French Mince Pies vs. English Mince Pies, baby!

So last week I made Christmas puddings, this week I finally made my first batch of mince pies! Normally I use the same Delia’s recipe every year, it’s easy and it never fails me. (Yes it has got LARD in it! It’s Christmas!)

But this year, to my horror I couldn’t find that bit of printed paper and I had no idea it was delia’s recipe, (I found the recipe AFTER I made the mince pies…) So I went into a bit of panic mode… and dug out my new recipe book, Michel Roux’s Pastry. Et voila! There’s a mince pie recipe in there!

It calls for Pâte sablée which is a very short sweet pastry, the recipe as follows:

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250g plain flour
200g butter, cut into small cubes and slight softened
100g icing suger, sifted
pinch of salt
2 egg yolks

1. Heap the flour on the work surface and make a well. Put in butter, icing sugar and salt. With your fingertips, mix and cream the butter and sugar and salt, then add the egg yolks. Work delicatedly.
2. Little by little draw the flour into the centre until you have a dough.
3. Using the palm of your hand, push the dough away from you 3 or 4 times http://www.eta-i.org/cialis.html until it’s completely smooth. Roll it into a ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate until ready to use.

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That will give you about 450g of Pâte sablée and that’s enough for 9 mince pies for me. Preheat oven to 180’C, I used normal bun tin, and I put in a teaspoon of mincemeat in each pie.
Brush with eggwash (egg yolk + a bit of milk), or just milk if you don’t wanna waste an egg.

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The pictures ain’t great since I mainly do my baking at night after Ashleigh’s gone to bed, so lighting is a problem. And I haven’t got the appropriate lens… hopefully I’ll find out some ways of doing it….

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Pictures don’t do the mince pies justice! You just have to take my words for it. The pastry melts in your mouth like no other pastry! I think Delia’s mince pies are easier to make, whilst Michel Roux’s are more delicate and short. (And sans lard of course). I think I might make a batch using my old recipe soon.



2 thoughts on “French Mince Pies vs. English Mince Pies, baby!”

  • best mince pies I have ever made and tasted so my husband says.,and I agree.never put eggs or iceing sugar into the pastry befor. this pastry will be made every xmas now. thankyou. no longer is my pastry like a rock.I COULD NT PRINT OUT THE RECIPE IN ENGLISH ON THE SCREEN BUT IN FOREIGN WHEN PRINTED OUT.?

    • I’m glad it turned out nice for you, I love that pastry and the Roux recipes never failed me! I just did a Print Preview on my PC and it looked fine to me, so I don’t know what happened… However my newer posts should all have new formats so hopefully I will get round to updating my old posts! Thanks for visiting!

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