Best pastry for mince pies?

[ABudafulSightWereHappyTonight]

Have just made a double lot of mince pies from a Mary Berry recipe and they are not great. Pastry very dry and hard. Not sure if I over worked it or not.

So. I need a fail-safe, fool/idiot-proof recipe please!

I have Nigella's Chrismas book but her recipe uses suet which I don't have.

3oz butter, 3oz lard, 12 oz plain flour. Put the fats and the flour into the food processor and pulse until they look like breadcrumbs. Add orange juice a little at a time and pulse until it clumps together. Chill for half an hour before rolling out.

Thanks domesticsluttery. Can't get lard here I'm afraid. Am in Budapest. 6oz butter?

domestic's recipe sounds like nigellas which is really really fab
only downside is you have to make lots as they get snaffled v quickly!

white veg fat is just as good

You need the pastry from this recipe.. it is divine.

6ox butter to 12 flour should be fine, I always make my short crust with half fat to flour. Interested in trying orange juice! I usually just use water, I suppose orange must add a bit of a festive zing?

Be careful about overworking pastry though, you might be right that you did. Once you have your breadcrumbs then mix your liquid in really fast, sort of spread your fingers into a big claw and toss it around a bit until it clumps.

Nigella's is the best and the veg fat ( Trex or similar ) or lard makes a big difference to the lightness, IMO.

Her OJ/salt mix is inspired.

I use lemon juice and water and little icing sugar. Beautiful if I do say so

I use lemon juice and water and little icing sugar. Beautiful if I do say so

The trick my mum taught me was to use slightly more than half fat to flour: so, for 16oz flour, I used 9oz fat (I use half butter and half Cookeen or Lard, depending on whether there will be any vegetarians/Muslims eating them), pinch of salt and c.5 fl.oz of ice cold water.

If you can't get Lard/vegwetable fat, all butter will do.

Brush the pies with milk, sprinkle with sugar and poke a couple of times with a fork.

So far this year I have made 138. Yummy