Luxury Lemon and Almond Mince Pies

Makes: 12

Calories: 437

Suitable for freezing: yes

Fat: 19g

Saturated fat: 8g

Ingredients:

– 250g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

– 60g ground almonds

– 75g golden icing sugar

– 175g unsalted butter, chilled and diced

– 2 medium egg yolks

– 820g jar luxury mincemeat

– Finely grated zest of 2 lemons

– 2 tablespoons Amaretto Disaronno (almond liqueur)

– 1 tablespoon golden granulated sugar, to dust

– 12-hole muffin tin, lined with paper cases

– 9cm and 6 cm pastry cutter, and mini festive cutters, if you have them

1. Pour the flour into a processor with the ground almonds and icing sugar and pulse for 30 seconds. Add the butter and whizz until the mixture forms crumbs. Add the egg yolks and 1-2 tablespoons cold water and process again until the pastry just comes together. Knead the dough lightly on a lightly floured surface. Wrap and chill for 1 hour.

2. Mix the mincemeat, lemon zest and liqueur. Set the oven to Gas Mark 5 or 190°C and put a flat baking sheet in the oven to heat up.

3. Roll out two-thirds of the pastry and stamp out 12 rounds using the larger cutter. Press these into each paper case in the muffin tin.

4. Spoon 2 dessertspoons of mincemeat into each pastry case. Brush the pastry edges with water.

5. Roll out the rest of the pastry and stamp out 12 rounds using the small cutter. Use mini cutters to stamp out tiny festive shapes in the centre of each round, if you like.

6. Top each mince pie with the small pastry round, sealing well at the edges. Sprinkle tops with golden granulated sugar. Put the muffin tray on the hot baking sheet and bake the mince pies for 20-25 minutes until the pastry is pale golden. Serve warm or cold.

Our tip: we used paper muffin cases to bake the mince pies, so that the pastry could be nice and thin, and the finished pies are easy to remove from the baking tin.