COOKBOOKS GALORE

This recipe is another using up Christmas leftovers and this time it's some mincemeat. I wanted to make something different from mince pies and found this recipe in an old cookbook from the 70s. I'm not going to give the recipe for the shortcrust pastry - everyone has their own favourite one, or you can use Just Rol. 150g s/c pastry [that's 200g flour, 100g fat etc] 4 tbspns mincemeat 2 egg whites 75g caster sugar 75g ground almonds 15g flaked almonds a few cherries cut in 1/4s Preheat oven 190C/375F/gas 5 Grease a bun tin. Roll out the pastry, cut out with a 8cm cutter and line your bun tin. [I cut out 10 cases] Whisk the egg whites till stiff then fold in the sugar and the ground almonds. Spoon some of the mixture on top of each tart then sprinkle with some flaked almonds. Put a piece of cherry in the middle. Bake for about 20 mins, or until golden. The topping is a good contrast to the soft mincemeat. A recipe to keep.

We are great mince pie fans, so I'm always on the lookout for a different version. Found this recipe in a Christmas pull-out from 'Prima' magagazine [from the 80s I think!] . It uses ground almonds in the pastry and it's made in a similar way to one of my favourite small cakes,Welsh cheese cake; by this I mean that you have the pastry shell, then a layer of mincemeat, then the lemon cake layer. In the Welsh cheese cake you'd have the pastry, then jam,  then cake. This recipe makes 36 pies, but thought this was too many for us,so I halved the recipe, taking the measures to the nearest gram. This is the full recipe. The pastry: 275g plain flour 75g icing sugar 1 tspn cinnamon 175g butter 50g ground almonds 1 egg yolk 45ml milk 450g jar mincemeat For the cake filling: 115g butter or margarine 115g caster sugar 175g sr flour 2 large eggs grated rind of a lemon Icing: 115g icing sugar 15ml lemon juice Preheat oven 190C/375F/gas 5 M...