Unleash your creativity whipping up these minced fruit and nut pies with a brandy kick.
They can be shaped into stars, snowflakes or topped with sweet meringue to offer something for everyone at your next special social gathering.
This recipe was made in partnership with Kenwood, using the Kenwood Chef XL Titanium Mixer
Ingredients
Pastry
Method
1.Combine fruit mince, peaches, almonds, almond meal and brandy in a medium bowl.
2.To make pastry, Using the food processor attachment, process flour, custard powder, sugar and butter until combined. Add egg yolk and enough water to make ingredients just cling together. Knead dough lightly on floured surface until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 40 minutes.
3.Preheat oven to 200°C (180°C fan-forced). Grease two 12-hole (2 tablespoons/40ml capacity) patty-pan trays. Roll the pastry between sheets of baking paper until 3mm thick. Cut 24 x 7.5cm rounds from pastry, re-rolling dough as necessary to make 24 rounds. Press rounds into prepared trays, reserving any pastry scraps. Divide fruit mince mixture between pastry cases
4.Roll the remaining pastry between sheets of baking paper until 3mm thick. Cut out 6 snowflakes or stars using cutters; place on 6 pies. Knead all pastry scraps into a ball; freeze until firm.
5.Coarsely grate frozen pastry; top 6 pies with grated pastry. Brush stars with a little egg white, sprinkle stars and grated tops with 1 tablespoon of the caster sugar. Cover remaining tray of 12 pies with greased foil. Bake all pies for about 20 minutes or until pastry is browned lightly. Remove foil from untopped pies. Remove all pastry-topped pies from pan.
6.Beat remainder of the egg whites in a small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining caster sugar, beat until dissolved. Pipe or spoon meringue on untopped pies; bake for about 5 minutes or until browned lightly. Cool.
7.To serve, dust pies lightly with sifted icing sugar.
