How To Make The Perfect Mince Pie With Kinsale Gourmet Academy

Video and recipe available here!

Neil Prendeville called down to chef David Rice at the Kinsale Gourmet Academy at Ballinacurra House recently to get a crash course on how to make the perfect mince pie ahead of Christmas.

Here is the recipe from David Rice if you want to try your hand at these delicious Christmas traditions:

"I am a big fan of taking shortcuts as long as it doesn’t affect the overall flavour of the dish. For my mince pies I buy, good quality mincemeat and a packet of ready to roll all butter sweet pastry."

Ingredients Makes 12
1 packet of ready to roll sweet shortcrust  all butter pastry (about 200g)
300g jar of good quality mincemeat.

For the frangipane
100g ground almonds
100g butter melted
2 eggs
100g caster sugar
10g plain flour.

Method.
1. Preheat your oven to 170 degree on a fan setting.
2. Make your frangipane by warming the butter until it is melted, then in a bowl mix in the sugar, almonds and flour to make a paste. Then gradually beat in the 2 eggs with a wooden spoon until completely mix to a smooth paste and set aside.
3. Grease a 12 holed muffin tray with some melted butter and dust with flour to make the tray non-stick.
4. Roll out the pastry to the thickness of a euro coin. The thinner you get pastry the crispier the pies will be.
5. Cut out 12 discs of pastry using the top of cup and press each circle of pastry into the holes as neatly as you can.
6. Now put a tablespoon of mincemeat into each muffin case followed by a tablespoon of frangipane on top of the mincemeat.
7. Don’t worry if the frangipane doesn’t sit neatly on top of the mincemeat, it will all fall into place when it goes into the oven.
8. Bake at 170 for 18-20 minutes until they are a dark golden brown colour on top. Leave to cool in the tins for 2-5 minutes and then turn out and serve.