World Best Mincemeat Pie Recipes

Steps:

• Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Unroll pie crusts. Line ungreased 9-inch pie plate with one crust. Fill with mincemeat. Cover with second crust and seal edges. Cut slits in top crust to vent steam. Bake 25 to 30 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream if desired.

Steps:

• Break mincemeat into small pieces and put in saucepan.
• Add diced apples, raisins, water and liquor.
• Boil about 2 minutes; cool.
• When mincemeat mixture is cool, put into pastry lined 9" pie pan; cover with top crust.
• Prick top crust with folk.
• Bake at 425 degrees for 35 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Steps:

• Preheat your oven to 200°C.
• Rub together the flour and butter (or whizz up in a food processor).
• Add the sugar and salt and mix thoroughly.
• Knead the mixture together. Don't add any water. You'll think there's no way it's ever going to stick into a ball, but it will after a few minutes of kneading.
• Take walnut-sized balls of the pastry and push them into the holes of a 12-cake cupcake tin, forming them into case shapes.
• Fill each with some of the mincemeat.
• Form lids for each pie from a slightly smaller ball of dough, patted out flat to fit. Push the edges onto the sides of the case - they will stick together without the need for any egg or milk.
• At this point, you can freeze the pies until needed.
• Brush the tops with the beaten egg and bake for 20 minutes, or until golden.
• Serve hot or cold, dusted with icing sugar, with lashings of brandy butter.

Steps:

• Place the salt pork in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer 3 minutes. Drain and finely dice the salt pork. Set aside.
• Place the granulated sugar in a small saucepan set over medium heat. When the edges begin to bubble, stir with a fork until the sugar is completely melted. Scrape the melted sugar into a large pot. Add the salt pork, meat, broth, powdered sugar, raisins, prunes and cider. Bring the mixture to a boil, adjust the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved and all the ingredients are well blended, about 30 minutes.
• Remove the cubed meat from the pot, place in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Return the meat to the pot and cook an additional 15 minutes. Stir in the salt, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, mace, nutmeg and citron. Remove from heat and pour the brandy over the top. (Can be made to this point several days in advance and kept refrigerated.)
• When ready to assemble the pies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Stir the apples into the mincemeat and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in lemon juice.
• Roll three of the disks of pastry dough out to disks 11 inches in diameter and ease them into three 9-inch pie pans. Divide the mincemeat among the pans. Roll the remaining dough out to disks 10 inches in diameter and cover the tops of the pies with them. Trim excess dough and pinch the edges of the top and bottom crusts together with your fingers to seal them. Use a paring knife to poke a few slits in the top of each crust.
• Bake until filling is bubbling and crusts are lightly browned, 60 to 65 minutes. Serve warm or chilled.