Hi Everyone, All around the world we can find food – ingredients and prepared dishes – that has travelled. At times they are so entrenched in our cuisines that one can forget their origins of influence. The current Mince Pie is one of those foods that has travelled and transformed. We in the Caribbean tend to think of the mince pie as the British Mince Pie, however, its origins seem to be in the Middle East. It used to be known as the Mutton Pie, Shrid Pie and Christmas Pie and arrived in Britain when 13th century soldiers and others returned from crusades in the Middle East.
So travelling from the Middle East to Britain, the original dish underwent changes that became the beginnings of what we think of as the British Mince Pie. The early mince pie was a large savoury pastry pie filled with minced meat, usually mutton, moistened and flavoured with suet, (a type of meat fat), fruits, and spices. As the centuries wore on the mince pies became smaller and sweeter, becoming more of a fruit pie than a meat pie. Suet is still used in many traditional preparations of the fruit-minced meat for the sweet little pies.
The pie continued travelling, this time to the Caribbean. Here in the Caribbean, particularly in Guyana, the mince pie moved back to a form of its original state by becoming a savoury pie once again. It is our mince patty, with the emphasis on meat once again. We too have converted the pie by using not only beef as the “minced meat” stuffing but also chicken, salt fish and vegetables. The beef patty has become for us, a taste of home that we enjoy all year long.
Still the British Mince Pie makes its presence felt in the Caribbean. As it became such a staple of the standard English Christmas, it also became another taste of home for many of those Caribbean people who lived and worked in England for many years before returning to the Caribbean. For them it is a taste of England that marked a particular time in their lives, and for their children, many of whom were born in England, it is a taste of that other home.
I was introduced to it in the late 90s when I first moved here (Barbados). A very good friend of mine, Liz had invited a couple of us over for drinks and she offered us minced pies. When she said she’d made mince pies, I got excited because I was missing home and suddenly realized that I longed for our Caribbean meat patty. I was taken aback when the delicate golden pastry, the centre swollen with filling turned out to be sweet and fruity rather than savoury and meaty. Nevertheless, each bite was exquisite. The pastry melted in your mouth and the heady alcohol in the fruits had me reaching for another. Since then, each Christmas, I have come to look forward to having at least 1 mince pie.
It’s really easy to make and you can use the same fruits that you use to make your Christmas cake. I like my minced meat for the pies to have a little more texture, so over the years I have made a separate batch that I use only for the mince pies. I also add different fruits in the mix. I use dried figs, dried apricots, crystalized ginger, candied citrus peel along with raisins, cherries, prunes and currants.
Wanna give it a try?
British Mince Pies
Take a shortcut if you like and use store-bought short crust pastry. And like I said, if you have fruits soaking for the Christmas cake then all you have to do is assemble the pies and bake them.
You can make the pies using regular muffin pans; the pies will be deeper and thicker but you can bake them flat on parchment-lined sheet pans.
Yield: 20 – 22
INGREDIENTS
Minced meat (recipe follows)
Short crust pastry dough (recipe follows)
¼ cup whole milk
White sugar for dusting
For minced meat:
(This will make more than you need, reserve the remainder for next year)
½ cup raisins
¼ cup glazed cherries
¼ cup prunes
4 – 5 pieces crystalized ginger, chopped roughly
6 – 8 dried apricots, chopped roughly
6 – 8 dried figs, chopped roughly
Brandy (or dark rum)
For pastry dough:
2 ¼ cups all purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tablespoon white sugar
A pinch of salt
¼ cup (2 oz) cold vegetable shortening, cut into cubes
¾ cup (6 oz) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
4 – 6 tablespoons iced water
DIRECTIONS
For minced meat:
If the fruits came directly from the refrigerator, add them to a microwaveable bowl, cover and warm for 1 minute (skip this step if they are at room temperature or warmer).
Transfer the fruits to the bowl of a food processor, cover and pulse to a coarse paste, smoother if you like.
Add the brandy, rum or other alcohol you wish to use to moisten the fruits and pulse to mix. Or Remove the fruits from the bowl of the food processor and mix in the alcohol. Transfer to a sterilized bottle or container, cover tightly and let marinate for at least 24 hours before using.
For pastry dough:
Mix together the flour sugar and salt and add to the bowl of a food processor.
Add shortening and butter and pulse until the mixture is coarse.
While pulsing, add the water and pulse until the dough just comes together. It should not be overly crumbly. To test, open the food processor and take some of the mixture and press it between your thumb and index fingers, it if sticks together, it is done.
Transfer to a floured work surface. Flour your hands and bring the dough together. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before using.
Assembling:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Line baking sheets with parchment or brush muffin pans with softened butter
Remove the pastry dough from the refrigerator and let sit for 5 – 10 minutes. The dough should be very cold when you are handling it but not rock hard.
Flour a work surface and rolling pin. Roll the dough into ¼ inch thickness. Cut the pastry into the required amount into 3-inch circles and transfer to baking sheets or muffin pans.
Top the pastry with the minced meat filling, about 2 – 3 teaspoons; do not over fill and leave ¼ to ½ inch of the edges free.
Cut the remainder of the pastry into 3-inch rounds or into star shapes using a cookie cutter. Cover the filled mince pies, lightly pressing the edges together. Brush with milk, sprinkle with sugar and bake for 20 minutes or just until golden. The mince pies don’t get brown; the colour is almost straw-like when cooked.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature. They can be stored in a cake tin for 3 – 4 days or refrigerated and frozen for longer. To reheat if refrigerated. Preheat oven to 110 degrees and heat pies for 10 minutes. If frozen, bring up to room temperature then heat in preheated oven.
NOTES
You can make this into 1 large pie. Line a tart pan with the pastry, smooth filling into an even layer, cut the pastry topping into star-shapes (or whatever shapes you like), brush with milk, sprinkle sugar and bake for 30 – 35 minutes or until just golden.
You can omit sprinkling with the white granulated sugar and instead, just before serving the pies, dust them with powdered (icing) sugar.
If you don’t have a food processer, make the dough with your hands or use a pastry blender. If working with your hands, do so quickly as the natural warmth from your hands can soften the butter and shortening.
Cynthia
