The traditional mince pie, dates back to the 13th century, when the european crusaders returned with the recipe of meats, fruits and spices – all in one. Who knew that around 800 years later, we’d still be scoffing our faces with the same pie at Christmas. Except today, I’ve spiced up the tradition, (no pun intended) and made them suitable for all chocolate addicts. Here’s how ya do it:
WHAT YOU NEED
For the filling:
411g jar mincemeat
Zest of 2 clementines
75g dried cranberries
100g milk chocolate
For the pastry:
200g plain flour
100g icing sugar
50g cocoa powder (I used bournville)
150g cold unsalted butter (cut into small pieces)
2 egg yolks
THE HOW
1. Oven needs to be preheated to 190 degrees/170 for a fan. Butter the inside of your muffin tins and spoons the mincemeat, cranberries and zest into a bowl.
2. Sieve the flour, icing sugar and cocoa powder into a bowl and add the button. Use your finger tips to run the butter into the mix until it looks like chocolaty breadcrumbs.
3. Add the egg yolks and 1 tbsp of water into the breadcrumbs and bring the ingredients together with a knife. Form a ball of the pastry using your hands, ready to be cut into 16 circles of heaven.
(TIP) I can’t tell you what I did wrong, but I needed to repeat 2 and 3 with double the ingredients as I didn’t have enough pastry to make the base and the lid. You may want to make sure you have enough of the ingredients just in case you are as greedy as me and want to make 16.
4.Roll out the pastry and cut out 16 circles large enough to cover the tins. Then cut out 16 smaller ones ready for the lids. If you have enough pastry, here’s your chance to make some festive stars for the top – but I am creatively impaired and so decided against it.
5. Line the tins with your pastry and spoon in your mince meat mixture. Top each pie with a square of chocolate.
6. Top the pies with their lids and seal together. Poke a hole on the top of each one and bake for 15 minutes until cooked (mine took around half hour)
Literal perfection, even if you are not a massive mince pie fan. The chocolate when all warm and melted makes these a musttttt for christmas. Give them a go and let me know how yours turned out!
lovelove,
R.
thehouseonthegreen 
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