Typically Tropical Mince Pies
For the 2024 Great Celebrity Bake Off Christmas special, Carole brought sunshine to a traditionally wintery bake with her tropical twist on mince pies. Instead of the classic heavily spiced, booze-soaked dried fruit mincemeat, she created a bright filling of papaya, mango, and pineapple, topped with buttery crumble and playful holly leaf decorations. Prue Leith praised the originality, noting that 'traditional mincemeat can be rich—this is lighter and original.' Paul Hollywood admired the neat, playful presentation and loved the fruit flavors, though he felt there was a touch too much crumble. This recipe preserves Carole's clever tropical concept while adjusting the crumble ratio to let that beautiful fruit filling shine through.
- Time: 70 min
Source: Relaxed Recipes
Ingredients
- Make the Pastry
- Pulse flour, powdered sugar, and salt in a food processor to combine. Add cold b
- Whisk egg yolk with 2 tablespoons ice water and vanilla. Add to processor and pu
- Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and bring together into a disc. Wrap t
- Make the Tropical Mincemeat
- Combine fresh mango, papaya, pineapple, golden raisins, dried mango, lime zest a
- Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until fruits soften and liquid red
- Remove from heat, stir in rum and coconut oil if using. Cool completely—the minc
- Make the Crumble Topping
- Combine flour, butter, demerara sugar, coconut, and salt in a bowl. Rub butter i
- Make the Holly Leaves
- Knead a small amount of green gel food coloring into reserved pastry scraps unti
- Roll green pastry to ⅛-inch thickness. Using a small holly leaf cutter , cut 24-
- Place leaves on a parchment-lined baking sheet, curving some gently over a woode
- Assemble the Pies
- Preheat oven to 375°F . Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin
- Roll remaining pastry to ⅛-inch thickness. Using a 3½-inch round cutter, cut 12
- Spoon 1½ tablespoons tropical mincemeat into each pastry case—fill generously bu
- Sprinkle a scant tablespoon of crumble topping over each pie. Restraint is key h
- Bake
- Bake pies 20-22 minutes until pastry is golden and crumble is lightly browned
- Meanwhile, place holly leaves on a separate baking sheet. Brush lightly with egg
- Cool pies in tin 10 minutes, then carefully transfer to a wire rack
- Decorate
- Arrange 2-3 holly leaves on each cooled pie, clustered to one side. Add fresh cr
- Dust lightly with powdered sugar to mimic snow