Frangipane Mince Pies

It’s bakemas 2020!

If it’s your first bakemas here, welcome. It is my annual mini-series in which I show you how to make a various Christmas themed baked goods – perfect if you want to impress your family and/or friends or if you’re hosting a festive get together.

Keeping things super simple today with a batch of frangipane mince pies – if you mince pies, you’ll love these, they are the perfect Christmas treat.

If you’re a fan of mince pies, I have a few recipes for you to check out. Don’t forget to try homemade mince pies, homemade sweet mincemeat and a batch of chocolate orange mince pies.

If you’ve never heard or tried frangipane – you’re missing out! Frangipane is an almond based confection, often used in sweet tarts such as Bakewell tart. It’s may sound complex to make but its quite the opposite – it’s quick and easy.

A classic pastry case, filled with classic mincemeat and finished with a layer of frangipane… Tell me they don’t sound good?

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

 

Ingredients:

Of course you’ll need a pastry (duh), I already have a blog post on how to make the perfect shortcrust pastry. Don’t forget to check out the recipe if you’re interested in making my version of the pastry.

 

Frangipane:

75g butter.

75g granulated sugar.

75g ground almonds.

10g plain flour.

1 egg.

 

Filling:

A small jar of mincemeat (shop bought or homemade).

 

Method:

Before you get started on any element of the recipe, you’re best to so some prep work. Start by weighing up all of your ingredients, preheating the oven to 180˚c/350˚f and getting any equipment you may need, such as a mixing bowl and spatula.

To start on the recipe, you’ll want to make the pastry. As mentioned above I have a blog post showing you how to make the perfect shortcrust pastry. Follow the recipe all the way through and then proceed with his recipe.

Once your pastry has had around an hour to chill in the fridge, you can gently flour your work surface and place the dough on to it. Then roll the pastry out until it achieved around 5mm in thickness (give or take, this is the perfect thickness for me to work with).

I only used half the pastry as I only wanted to make a half batch, if you’re looking to make a full batch (12) – use the entire amount of pastry and double the frangipane and mincemeat filling.

Take the rolled out dough and use a large 3 inch circle cookie cutter and using either the straight or ruffled edge, cut out 6 circles – this should be easy to do if you have rolled your dough out correctly – you can always re-roll the pastry, if needed (but only once).

Lay hand of the pastry cut outs and one by one, gently press them into a muffin pan (it doesn’t need to be lined or greased). While you’re pressing the pastry into the tin, be gentle. The pastry is only thin and is prone to breaking – if this occurs, patch it up with some of the excess pastry. Repeat the process for the remaining pastry cut outs.

Transport the muffin tin into the fridge to firm up, while you make the frangipane.

Making the frangipane is super straight forward. Take a mixing bowl and place in the butter, granulated sugar, ground almonds, plain flour and egg. Mix everything together until all of the ingredients have been fully combined – you may find mixture to be a little ‘off’ smooth, this is normal (the ground almonds prevent the mixture from being completely smooth).

Give the bowl a good scraping down, just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on.

Snatch the chilled pastry cases from the fridge, the mincemeat and frangipane, ready to assemble and finish the pies off.

Into each pastry case, add around a heaped tablespoon of the mincemeat and fill the remaining space with the frangipane (fill them right up to the top). Then transfer the pies into the preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.

You’ll know when they’re ready, the aroma of spices and almond will fill your kitchen. A tester when in inserted should come out clean.

Allow them to cool (almost) fully and finish with a dusting of icing sugar and enjoy. These are perfect enjoyed on their own or with a warm beverage – however you enjoy them – give these a try!

That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my other social’s – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. The YouTube tutorial will be linked down below.