These decadent mince pies are great to share among friends after a festive dip. Recipe by Anna Southwell of Loves Cafe, Weston-super-Mare.

The festive period is often busy and if, like me, you still want to offer friends freshly baked treats then here’s a low fuss but effective way to achieve that. A batch of these mince pies always go down a treat at the lake or the beach for an ‘apres-swim’ social! The recipe can be fully plant based too, so perfectly inclusive for your get togethers.

Ingredients

1 x pack of pre-made puff pastry, approx 300g
1 x jar of mincemeat (shop bought is fine – I like the boozy ones at this time of year!)
Knob of butter (I use plant based) for greasing the tin
Icing sugar for dusting
A small handful of flaked almonds

Frangipane topping

100g self raising flour
100g caster sugar
80g ground almonds
90ml vegetable oil
120ml soy milk
Zest of 1 orange

Method:

1. Gather all your things and pre-heat your oven to 180ºc.
2. Thoroughly butter your tin to avoid catching the pies. Unroll your pastry. Using a rolling pin (or substitute) roll out the pastry to make it slightly thinner, by around 10%.
3. Cut 12 big rounds, enough to fill your tin, and gently place your rounds into the holes.
4. Fill your pastry with mincemeat just over halfway up, using a teaspoon.
5. Mix all frangipane ingredients together in a bowl.
6. Add frangipane mix into pastry case, almost to the top, again using a teaspoon.
7. Sprinkle a few flaked almonds onto each pie.
8. Bake in the middle of the oven for 22-26 mins. They should be golden brown and the frangipane mixture should be set.
9. Allow to cool in the tray, otherwise they may break when removing them. Dust with a light sprinkle of icing sugar and enjoy!

Loves Cafe is vegetarian cafe in Weston-super-Mare – follow them on Instagram. Discover more apres-swim recipes here.