These mini mince pies are a classic Christmas treat made bitesize! Crisp, buttery shortcrust pastry is filled with succulent mincemeat and topped with a selection of garnishes to produce an irresistibly pretty spread.
Grease your mini muffin tray well. I like to use cake release spray as it's easy to apply a thin layer and it doesn't make the pastry greasy.
Make the pastry
Put the flour, sugar and butter in a mixing bowl. Rub together until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs. Shake the bowl back and forth to check for lumps, which should rise to the top, allowing you to rub them in.
Add the beaten egg, then use a rounded cutlery knife to cut the egg into the crumb evenly, until it starts to clump together.
Gather the pastry into a ball. It doesn't need to be perfectly smooth - you want to work the dough as little as possible, do this without too much kneading.
If your dough is very soft, wrap and chill in the fridge for 15 minutes to make it easier to work with.
Shape and fill the pies
You now need to divide your dough into 24 pieces. You can do this by eye or weigh your dough and divide by 24 to tell you what each piece should weigh. It will probably be about 17g each. Drop the pieces into the holes of the greased mini muffin tray.
Press each piece of dough down with your thumb or a suitable utensil (I used the thin end of a pestle) so that the pastry flattens against the base and rises up the sides. Neaten up to create pastry cases. Pop the whole tray in the fridge for 10 minutes to allow the cases to firm up.
Spoon mincemeat into each case, just to the top. Don't overfill - you might not need it all.
Pop the tray into the oven and bake for 10 minutes until the pastry is golden.
Allow to cool for 5 minutes before gently lifting the mini mince pies onto a wire cooling rack.
To decorate
Roll out your piece of marzipan and cut out 6 little stars.
Crush the gingernut biscuits. This is most easily done in a small bag bashed with a rolling pin.
Top your pies - 6 per topping - with marzipan stars, chopped nuts, coconut or crushed gingernuts. Do this while the pies are still warm so that the toppings stick to the mincemeat.