Mulled Wine and Mince Pies

I am going to busy over the next few days. It is our school ' Christmas Concert'. I am catering for 150 people and the mene is Mulled Wine and Mince Pies.

Mince Pies
225 cold butter, diced
350g plain flour
100g caster sugar
280g mincemeat
icing sugar to dust

Method
1. To make the pastry runb the butter into the flour, then mix in the sugar.
2. Combine the pastry into a ball and knead it briefly - no need to add any liquid
3. Pre-heat the oven to Gas 6/200C
4. Cut the pastry in half and work each seperately to avoid rolling and re rolling
5. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured table.
6. Cut out larger circles and smaller circles for the tops.
7. Place the larger circles into a bun tray, fill with a teaspoon of mincemeat and
cover witht the smaller circle - press down and snip the top with scissors or a
couple of fork pricks.
8. Bake for 20 minutes until golden and crisp.
9. Leave 5 mins in the tray to cool and then transfer to a rack for cooling
10. Dust with icing sugar

Tips
Some people don't like a full topped mincepie and so I use the pastry trims to make holly leaves or stars for the top - just bake in the same way.

Well I can't sit here all day, ingredients to buy and get to making mince pies.


Mulled Wine
I just cheat and buy bottles of Mulled Wine from the supermarket and add some extra spices and slices of oranges.
Just heat - not boil - and pour into large glass jugs.
Serve with a mince pie.

What could be better than listening to Christmas music with a glass in one hand and a mince pie in the other.