Bakewell Mince Pies

Ingredients:

For the pastry:
150g (1 ¼ cups) plain flour, plus extra for rolling out
25g (1/8 cup) caster sugar
pinch salt
75g (3/8 cup) unsalted butter, chilled and diced
75g (3/8 cup) cream cheese
50g (1/2 cup) ground almonds
1 egg yolk

For the frangipane filling:
75g (3/4 cup) ground almonds
50g (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
50g (1/4 cup) caster sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp plain flour
Finely-grated zest of ½ unwaxed lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt
400g (14oz) luxury mincemeat

To decorate:
200g (1 cup) icing sugar
Juice of ½ lemon
12 glacé cherries, washed, dried and halved

Method:

For the pastry, combine the flour, caster sugar and salt into the bowl of a food processor. Add the chilled, diced butter, and, using the pulse button, work the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles fine sand.

Add the cream cheese in teaspoonfuls, followed by the ground almonds and egg yolk. Pulse again to mix until the dough starts to come together.

Tip the mixture out of the food processor into a mixing bowl and use your hands to bring the dough together into a neat ball. However, take care not overwork the pastry or it will become tough. Turn onto a lightly-floured work surface and flatten into a disc, cover with cling film (plastic wrap) then transfer to the fridge and set aside for at least 1 hour to chill.

Lightly dust your work surface with plain flour, divide the dough in half and roll out one half to a thickness of around 2mm (1/16 in).

Using an 8cm (3¼in) diameter pastry cutter stamp out as many discs from the dough as you can and use these to line the wells of your bun tins, gently pressing the dough into the tins with your fingers. Gather the scraps together and set aside while you roll out the second half of the dough and stamp out more pastry discs.

Gather all of the dough scraps together and gently press into a ball. Re-roll and stamp out more discs – you should aim for about 22 pastry cases in total. Chill the pastry cases in the fridge for 20–30 minutes while you preheat the oven and prepare the filling.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fam/Gas 4).

For the frangipane filling, turn the ground almonds into a bowl, add the butter, caster sugar, eggs, flour, lemon zest, vanilla and a pinch of salt and beat until soft and smooth.

Divide the mincemeat between the pastry cases and top with a dessertspoon of the frangipane filling mixture, spreading it out to cover the mincemeat. Transfer to your pre-heated oven and bake on the middle shelf for about 20 minutes, or until puffed up and golden-brown. You may need to swap the trays over halfway through cooking to ensure that the tartlets cook evenly.

Remove from the oven and leave the to cool in the tins for 4–5 minutes and then carefully transfer to a wire rack until the tartlets are cool.

Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, add the lemon juice and about one tablespoon of cold water and mix into a smooth icing, adding more water if needed.

Spoon the icing over the top of each tartlet and top each with half a glacé cherry. Leave the icing to set before serving.