- Butter for greasing
- Potato starch or cornflour for dusting ( flour shakers are cheap to buy and a godsend when working with pastry and dusting surfaces
- Puff pastry made from Oast to Host pastry flour (See recipe)
- 350g gluten free mincemeat
- 2 eggs lightly beaten
- Demerara sugar to sprinkle
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Heat oven to 200C/gas 6 and lightly butter and dust a 12 hole fairy cake tin.
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Cut your puff pastry slab in 1/2 and roll each 1/2, so they are each 5 cm bigger than your fairy cake tin.
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Lay one sheet onto the tin, pushing it into the holes.
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Spoon 1½ tbsp of mincemeat into each hole, then use some of the beaten egg to brush around all of the edges of the holes.
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Lay the other sheet of pastry on top and press to seal.
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Chill in fridge for 20 minutes .
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Once removed lightly dust the top with your flour.
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With a cookie cutter slightly larger than your fairy cake holes cut circles around each of the holes, peeling away the excess puff pastry. You will be left with 12 flat-topped pies.
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Place a flat baking tray over the pies and flip the fairy cake tin upside-down. The pies should slip out of the tin, leaving you with 12 pies on a baking tray.
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Press each one around the edges to make sure they're well sealed. Brush them with more of the beaten egg, sprinkle with Demerara sugar.
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Bake for 20 mins, until risen and golden. Allow to cool a little, then serve warm.
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(tip: while heating up oven put a spare baking tray in the oven to heat up . When putting mince pies in oven place them onto the hot baking sheet, this way the base gets a better chance at crisping up.)
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Use left over puff pastry for cheese straws or sable biscuits. Roll out , cut to shape desired, paint with beaten egg and sprinkle a strong flavoured cheese.(to keep the puff in the pastry, try to lay pastry in same direction on top of each other and make it into one piece by re working, using the folding technique originally practised when making the puff pastry. Re folding a couple of times should be sufficient.)