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.
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