Mincemeat:
150 g Bramley apples - finely chopped
125 g black seedless grapes- finely chopped
125 g currants - chopped
150 g sultanas - chopped
40 g mixed peel
30 g dried cranberries
60 g almonds
1 orange - zest and juice only
1 grapefruit - zest and juice only
250 g muscovado sugar
10 g Chinese five-spice powder
5 g powdered cardamom
½ cinnamon stick - powdered
100 ml dark rum

Short crust pastry:
250 g unsalted butter
125 g icing sugar
2 egg yolks (size 3)
500 g plain flour
1 orange - zest

To finish:
1 egg - beaten
cheese e.g brie
Icing sugar - sieved

METHOD

Mix all the ingredients for the mincemeat together, stir well and refrigerate until needed.

To make the pastry, mix together the butter and icing sugar until they are completely blended.

Add the orange zest, the egg yolks and finally the flour. Knead until you have a smooth dough. Leave to rest for at least 1 hour before using.

To make the mince pies:

Preheat oven to 190C/375F/Gas5.

Roll the pastry out to a little less than 5mm thick.

Cut out 30 rounds just a little larger than your tartlet moulds, and 30 rounds with the pastry cutter two sizes down, or some star shapes.

Line the tartlet moulds (or muffin tins) with the large rounds of puff pastry.

Fill them with mincemeat to level with the sides and place a small piece of brie on top.

Now brush a little beaten egg around the edges of the smaller rounds, or the stars, and stick them on top of the mince pies.

Brush with a little more beaten egg, and then bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes until golden brown.

Transfer from the moulds to a wire rack and leave to cool.

Sprinkle generously with icing sugar.

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