Frangipane Mince Pies #GBBOBloggers2015

I know.
Mince pies.
In September!
What is going on?? 
It is how I feel  when as soon as the kids go back to school, the supermarkets and shops are full of Christmas merchandise! However, I do have good reason for my festive baking – the GBBO of course!
When I learnt that the bake off categories for week 6 were :

frangipane tarts
a traditional cheese-filled pastry from Cyprus called flaouna 
vol-au-vents

I decided to have a go at making frangipane as it something I have never baked with before.  I have to be honest I was expecting it to be more technical than it was, but now it is something I can make again with ease because it was, well easy! I was thinking of what tart to make, when I wondered if I could add frangipane to mince pies, because if it worked, it would save me having to bake more at Christmas as I could freeze what I made for this bake along. Great plan…..or so I thought! (more on this later). So I googled mince pies with frangipane and guess what recipe I found? One from Paul Hollywood! So if he made them, then it has to work!

So reading his recipe, I used my nanny’s sweet pastry recipe (the best in my opinion, although the addition of the orange zest and spice is my twist for this recipe), the 10p jar of mincemeat  I bought in Sainsbury’s back in January, which has been sat in my cupboard ever since, and added some glace cherries and an apple to bulk it out a bit and add more flavour, and then I used his frangipane recipe to make my pies.

Once the pastry has chilled in the fridge , it can be rolled out on a  floury surface, ready to shape. Cutting out the pastry circles is a fun activity that little hands can help out with

These Frangipane Mince Pies were fun to make and the only thing missing were some festive tunes which usually accompany me when I am making mince pies! If you fancy having a go at making these yourself, then here is how you can

Frangipane Mince Pies

2015-09-08 22:07:12

Yields 20

mince pies with a frangipane topping

Write a review

Save Recipe

Print

Ingredients

1. *For The Pastry*
2. 10oz flour (I use self raising)
3. 1oz icing sugar
4. 1oz ground almonds
5. 3oz unsalted butter – cold
6. 3oz lard – cold
7. 1 tsp mixed spice
8. grated zest of 1 orange
9. water - enough to bind the pastry so anything from 2tbsp - 6tbsp
10. *For The Filling*
11. 1 jar of mincemeat
12. 50g glace cherries
13. 1 large (or 2 small) apple, peeled and grated
14. *For The Frangipane*
15. 100g unsalted butter, softened
16. 100g caster sugar
17. 40g flour
18. 60g ground almonds
19. 2 eggs, beaten
20. PLUS
21. butter for greasing
22. extra flour for dusting
23. icing sugar for decoration

Instructions

1. *Make Your Mincemeat Filling*
2. Empty the jar, the cherries and the grated apple in to a bowl, mix and leave to stand for at least 1 hour*
3. *To Make The Pastry*
4. Place all the pastry ingredients into a large bowl and rub together until all the butter is rubbed in and the mixture resemble fine breadcrumbs.
5. Make a well in the middle and add the cold water – its hard to give an exact amount but better to add a little at a time – and using a knife, cut through the mixture until a dough starts to form and the mixture leaves the side.
6. Then using your fingers bring the mixture together to form a ball.
7. Wrap the dough in cling film – dusting the cling film in flour first – and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (I leave mine for longer , sometimes even over night)

Meanwhile make your frangipane by

1. beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
2. add the flour and mix well.
3. then add the beaten eggs and the almonds and beat well
4. *Assembling your pies*
5. Pre-heat oven to 190C /170C (fan) and grease your muffin tins well with butter
6. Remove your now chilled pastry, and place onto a flour dusted work surface
7. Cut the dough in half and roll out into a circle large and start to cut out pastry rounds - I used a large scone cutter for this
8. Place the rounds into each muffin tray hole
9. You can mix the left over pastry bits up into a ball, roll out again and then continue cutting out the pastry circles.
10. Repeat this with the other half of the pastry until it is used up
11. (Bear in mind that if a little tear does occur, the pastry is quite forgiving and can be repaired with pastry patches!)
12. place 1 tsp of the mince meat filling inside each pasty case
13. then add about the same of the frangipane - enough to cover the mincemeat, and smooth over with a knife
14. repeat for each pie
15. then place in the oven and bake for approx 20 minutes
16. leave to cool before carefully removing from your tin (Word of warning : this pastry is crumbly so some of the bases might stay behind when you attempt to take them out of the tin)
17. dust with icing sugar before serving

By Jenny Paulin

Mummy Mishaps http://www.mummymishaps.co.uk/

The pastry was amazing as always, but very crumbly so my plan to freeze the majority to put away for Christmas failed, because several bases got stuck to the muffin tin holes! I clearly did not grease mine well enough, as this has not happened before! Still, Jenson’s new teachers enjoyed eating one the next day when they came for their home visit!

Anyway, frangipane topped mince pies really work and makes a lovely addition to my usual mince pie of a pastry top and bottom. I will have to make these again in December – although my mincemeat will cost more than 10p then!

Great Bloggers Bake Along

If you would like to bake along with me for the new series of the Great British Bake Off, then the rules are here and you can grab my badge on my homepage and on the rules page. I look forward to seeing what you come up with and remember that at the end of the bake off, I will be holding my prize draw where anyone who has linked up a new recipe throughout the 11 weeks can enter. It will only be open to #GBBOBloggers2015 – so there is a good chance of winning 1 of 3 prizes 🙂

On your marks, get set and baaaaaake

This week’s bake off linky is being hosted by Stacey, so please go and see what she has baked for pastry week.

**Come back next Tuesday for the bake off round up, and to see who has been crowned Star Baker/s **

(linky opens 9am on Thursday 10th September and ends at 8pm on Monday 14th September , 2015)

For this recipe I have reviewed a couple of very useful items, which helped me to make these pies. This bakers dusting wand by Oxo is so handy for dusting my finished pies with icing sugar, and, unlike a sieve, only a little came out! Plus it looks lovely in my photos as a styling prop!

I used a Microplane Premium Zester-Grater to make my orange zest for my pastry. This grater is so easy to use and zested my orange in no time at all!

(you can see my review for the Gourmet original grater here)

I was sent the zester and the bakers dusting wand for the purpose of a review.  

Like this? Share it...

Twitter

Facebook

Pinterest

Linkedin

StumbleUpon

Digg

email