Mince pie pastry - what am I doing wrong

[setsooma]

The mincemeat is delicious, but I can never get the pastry right. It is sort of thin, but chewy and tough. And the mincemeat always leaks all over the top when I cook them, giving a weird glazed effect.

I follow this recipe: www.deliaonline.com/recipes/books/delias-happy-christmas/traditional-mince-pies

you want Pate Brisee for the best mince pies...basically it's fancy shortcrust.

I use block margarine or block butter, and one and a half times the weight of the butter in SR flour, cut the cold butter into small cubes and then rub it into the flour with your fingertips until it looks all crumby and with no floury pockets in it.
Then I add about half a cup of sugar...icing or caster....but icing is nicer (this is for one block 225g size of butter)
Get a knife and and break an egg into the pastry and then using the knife cut through the egg and crumbs until it all starts to combine, you may need a splash of water, but ime water makes the pastry hard so avoid it if you can
Gently form the pastry into a dough, do not knead or squeeze ...this will also make it tough

Let it rest for a while in the fridge before use.

** I know SR flour is technically wrong for pastry, but for mince pies it works

As far as the boiling over goes...I think mincemeat is too appley just now and this doesn't help, but make sure you seal the tops on well with egg and make sure you have a small hole in the top to let the steam out and that helps prevent the lids popping off.

You say it's tough. Do you perhaps overwork it? Need a light touch when rubbing the fat in. Don't add too much water. It's quite easy to slip and then you end up adding exrea flour to firm it up again.

Lastly resting in the fridge makes a huge difference. I leave mine in for at least an hour. The pastry should feel kind of stretchy when rolling out if it has been chilled enough.

Use less mincemeat than you think too. It does seem to bubble up when cooking and spoils the effect ( will still taste good though).

I like to use lard only for pastry. I find it makes a light pastry. However now that DS is vegetarian I have it use butter instead.. I some times make two separate batches as I prefer the less buttery taste.

Keep practising.

Honestly I'd use a different pastry recipe - you want a really short buttery shortcrust for mince pies so I'd go with a butter-only recipe.

The key for me is cold butter, not overworking it, and then resting in the fridge before rolling and cutting.

This is my pastry for mince pies and really lovely.
Handle as little as possible to get it together and only roll out a maximum of 3 times or it gets hard and not nice.

I also use almond pastry with it, makes it amazing!

Almond pastry
225g plain flour
30g ground almonds
90g icing sugar
1/2 tsp lemon rind
175g butter
1 egg

• flour, sugar, almonds into bowl
• rub in butter until looks like breadcrumbs
• add lemon and egg yolk, mix until soft and sticky
• add a little egg white if the dough is not soft and sticky yet.
• wrap in cling film and chill before using.

(This pastry is very delicate and so needs to be left to cool in the tins before attempting to remove the mince pies!)

Bake pies for around 15 minutes at 165 degrees.

I've used Jocelyn Dimbleby's orange pastry for decades for mince pies. Always get rave reviews

www.google.ae/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/recipes/0/indulgent-mince-pies-with-orange-pastry/amp/

I've never had much success with that particular pastry recipe. Apart from anything else, I think that mince pie pastry is nicer if it's slightly sweet. I would try this one: www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2007/nov/24/foodanddrink.baking56

As it says, it's slightly elastic so easier to roll out. I find that you need to put less mincemeat than you'd think in homemade mince pies to stop it overflowing. Although Delia's mincemeat is far better than shop-bought for staying in the case!

Ooohhh - the orange pastry and the almond pastry sound fabulous. I don't live in the U.K. and carted suet back in my hand luggage when I went back for a conference with work a few weeks ago (along with all the stuff I needed for a british dinner that I can't get here) and now am now the proud owner of 4 jars of mincemeat! So excited for my british Christmas dinner on the 25th and so grateful that we celebrate on the 24th here do everyone gets to enjoy their traditional yummyness!
Definitely having a go at these nice pastries.