Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a glass of mulled wine and a plate of warm mince pies. But if you’re a bit tired of the traditional fayre, why not try something new this year? There’s a lot you can do to jazz up the humble mince pie – here are a few ideas.
Alternative mince pie fillings
Make or buy your usual mince pie filling but add:
A dash of sherry, brandy or whisky.
Cranberries or a few hazelnuts or brazil nuts, chopped into chunks.
Clementine zest and dried blueberries.
Chopped dates.
Alternative mince pie toppings
Instead of the usual pastry lid, why not:
Top with marzipan.
Make a crumble topping using a know of butter, plain flour, sugar, cinnamon and mixed spice.
Add a tasty vanilla almond topping. Simply mix 125g of butter with the same amount of icing sugar and ground almonds. Add 2 eggs, a dash of vanilla essence and 25g of plain flour. Put this mixture on top of your mince pies instead of a pastry lid and bake until golden – yum!
Try a chocolate brownie topping. Make a chocolate brownie mix using 80g salted butter, 40g golden syrup, 140g caster sugar and 160g dark chocolate, 4 eggs and 40g plain flour. Decorate with chopped nuts.
Or you could make your own mincemeat and leave off the lid altogether – let that delicious aroma drift through the house.
Alternative mince pie cases
No-one can deny the mouth-watering sensation of freshly-made shortcrust pastry. But if you want to ring the changes, try wrapping your mincemeat in filo parcels and topping with icing sugar and serving warm with a dash of cream – divine!
Serve your mince pies on one of our delightful Christmas wipe clean tablecloths for that all-out festive feel.