Three ingredients + ten minutes prep + fifteen minutes in the oven = the easiest and most delicious things you'll bake this week. These bow tie mince pie twists are both a nod to Matt Smith's sartorial choice as the Eleventh Doctor, and a gentle reminder that Christmas is coming. They're much lighter than normal mince pies too, which can get a bit heavy if, say, you're halfway through your seventh.
If you live with Christmas haters who insist it's too soon for proper mince pies, then this is an excellent stealthy way of getting festive food into your home. The method is essentially the same as pizza twists, meaning you could have an entire dinner made of puff pastry in unusual shapes.
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| It's uncanny. |
You will need:
- 375g ready-rolled puff pastry
- 1 jar of mincemeat (you'll have some left over)
- 1 egg, beaten
Make it!
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4 and line two baking sheets with greaseproof paper. Leave the puff pastry out of the fridge for 10 minutes so it's easier to work with.
- Unroll the pastry on a clean worktop. Spoon the mincemeat evenly onto the right-hand side of it, leaving a 2cm gap at the edges. Fold the left side over the filling and reroll the pastry. Don't make it too thin or the mincemeat will start to pop through - just gently press down to flatten it.
- Trim the edges with a sharp knife. Now cut 1cm strips from the long edge, twist them, then loop each end back to the middle. Stick one end of the top of the pastry, the other to the bottom, to form the centre of your bow tie.
- Arrange the bow ties on your baking sheets and brush with beaten egg. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden-brown and puffy. Leave on a cooling rack because molten mincemeat is not a good thing, trust me.
- Pretend to wear them! I mean - eat! Enjoy! Hooray!
“Bow ties are cool” - these are even cooler!
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