Carlyn’s Meatless Mince Pie
This is a vegetarian recipe. The homemade mincemeat is prepared with butter or margarine instead of suet (solid meat fat). You can also purchase prepared mincemeat, but it usually contains a small amount of finely diced or ground meat as a binding agent.
- Pastry for a double crust pie, uncooked
- 1 quart Ira Wilkins’ Pear Mincemeat
- 1 Cup raisins
- 1 Cup chopped walnuts
- 1 egg yolk, plus 2 tablespoons water (mix together for an egg wash)
Place one of the pastry crusts into pie pan. Combine mincemeat, raisins, and walnuts and turn into pie shell. Cut the remaining pastry into fall shapes like leaves or acorns (this is usually an autumn pie) with cookie cutters. Dip each shape into the egg wash. Arrange the shapes around the edge of the pie first and then fill in toward the center. If your shapes don’t completely cover the mincemeat, that is okay, it won’t affect baking or taste. Bake 30 to 35 minutes at 425° F.
Mini Mince Pies
For mini pies like at an English tea room, roll out ¾ of the dough and cut with round cookie cutter or biscuit cutter. Roll each round piece out further until it fits in a muffin cup and extend up over the edges about ½-1 inch all around. Make sure the muffin cups are well greased before placing dough in the cup. Place 1 Tablespoon mincemeat mixture in to dough cup. Fold edges of dough over mince meat; the dough might not meet in the middle and that’s okay. Roll out remaining dough and cut with small jelly jar or other small round glass for pie tops. Dip rounds into egg wash and place firmly on top of muffin pies. Bake 15 minutes at 425° F.
Carlyn Foshee Chatfield
This is what a jar of my homemade mince looks like:
