Crispy filo mince pies with pear and apple mincemeat

Baking festive treats always puts me in the Christmas spirit and it’s such a good idea to have home-made goodies ready for when friends and family pop in or to give as a present. Christmas baking wouldn’t be complete without mince pies! This delicious recipe uses filo pastry and a fresh fruit mincemeat filling for a lighter mince pie, meaning you can enjoy them without being on the naughty list! These Brown Sugar Espresso Chocolate-Dipped Meringue Kisses are the prefect little treat with a coffee. They also make the loveliest home-made present – simply pop 5 or 6 into a bag and tie with a festive ribbon!

Ingredients

Spray oil

12 sheets of filo pastry, defrosted

1 egg, lightly beaten

Icing sugar for dusting (optional)

Filling

3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm chunks

1 perfectly ripe pear, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm chunks

100g raisins

100ml apple juice

75g dried cranberries

50g pecan nuts, finely chopped

2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp ground cinnamon

Big pinch of ground cloves

Big pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Seeds of 1 vanilla pod

Finely grated zest of 1 orange

1cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and very finely chopped

A few twists of cracked black pepper

3 tbsp cider, Calvados, rum or brandy (optional)

To serve (optional)

200g low-fat Greek yogurt

50g icing sugar, sifted

Seeds of 1 vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180°C, (Fan 160°C), 350°F, Gas Mark 4. Place a baking sheet into the oven to heat up. This will give extra bottom heat to the pies so that the bases cook through and are not soggy. Grease a 12-hole muffin tin with a little spray oil and set aside.

Put all of the filling ingredients and the alcohol (if using) into a medium pan over a medium heat. Allow to cook gently, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes or until the apples begin to soften. Then remove from the heat and leave the mixture to sit and infuse while you make the pastry cases.

Lay the sheets of filo pastry out on top of each other and cut them in half across the width. Then cut each half into quarters to give eight stacks of about 12cm squares of filo. I find scissors really handy to cut these out, but a sharp knife will do. Line each hole of the muffin tin with three squares of filo. I like to take a square at a time and press it into the hole, each one slightly staggered from the previous so the resulting pastry case edge looks like a kind of star. Make sure to push the pastry down so it is in the ‘corners’ of each muffin hole. Keep any filo not being worked on under a lightly dampened tea towel so that it doesn’t dry out. After lining the tin, you should still be left with 12 squares of filo, which you can reserve under the damp tea towel for now.

Spray each stack in the tin with a little oil and bake in the oven for 6–8 minutes until crisp and pale golden. Then, divide the filling evenly among the cases. Next, take the remaining squares of filo, scrunch each one up lightly and place one on top of each pie so that it looks like a scrunched-up tissue. Brush them lightly with the beaten egg.

Pop in the oven on the heated baking sheet for 10–12 minutes or until the pies are crisp and golden. While they are baking, prepare the yogurt for serving, if using: gently mix together the yogurt, icing sugar and vanilla in a bowl. Cover and set aside in the fridge until ready to use.

Once ready, remove the pies from the oven, dust with a little icing sugar (if using) and serve with a dollop of the yogurt, if you like.

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