My mince pies are not nice

[brightwell]

I made 3 dozen mince pies last night, I've used Nigella's receipe for a few years, this year the pastry is a bit hard and not nice & short. Where did I go wrong?

Tough pastry usually means too much liquid, you should use as little as possible though the drier it is the more difficult it is to handle, I know. And roll, squidge and knead as little as you can, too much handling also makes a harder pastry.

My pastry is pretty much foolproof these days since I've started to use all butter (half fat to flour) a teaspoon of icing sugar and an egg yolk (just enough to bind) and no other liquid at all. Technically I think this is called Pate Brisé rather than a true shortcrust but it does come out extremely crisp and light.

Serve them warm with a dollop of brandy butter oozing mellifluously from under the lid and no-one will notice!

Our Book-keeper here at Silverwood's has a wonderful recipe for pastry which I tried this year for the first time. It just melts in the mouth.
1lb SR Flour, 12 ozs Unsalted Butter, 4 ozs Sugar and 2 Large Eggs. No other liquid. This makes enough pastry for 3 doz mince pies.

I used a good quality Mincemeat with added dried cranberries and dried apricots.

Apples, how much flour is there in your recipe to the egg yolk?

does anyone use stork?
or trexo?

I use stork and trex. No butter here (too hard to rub in properly) and my mincies are delish. Just a wee drop of water to bind as well.

cross-posted with silverwood... that sounds good, too.

my mum's recipe is brilliant - melts in your mouth - but is quite hard to handle as it's crumbly even before cooked.

1 lb plain flour
8 oz butter
4 oz lard
grated rind of an orange
juice of one orange

tbh I find this a fraction too dry and put a drop or two extra of orange juice.

I try to handle and knead it as little as possible - and I do it in small batches, keeping the others in the fridge.

Thanks for that, must have been a bit too much orange juice, I'll pay more attention with the next batch.