13th December 2017

Rosehip & Hawthorn Mince Pie Recipe

Recipes
2 mins to read

“The berries for these mince pies come at the perfect time of year – October, meaning you can make the mince months earlier and then wait for it to mature properly before making them into your finished mince pies for Christmas. As well as delivering masses of flavour, hawthorn and rosehip also give a good dose of vitamin C to hold off winter ailments and increase blood flow making us feel more energetic.” ~ James Wood, professional Forager

Ingredients for 14 mince pies:

For the mince:

  • 150g raisins
  • 150g sultanas
  • 150g Rose hips
  • 150g hawthorn berries
  • 1 small cooking apple, cored and finely chopped
  • 150g butter, cut into cubes
  • 225g light muscovado sugar
  • 1tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1tsp hogweed seed powder
  • finely grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
  • 200ml brandy, rum or sherry

Method for mince:

  1. Take your rosehip and hawthorn berries and place them in a blender with about 100ml water.
  2. Blitz until it forms a pulp (most standard blenders won’t be able to blitz the stones and seeds which is great – if you have a super strong blender, make sure to put it on its lowest setting).
  3. Pass this pulpy mixture through a sieve to remove the seeds and stones.
  4. Now, add all of the ingredients, apart from the brandy, to a deep pan and heat lightly for 10 minutes until the butter has melted and it’s all softening together nicely.
  5. Leave the mixture to cool in the pan for 30 minutes and then stir in the brandy or rum.
  6. Decant into sterilised jars and leave until Christmas comes for your mince pies.

Ingredients for the pastry cases:

  • 350g plain flour
  • 120g caster sugar
  • 250g unsalted butter
  • 1 large egg

Method for Mince Pies:

  1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius
  2. In a large bowl, rub the flour and butter together until you reach a breadcrumb consistency. This is easiest to do with your hand.
  3. Add the sugar and egg, and mix it all together well.
  4. Lay out on a lightly floured surface and mix loosely with your hand, until it begins to come together well.
  5. Roll this pastry out thinly, about 3-4mm or the thickness of a 1 pence coin. Cut about 14 of these.
  6. Use a circular cutter to cut out the pastry to the size you need for your muffin trays. These are usually around 10cms
  7. Place them in the muffin trays and add a tablespoon of mince filling. Use some of the left over butter and apply a little around the edge of each pastry case.
  8. Now, cut 14 smaller circled of pastry. usually around 5cm, and place on top of your bases.
  9. Cut an X on the top of each one and bake for 15 – 20 minutes, until lightly browned.
  10. Serve with meadowsweet flower custard or regular, if you didn’t get around to picking and drying meadowsweet flowers this year.

We hope you all enjoyed this yummy recipe. Happy Baking!

The creator of this recipe for Heath & Heather is James Wood, a professional wild food forager based in Cheshire. His ultimate passion is the amazing flavours to be found in the hedgerows all around and loves sharing this with you.

While he is a columnist for 3 major  lifestyle and food magazines, along with working for major UK newspaper, James is also the author of “The Foragers Cookbook”.

He’s filmed with the BBC and ITV as well as independent documentary makers and regularly works with the RHS, the Woodland Trust and The National Trust, amongst others.

Click HERE to learn more about James.

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