I recently held a festive event where I demonstrated a mincemeat plait. Its my version of the traditional mince pie and a great quick go to recipe I use loads.
Once you’ve learnt the technique of the plait it can be used for loads of different versions and is particularly nice with a winter spiced apple filling or savoury fillings such as brie & cranberry, fajita chicken or sausage meat.
For me Christmas preparations need to be simple and enjoyable, what’s the point of having an amazing dish if it’s caused you lots of stress. So I am a huge fan of supermarket puff pastry, it’s such a faff to make and a brand such as Jus-Roll is just as good.
What you will need
- a block of puff pastry (if frozen defrost)
- 1 egg
- a jar of mincemeat
- 2 tsp of demerara sugar
Here’s what to do
- pre-heat your oven to 200c
- lightly dust your work surface with flour.
- roll out the puff pastry into a square as thin as you can get it without it tearing, to keep a nice square shape keep turning every few rolls. If it goes out of shape don’t panic you can cut it back into a square once its rolled thin.
- now you need to divide the square into 3 sections, by scoring 2 lines a third of the way in and 2/3 of the way in (do not cut through the pastry a light scoring only)
- in the middle section fill with mincemeat leaving 2cm of pastry at the top and bottom.
- on both side sections, cut diagonal strips going downwards from centre towards outside edge about 1cm wide.
- beat the egg in a bowl and using a pastry brush egg wash the edges of the pastry all the way round.
- fold over the top of the pastry onto the mincemeat
- then take the first strip of pastry from the left side and fold it over the mincemeat in a diagonal way going downwards.
- repeat with a strip from the right side.
- brush with egg at the point the pastry overlaps for each strip.
- continue alternating the strips until the bottom.
- fold over the bottom bit of pastry.
- lift carefully onto a non-stick baking tray.
- brush with egg and sprinkle with sugar.
- bake for around 30 mins, half way through place a piece of foil over the top to stop it browning too quickly or burning.
This recipe is particularly delicious served with brandy butter which melts and fills in all the gaps in the pastry and freezes very well so can be made in advance.
So there it is my fool proof recipe for a show stopping alternative to a mince pie.
Happy baking
Sadie x