This week’s new recipe is these delicious, texture-filled fruit mince pies—bursting with flavour and the perfect balance of festive spices. These pies are a treat any time of year but especially on Christmas Day. They also make fantastic take-home gifts during the festive season.
Serve them at room temperature, or elevate them with a dollop of fresh vanilla whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream.
The pies will keep for about a week when stored in an airtight container in the pantry or fridge.
You can also prepare the filling ahead of time and store it in an airtight jar or container in the fridge for several weeks, ready to assemble whenever you like.
To save time, I opted for a high-quality store-bought pastry instead of making my own shortcrust. If you’re shopping here in Australia, I highly recommend Careme pastry for its rich, buttery flavour and excellent texture—it never disappoints!
I hope you love these spiced, fruit-filled pies as much as I do. Let me know if you make them @gatheandfeast and feel free to ask any questions.
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Ingredients
VEG 
1 hour + cooling time 
Makes 24 little pies (halve ingredients to make 12) Filling
- 2 x Pink Lady or Fuji apples, peeled and grated (roughly 300g in total)
- 150g (1 cup) dried currants
- 150g (1 cup) sultanas
- 100g (1/2 cup) mixed peel
- 70g (3/4 cup) flaked almonds
- 100g (1/2 cup packed) brown sugar
- 60g butter
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground clove
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 100ml brandy
- Pinch sea salt
Pastry
- 2 x 435g sheets good quality store-bought sweet shortcrust pastry (1 sheet for 12 pies, 2 sheets for 24 pies)
- 1 egg, lightly whisked
- Granulated/raw sugar for sprinkling
- Icing sugar for dusting (optional)
Method
- Preheat your oven to 160°C/325°F (fan forced oven).
- Place the filling ingredients into a medium saucepan over medium heat.
- Stirring occasionally, simmer for 25 minutes until the fruit is softened and the liquid is absorbed. Set aside to cool.
- Lightly grease 12 x muffin tins.
- Using a 7cm round cookie cutter, cut 12 rounds of the shortcrust pastry.
- Next, using the relevant cooking cutters, cut 12 stars or mini trees from the dough.
- Add the round dough to the muffin pans and gently press into each hole.
- Add 2-3 tablespoons of the cooled fruit mixture into each muffin tin and top with a star or tree-shaped cut dough.
- Brush the tops with a beaten egg and sprinkle with raw sugar.
- Bake at 160°C/325°F for 25-30 minutes or until golden.
- Allow the pies to cool in the tins for 5 minutes before gently removing and placing onto wire racks to cool completely.
- Dust with icing sugar to serve.
NOTE: to make 12 pies instead of 24 simply halve the ingredients.
