pastry for mince pies?

[topsi]

which is the best pastry for mince pies and jam tarts. I have found 2 recipes for short crust pastry one with lard the other with egg. Also can I make pastry and freeze it uncooked then just defrost and use??

Short crust is fine and this is what I know...lard helps make the pastry shorter ie more crumbly and egg tends to make the pastry richer.

My recipe (dating from school in the 80s) uses 1/2 fat to flour and then I divide the fat into 1/2 lard and 1/2 butter. You add a teaspoon of water per ounze of flour (for mince pies I use orange juice instead of water; prob a Nigella idea). Also add some salt. Don't add too much liquid as this can make the pastry hard too.
You could use all butter to make pastry but I am not a fan of butter in general so I stick with the lard / butter (or hard margarine )combo.
Also you can add sugar for a sweet short crust but I don't as I think you get enough sweetness from the jam or mincemeat.
As you can see there are plenty of variations depending on how you like your pastry.
Also you can freeze the uncooked stuff.
Hope this helps.

One of the recipes I use requires a mixture of half plain flour, and a quarter of cornflour and icing sugar each, which creates a really smooth dough.

I made nigella's mince pie pastry yesterday and it's delicious.

I have put ground almonds and icing sugar in before, I always use an egg yolk.

Another vote for Nigella's mince pie pastry - it uses half Trex/lard and butter so light as a feather, also orange juice and salt. I assemble the pies and then freeze raw. Cook from frozen they just take an extra couple of minutes. This is great for us as mince pies last a nano second here, so I like to have a stash of at least 30 or so in the freezer so I don't have to make any over Christmas, there's enough else to cook!

thanks every one my pastry is resting in the fridge, used the one with egg in it.
will try the variations next time

Mince pie pastry made with icing sugar. Absolutely melt in the mouth gorgeous!