Mince Pies

I don't like mince pies very much ... but obviously when it comes to Christmas I will have the odd one or two ... then last year a friend's girlfriend made some lovely pies with a frangipan topping.  Wow! These were amazing and have (almost!) converted me to mince pies!  I was also intrigued by Paul Hollywood's deep mince pies which have chopped apple and satsumas in ... anything to water down the richness of the mince meat is good in my book! So this week I found myself spending an evening in the kitchen making a rather huge batch of pies! 

The frangipan topping is also nice and simple: Cream 200g butter, 200g caster sugar and 200g almonds Add 50g flour, 2 eggs and 2 tbs brandy/rum This made a huge amount of topping so I would suggest for 12 mince pies - half the quantity would be needed. Just dollop a teaspoon on top of your mince pie rather than a pastry lid! Well ... here we are, Christmas Eve! What a lot of festive blogging I have done! Let's hope I can keep it up in the new year! Merry Christmas!!!!