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Mince Parcels

Published 19 December 2012 by Veronica Stillwater

Mince Pies? No, These Are Mince Parcels!

This week I was given a batch of mince pies from a friend and each were decorated with a small Santa or holly leaves. More were needed for a party and I decided I would make up some mince parcels. These are a lovely variation on the traditional round mince pie shape and were much cause for discussion because of this. I used the star cutters for decoration along with a light spraying of edible gold spray and a cinnamon icing glaze. These were really easy to make as well as pretty and a conversation piece for the party. I made up extra pastry stars and sprayed them with edible gold to use to scatter over the mince parcels and mince pies selection!

 

 

For the mince parcels:

You will need:

Large baking tray or sheet

Sheet of greaseproof paper cut to the size of the baking tray

Rolling pin

Small knife

Dessert spoon

Small plain piping nozzle

Small piping bag

Small bowl

Teaspoon

 

Ingredients:

2 thirds of a 500g pack of ready made shortcrust pastry

All purpose flour (For dusting the work surface and rolling pin)

820g jar of sweet mincemeat

Edible gold spray

100g icing sugar

Few drops hot water

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Turn on the oven, set to 180° and . Place the greaseproof paper on the baking sheet or tray.

Lightly dust the work surface, the rolling pin and the pastry. Roll out the pastry to approx 2-3mm thickness and cut into squares approx 10cm x 10cm or into rectangular shapes. Cut 12 squares or rectangles and use any remaining pastry to cut out stars using the star cutter. Using the dessert spoon, place a spoonful of the sweet mincemeat in the centre of each square. Once you have all the squares prepared with a spoonful of sweet mincemeat, you then need to start the wrapping and making them look like parcels. Do this by bringing each of the sides together towards the centre and pressing gently together at the seems, not too tightly and allowing the pastry edges all to meet in the centre, so the parcel looks sealed before baking and when baked the parcel will cook and open out at the seems, showing the lovely glistening sweet mincemeat in the centre once baked. Place 2 stars on each and any remaining stars place on the baking tray along with all the other parcels.　Use any　remaining pastry up　and scrunch up like a small bag with a small amount of sweet mincemeat in the centre and place　two stars on top.　Place the baking tray in the oven near or just above the middle shelf and bake for 25-35 minutes, removing any individual stars at around 15 minutes cooking time and then checking again on the mincemeat parcels at 25 minutes cooking time on their progress. They will appear lightly golden and will have changed from their original shape.

Once baked, set aside and allow to cool completely.

Place the icing sugar, few drops of water and cinnamon in the small bowl and use the teaspoon to stir, combine and incorporate all ingredients until a smooth and glossy icing in appearance. Set aside. Check that the mince parcels are cooled and using the edible gold spray, just spray a little section on each of the mince parcels and over the stars. Fill your piping bag ready with your plain nozzle with the cinnamon icing. Pipe in a zigzag motion across the top of each of the mince parcels. Allow to set and position your mince parcels on a serving plate with the extra stars placed on top, then they are ready to serve and enjoy! You can also use a light dusting of icing sugar for extra decoration when serving, although not too liberally as you don't want to hide the shimmering gold spray, Until next time! Happy baking, decorating　and happy holidays!