These crumble mincepies are a combination of short Clementine flavoured pastry, moist fruity mincemeat and a nutty crumble topping. They make a change from the traditional pastry enclosed mince pies that we are used to having around Christmas.

I used my recipe for Cranberry, orange and ginger mincemeat to fill these. It’s a lighter and fruitier mincemeat recipe as it’s full of fresh apple and cranberry (you can check out the recipe here). I love adding extra flavours to pastry. It seems like a lost opportunity to leave it plain, although I certainly do enjoy the delights of a simple buttery crust. In this recipe I used Clementine zest and juice to add a boost. You can add this to any sweet or unsweetened recipe that you like to use, but here is the recipe that I have used.

The crumble nut topping is really easy to make and can be used to top any fruit crumble, pastry tarts or baked by itself on a tray to add crunch to fruit, cream and yogurt. Here I used a mixture of nuts, but the recipe is also good if you use a single type of nut such as hazelnuts or almonds, depending on what you are pairing it with. Essentially this recipe is made up of very versatile components are good to have in your arsenal of recipes.

Naturally, especially around Christmas, we can be short on time, so buying pastry and mincemeat can be a convenient shortcut. It’s easy to improve shop bought mincemeat by adding some orange zest, fresh cranberries and a splash of brandy. The crumble topping literally takes minutes to make and means that you don’t have to fuss with putting lids on the pie so it really saves time.

This recipe also works well as a large tart or in Yorkshire pudding trays. These are especially good if you’re serving the tarts as dessert, as they’re just the right size. These pies definitely need to be served with napkins or plates as they certainly live up to their names!

Mincemeat Crumble Pies – makes approx 18 individual pies

Ingredients

1 jar of mincemeat

1 quantity of shortcrust pastry (Find a recipe for my Clementine pastry here)

Crumble Ingredients

25 grams of melted butter
75 grams of porridge oats
50 grams of chopped nuts
50 grams of soft brown sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
25 grams of ground almonds

Method

Making the crumble

1. Mix together the dry ingredients
2. Stir in the melted butter

Assembling the pies

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.

2. Roll out the pastry. I roll out mine between greaseproof paper so I can get it really thin and it makes it easier to roll and manage. Check out the recipe here to get more details on rolling pastry and lining your tray.

3. Fill the cases with mincemeat. Don’t overfill the cases. A generous teaspoon is more than enough in individual mince pies. The pies can be filled evenly to just below the top of the pastry rim.

4. Top with the crumble mix.

5. Bake the individual mincepies for 15 minutes or until they are golden brown on top.

6. Allow them to cool for about 5 minutes before loosening them in their cases a little. If you try to remove them straight away the pastry is likely to crumble. Leave them to cool for another 5 minutes before lifting them out to serve them.

7. These are particularly delicious with custard or cream. They do need to be served with plates or napkins, as they are pretty crumbly!