Topic: Paul Hollywood's mince pies. Has anyone on here made them?

[Paulines7]

On Christmas Eve, I decided to make some deep mince pies using Paul Hollywood's recipe.   They were really scrumptious but I did have a few problems.

When I originally ran the recipe off the web, it said it made 6 mince pies using 2 jars of mincemeat, tangerines, apples etc !!   The BBC obviously realised the mistake and altered it to 12 but now the amount they say it makes has been taken off the recipe altogether!   

I decided to do double the volume shown in the recipe.  I made 24 but had loads of the mincemeat mixture left.  The pastry was the right amount though.   If anyone else on here made pies from his recipe, did you also find that this happened?  I used very deep muffin tins too and was very liberal with the filling.  I also had a job getting the pies out of the tins as they either disintegrated or the tops separated from the bottoms!  Mary Berry had suggested to Paul H that he should wet the lids before putting them on but he said there was no need for that. 

Today I made another 20, using up the left over mincemeat mixture.  I had the same difficulty getting the pies out of the tins though and again the lids separated despite pressing them down against the bottom layer.   I really don't know what I am doing wrong.  Any suggestions please?

[BarriedaleNick]

I think we used his recipe but my better half sourced it so I cannot be sure.  I do know that the pastry was very difficult to handle - very short.  The pies did fine in the silicon tray but had a devil of a time getting them out of the traditional tins..

[Lauren S]

I too made these over Christmas. I think it's best to wait until the pies are completely cold before removing from the tins. My first attempt, very delish, did also part from the top and bottom. Second attempt left to cool completly... all kept intact.
They do look very professional and cannot wait until next Christmas to make them again. 

[Paulines7]

I too made these over Christmas. I think it's best to wait until the pies are completely cold before removing from the tins........

Having had problems getting the first pies out of the tins, I left the other ones to get cold.  This seemed to make the problem worse!  When I made some this afternoon, I tried a sprinkling of flour in the greased tins prior to putting the pastry in.  This didn't make any difference either.  My tins are non stick and were an expensive purchase from Lakeland. 

The pies aren't wasted when they fall apart as I put them in a dish and we eat them straight away.   

[small]

My son made them, in a non-stick muffin tin, and left them to cool (as per the instructions). He had no problems. They were far and away the nicest mince pies I have ever tasted, I've been baking for 40 years and never produced anything like them!

[InfraDig]

Mrs Infradig made some and they were delicious. There were a few problems getting them out of the tin to start with, but putting a baking tray on top and then turning them upside down soon sorted that out!

[peanuts]

I wonder if it would help putting a circle of magic baking liner stuff in the bottom of the muffin tins? That is what I do when I think it might be difficult to turn something out, e.g.twice-baked cheese soufflés.  I always put a circle in the bottom of C'mas puddings, or any steamed pudding.
However, having  made my own mincemeat for at least 35 years,  I strongly recommend using home-made  and not shop bought mincemeat!  I was persuaded at a  C'mas do before I had kids, when I tasted some that one of my colleagues had made.  It was a revelation, and i've never bought it since! It is also so very easy, and is part of our C'mas preparation that I look forward to each year.  It never ceases to fill me with  pleasure, when you start adding the ingredients one by one, how it changes bit by bit, each stir, into this wonderful Christmassy smell! 
I think I'll go and try some of Paul Hollywood's recipe now!

[peanuts]

Well, I've tried  some and  with the hindsight of everyone else's effort and experience, including some comments on the BBC GoodFood website as well, mine have been a total success.
I thoroughly chilled the pastry.  I also rolled it out between two sheets of cling film, something I always do with fragile or rich pastry.  I left it thicker than I normally would do, and produced 17 pies in all. I put a round of magic baking liner in the bottom of each tin.  I did damp the edges to seal them, and made a small slit in the top as well. 

These are the dozen I made in muffin tins, although the size pastry cutter I used wasn't big enough,  so they didn't come up to the top, and I couldn't use as much mincemeat etc, as i would have liked to.

These are the left over pastry ones, that I did in ordinary bun tins.

Here they all are successfully removed from the tins!  I let them cool completely, then carefully eased them out all round with a small angled palette knife I have, invaluable for something like this.  And out they all came - I have to say I was  surprised after all I'd read! 
They've not been sampled yet, as I'm firmly sticking to my promise not to eat anything else after our small supper.  But we will take half a dozen to some French friends tomorrow, and see what they make of them!

[cambourne7]

Noticed today that the supermarket was selling off massive 1kg tubs of mincemeat for 50p dates were 2014 :)

[Paulines7]

Ahha!  I think I know where I went wrong now having seen Peanuts pictures of mince pies.  Mine were nowhere near as brown as that so I have probably been taking mine out too soon.  They didn't taste underdone but then the pastry was very different to any I had tasted before.

I have just searched the web for the recipe again and I see on the printers version that it states it makes 12.  The pies on the recipe also look browner than mine so I am even more convinced that I undercooked mine.  The oven temperature is shown as 200C but as I have a fan oven I cooked mine at 180C.

Here is the recipe if anyone wants to print it off.  They really are yummy.   
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/paul_hollywoods_mince_04604.pdf

[Melbourne12]

I haven't made the mince pies, but the BBC recipe is clearly way out in terms of quantity.  I've been caught out badly by online recipes in the past, so I'm highly suspicious of them now.  Even though the BBC recipe now states that it's for 12 pies (the method still talks about 6), each pie would weigh around 5 ounces!

It's for 24, isn't it?

I just checked Paul Hollywood's book, "How to Bake".  For 12 mince pies, he uses:

Stir 165g flour with 25g ground almonds.  Rub in 120g chilled cubed butter.  Stir in 55g caster sugar.  Add one whole egg and mix to a dough.  Chill under clingfilm.

Mix 1 x 410g jar mincemeat with chopped flesh of 2 satsumas and 1 chopped cored unpeeled sweet apple, plus zest of 1 lemon.  Leave overnight.

Grease a 12 hole muffin tin or deep bun tin.  Roll pastry to 2-3mm, cut 12 x 10cm rounds for base, 12 x 7.5cm rounds for lids (or whatever fits your tin).  Assemble mince pies, glaze tops with eggwash.

Bake at 200C (180C fan) for about 20 mins.  He removes them while still hot onto a wire rack to cool.

[peanuts]

Well, I've had a second go at these, this time using the quantities as Melbourne gave from Paul H's book.  Hmmmm!  Pastry was OK although I was not confident it would stretch to 12 mincepies - and I was well right.  I don't reckon my muffin  tin is any bigger or deeper than normal.  i only managed 10 pies, and that is with an 8mm cutter rather than 10, and  a 6mm lid cutter rather than Paul's 7.5. I did manage to get two slightly bigger ones, using up the very last bit of pastry (left hand corner). I also used a little circle of magic liner for each, again.  Now I've cut them out I might as well use them!  it does help, I'm sure.

No way could I have used the amount of mincemeat he says, particularly if you add 2 satsumas and 1 apple, which I didn't this time.

I dampened the edges which I think is essential. Incidentally it is much easier to  brush round the edge of the lid, rather than the edge of the bottom part! I did a little slit in the top, and glazed them with egg. I baked them at 180 for 20 mins.

They didn't look as good as my first attempt, and also had slightly boiled out.

I left them to cool - no way would I have been able to get them out while hot! Then they did all come out OK, with my lovely small bent palette knife.  I find this really good to ease round things that are difficult.  My engineer husband pooh-poohs it, saying it can't make the slightest bit of difference that is is angled!

Here you can see the depth of the pies, particularly the two nearest which were a bigger round.

From this experience, I would go back to the pastry recipe at the beginning of the  thread, and make a dozen and a half, and quite honestly wouldn't bother with the satsuma and apple if you are using good (home-made preferably) mincemeat. But they are excellent if you can make them work for you, and definitely worth the effort as a treat - but not if you are wanting to make several dozen though!

[Toshofthe Wuffingas]

I make my own mincemeat with extra things such as goji berries, quince, dried apricots, almonds and walnuts and blueberries and stuff. I find small mince pies have too much pastry to mincemeat for my taste so we have a large covered mincemeat tart which is served in slices. We use an average pastry mix.

[peanuts]

Funnily enough, I rarely make mincepies for excactly the reason you say Toshorthe Wuffingas.  I almost always make an open mince tart.  but I was tempted by this recipe of Paul Hollywood, because of the posting on A4A

[BarriedaleNick]

please stop posting pics of mince pies - It is making me very very hungry!!!

[pumkinlover]

I make my own mincemeat with extra things such as goji berries, quince, dried apricots, almonds and walnuts and blueberries and stuff. I find small mince pies have too much pastry to mincemeat for my taste so we have a large covered mincemeat tart which is served in slices. We use an average pastry mix.

I made mince pies with an almong Bakewell top instead of pastry for that reason- really liked them! Homemade mincemeat is gorgeous- we saved what OH mad last year so really nice. Your "extras" sound nice.