all butter sort of person but I find that this can make the pastry a little on the hard side for what I’m looking for here so, for me, it’s half butter and half lard. Sprinkle in a little castor sugar if you want something on the sweeter side but not too much.
Equipment
2 x 12 hole bun tins
Piping bag with a large star nozzle
Ingredients
For the pastry:
250g plain flour
125g fat, cubed (butter or butter and lard)
1 egg
Cold water
For the filling and topping:
1 jar of mincemeat
250g very soft butter
50g icing sugar, plus extra to decorate
250g plain flour
50g cornflour
½ tsp pure vanilla extract
Method
For the pastry, rub together the fat and flour with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Beat the egg and add to the mixture and cut through the flour with a knife. Add 1- 2 tablespoons of cold water until the dough comes together with your hands. Try not to add too much water. Once it has come together, flatten it into a disk and cover with clingfilm and pop into the fridge for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (fan).
For the Viennese topping, place all of the ingredients into a mixer or food processor and beat/blend until smooth (you could also use a hand-held whisk for this) – it’s really important that the butter is very soft for this or it will be impossible to pipe. Spoon the mixture into the piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle.
Once the pastry has chilled, roll out and use a cutter to cut out the bases for the mince pies – line the bun tins. Spoon a teaspoon of mincemeat into each one and then pipe a spiral of the topping onto each one. Don’t worry if the mincemeat isn’t totally covered as the topping will spread in the oven.
Bake in the oven for around 25 minutes until a light golden brown.
