Christmas Pastry

This is a slightly special pastry for the Christmas season, especially good for home-made mince pies!

The amount of mince-pies you will get from these quantities will vary depending on whether you favour lidded pies, open pies or mini mince pies!

8oz  plain flour

1 1/2 oz icing sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

5oz butter, straight from the fridge and cut into small cubes

Grated rind of one orange

4 tbsp cold water

(If you have no fresh oranges to hand you can make this recipe by substituting the rind and the water for and equal amount of orange juice)

Sift together the flour, icing sugar and cinnamon. Rub in the chilled butter until the whole mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Cold hands and chilled butter are essential to making good pastry. If you suffer from hot hands it is worth running them under cold water and drying thoroughly before rubbing in the butter. It is also why butter is best used straight from the fridge and not left at room temperature before rubbing.

Once you have that mixture looking like breadcrumbs you an stir in the grated orange rind. 

Add small amounts of the water until you have to knead the dough instead of stirring it. If you add too much water by mistake just add a little more sifted flour until the balance is restored. Once its properly kneaded it should be smooth and pliable.

Wrap the pastry in cling film and pop in the fridge until it is needed.