Chocolate Mince Pies

Chocolate Mince Pies

So after the relative success of my mince pies last week, I decided to have another bash – but this time go off piste and come up with something a bit, well, fancy. Adding cocoa powder to the pastry was always on the cards, and I quite liked the idea of some sort of glittery decoration. In this case it's a marzipan star sprinkled with yellow, er, sprinkles. The pastry here also has the addition of icing sugar and eggs, making it sweeter and lighter. I was quite pleased with the end result, although quite rich. Let's just say you wouldn't want to do much exercise after scoffing a couple (apart from reach for another Cadbury's Heroes, obviously). Thanks to the mother-in-law for her homemade mincemeat (recipe available on request), although I added some clementine zest and juice to give it a further zing. Makes 12 (although I did have some pastry left over, so could quite easily make 15 or so with more mincemeat).

Ingredients:
280g plain flour, sifted
125g icing sugar, sifted
50g cocoa powder, sifted
pinch of salt
200g cold butter, diced
2 free-range egg yolks
500g mincemeat
2 clementines, zest and juice
2 tbsp milk
1 free-range egg, beaten
1/4 block of ready-made marzipan
1 tbsp apricot jam
2 tbsp yellow sprinkles

Method:
1. Mix the flour, icing sugar, cocoa powder and salt together in a bowl. Mix in the butter with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Stir in the egg until the mix comes together. Add cold water if necessary. Knead the dough briefly, wrap in clingfilm and chill for one hour.
3. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas 6.
4. Mix the mincemeat with the clementine zest and juice.
5. Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll out to a thickness of 5mm. Cut out 12 circles with a 7.5cm fluted cutter and line a lightly greased 12-hole tart tin.
6. Add 2 tsp of mincemeat to each base and brush the edges with a little milk.
7. Cut out 12 further circles with a 6cm fluted cutter and top the mince pies, pressing the edges with your fingertips. Brush with beaten egg and bake for 20-25 minutes.
8. While cooking, gently knead the marzipan with a little icing sugar to soften. Roll out to desired thickness and cut out 12 stars with a star cutter.
9. Heat the apricot jam in a small dish for 10-15 seconds to loosen.
10. Brush one side of the stars with the jam. Pour the sprinkles onto a plate and place the stars jam-side down so they stick.
11. Once the pies are cooked, remove from the oven and brush the top of each with more jam. Stick the stars to the top and allow pies to cool.