Chocolate Orange Crumble Mince Pies

Mince pies, how are we feeling about them? I thought I’d make something a little different – these chocolate orange crumble mince pies.

Not quite the traditional version that you might find on the shelves of your local store, these are better by far.

Starting with a chocolate pastry case, filled with a chocolate orange mincemeat and topped with a chocolate orange crumble. To make that orange flavour pop, I have used orange zest – this really help. I also have made a mincemeat with chocolate – weirdly it works well.

Christmas is the time of sharing and caring, so why not make a batch and share with your friends, family and neighbours. Mince pies are one of the most debated Christmas baked goods – some people like them and others don’t.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

 

Ingredients:

Chocolate pastry:

1 egg.

90g granulated sugar.

225g butter.

350g plain flour.

25g cocoa powder.

Pinch of salt.

 

Filling:

Mincemeat (I used a homemade chocolate orange mincemeat).

 

Chocolate Crumble topping:

75g granulated sugar.

75g demerara sugar.

60g oats.

100g plain flour.

20g cocoa powder.

1 tsp ground cinnamon.

120g butter, cold.

 

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep. I like to start by weighing up all of my ingredients, getting my muffin pan ready, get any equipment ready (such as a food processor) and preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f.

To start, make your pastry. Simply take a food processor and place in the flour, cocoa powder, salt and butter. Pulse together until they are combined, it should look more fluffy – this is showing the butter is incorporated, set aside until needed.

Into a small bowl, place the egg and sugar, then whisk together until they are well combined. Add into the dry ingredients and pulse until a dough has formed. Be careful that you don’t over mix at this stage, otherwise it will have a tough texture.

Bring the dough into a disc, then wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 30-60 minutes.

Once its had some time in the fridge to chill, you can go ahead and use the pastry.

Onto a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry until its around 5mm in thickness, remember to get as many cut outs from the first roll as this is the best – anything after this will not be as good.

Make sure you have 12 cut outs – the cookie cutter you will need should be 3 inch and plain edge.

Gently press the pastry into shape, it should be the perfect amount to prevent trimming them.

Fill them generously with your mincemeat, filling about 3/4 of the way full – saving a little place for the crumble.