Festive Streusel Mince Pies

Tis the season to be jolly!! Or rather, this the season to eat mince pies!! I love mince pies & would happily eat them all year round. This year I thought I would try to do something a little different with them so I gave them a streusel topping, added a little glitter, & voila....festive mince pies that last for all of two seconds in our house!!

Just use ordinary sweet desert short crust pastry, cut out quite a large disc & press lightly into a muffin tin (gives a deeper pie). Make sure the pastry is pressed up the sides. Get a fork & prick the bottom of the case & put in a heaped teaspoon of your favourite mincemeat (I add some good quality vanilla just to give a bit of depth to the flavour but you could put alcohol in if you wish), top generously with the strudel toppping & bake in the oven for 20 mins or until lovely & golden  at 200 deg.C. Delicious!!!

For the streusel topping mix 100g of plain flour, 50g of ground almonds, 50g of caster sugar & 1 tspn of cinnamon. Add to that 135g of cold unsalted butter that has been cut into cubes. You can either rub the butter in by hand or I use the mixer, either way you want to end up with a breadcrumb type consistency. There will be some larger lumps etc but I think they taste the best!! When all rubbed in add 25g of flaked almonds & 25g of cranberries & give a good mix.

Once the pies have come out of the oven & are fully cooled, give them a genourous dusting of icing sugar & a sprinkle of edible glitter if you have any to hand.

I wrapped them up & gave some out to people when I was giving their Christmas cards out as a little present

Enjoy!!