Mince pies

Damon. Makes roughly 36 5cm pies. 9 steps

mincemeat					Divide pastry into three or four pieces, and refrigerate until needed. Roll out thinly, and cut circles for the mince pie bases and stars for the tops. Fill the pies with as much mincemeat as you can fit in. Bake in a hot or very hot oven for 10–15 minutes or until very lightly browned on top. Let them cool in the tin for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and sprinkle with icing sugar.
2 quince	coarsely grated	Heat on the stove until the juices run and the mixture reaches a simmer.	Cover and bake in a slow oven for three hours, mixing in portions of the whiskey from time to time.	Refrigerate for at least three months, or as long as several years.
500g raisins, currants, sultanas, and dried figs
150g candied citrus peel	finely chopped peel
2 oranges	finely grated peel, and juice
150g butter
100g soft dark sugar
grated nutmeg
ground allspice
1 bayleaf
1/2 cup whiskey
1 cup whiskey
pastry
400g plain flour	Make a simple shortcrust pastry
200g butter
2 egg yolks
cold water
icing sugar

Whatever mix of ingredients you use for the mincemeat, it will come out tasting like Christmas. Some recipes for mincemeat tell you to macerate the ingredients, and most tell you to simmer them for 20 minutes or so, but my recipe calls for very long slow cooking in the oven, and it uses more butter and alcohol than usual. Perhaps this is why mine kept perfectly well in the fridge for three years, with no ill effects at all, and why it came out tasting so mellow.

I like these to be more tartlets than pies, and I like a thin flakey crust. The quantities given here should make roughly 36 mince pies, but it depends totally on how thick you roll the dough, and how deep your pies are.