By Victoria Hart Glavin of Tiny New York Kitchen
Bakers start your ovens! It’s holiday baking time and let’s kick off the season with my Yorkshire mother-in-law’s mini mince pie recipe. Mary isn’t with us anymore, but her delicious recipe lives on. I’m honored to share with you such a treasured recipe.
Ingredients
1 2/3 Cups Unbleached Flour
5 Tablespoons Shortening
4 Tablespoons Cold Butter (Cut Into Pieces)
Juice of 1 Orange
1/4 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
3/4 Dried Fruit & Spice Mincemeat
Make mincemeat in advance. Set aside.
Once ready to make mince pies, get out tray of miniature tart tins. You will also need a 2 1/4 inch fluted, round biscuit cutter and a 1 3/4 inch star cutter. In large-size shallow bowl add flour. Add shortening and butter and incorporate with your fingers until looks lumpy. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in freezer for 20 minutes.
In a small-size bowl mix together orange juice and kosher salt. Cover and place in refrigerator to chill.
Remove flour mixture from freezer and place into food processor. Pulse until mixture looks like crumbs. Slowly pour orange juice mixture while pulsing. You will want dough to look as if it is about to cohere. If you have a bit of OJ left that’s ok, but if all of your OJ is used up and you still need a bit more liquid, then add some ice water.
Stop pulsing and turn flour mixture out onto a flat work surface. Using your hands, combine dough. Separate out into 3 rounds, as you’ll need to make in batches. Wrap each round in plastic wrap and place in fridge for 25 minutes to rest.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Roll out rounds one at a time. You will want to roll out as thinly as you can without being able to see through it, but sturdy enough to hold mincemeat. Cut out circles with biscuit cutter. Press circles into tart tins. Drop teaspoon mincemeat into circle. Cut out stars with star cutter. Re-roll pastry as necessary. Place stars lightly on mincemeat. Place in oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Every oven is different so make sure to keep watch on them, as they don’t take long to bake.
Remove from oven. Remove tarts from tin right away. Transfer to wire racks to cool. Let tart tin cool before repeating process until you’ve made all 36.
Makes 36
Victoria Hart Glavin has been cooking and writing recipes since she was a teenager. Originally from Nebraska, her appreciation for culinary technique took off when she moved to Lyon, France.
While living in France, Victoria studied French cooking from an expert Lyonnais chef. Victoria learned to love the local culture of preparing and enjoying fresh, seasonal foods. While in France, Victoria experienced the joys of shopping for local produce at the market and preparing fresh foods simply and beautifully in order to enhance the experience of the table. During her time in France, she says she “learned how to squeeze tomatoes at the local market” and “took everything in by osmosis.”
Currently, Victoria creates tasty treats in her tiny kitchen, in New York City, for all to enjoy and on weekends she explores Fairfield County where has a second home. Victoria has shared her recipes with others and now you can enjoy the Tiny New York Kitchen recipe collection, too! Victoria is a member of Culinary Historians of New York and a member of the Association for the Study of Food and Society.