Bakewell Mince Pies

1. To make the pastry, tip the flour into a large bowl and add the cold cubed butter. Rub the butter and flour together until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the icing sugar and roughly mix.
2. Add the beaten egg to the mixture along with the zest of an orange and bring dough together with your hands. Flatten the pastry into a disk shape and wrap it in a piece of baking parchment and pop into the fridge to rest and chill for 30 minutes.
3. For the filling, place the mincemeat into a small bowl and add the dried cranberries. Mix well and set to one side.
4. Lightly grease the holes of a 12 hole cupcake tin with a little butter.
5. Roll out the chilled dough on a lightly floured surface approximately 3mm thick. Stamp out 12 circles with an 8cm cookie cutter. Working with one piece of pastry at a time, push into each hole of the cupcake tin and gently tease the pastry up the sides of the tin to the rim, making sure it doesn’t go too thin. Pop tray back into the fridge to chill.
6. To make the topping, cream the baking spread and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the beaten eggs to the mixture along with the ground almonds and almond extract and mix well. (Don’t worry if the mixture looks curdled) Add the diced marzipan, mixed peel and roughly mix.
7. Preheat oven to 180 fan.
8. Remove the tin from the fridge and prick the base of each pastry case with a fork. Divide the mincemeat and cranberry filling between the 12 holes.
9. Top each mince pie with the almond mixture to the top and smooth with the back of a spoon. Bake for 15-20 minutes until pastry is cooked and tops are golden brown.
10. Once baked, carefully take each mince pie out of the cupcake tray and place on a cooling rack to totally cool.
11. To decorate, roll out the fondant icing on a work surface dusted with a little icing sugar. (I used a Christmas patterned rolling pin for a little extra festive decoration for mine.) Stamp out 12 rounds and place on top of each mince pie pressing gently to fix. The top of the pies will be a little tacky so the icing will stick well.

Recipe created by Michelle Evans-Fecci