Not a fan of mince pies........ what about these?

Its not a mince pie........ its not a Portuguese tart...... its a cross between the two and they are delicious! Quick and easy 15 min recipe. 

Ok, so the phone has just rung and we have family coming to do a 'Christmas visit'  in an hour! I've not got any 'special' Christmas guest food in yet as I've not done my food shop. Help! What am I going to serve up........... 

Checked in the cupboard, found a few ingredients and knocked a batch of these up! 

Ideal to make ahead of Christmas and pop in the freezer. 

Enjoy..... 

Louise x

Ingredients

- 1 400g tin of Devon custard (yes even I have ready made custard for emergencies)
- 6 1/2 tbsp of Ground Almonds
- Couple of drops of Vanilla extract
- Ready to roll Puff pastry (or if you are really lazy, ready rolled puff pastry)
- Jar of Mincemeat
- Icing sugar to decorate

Method

- Turn on the oven to 220C fan
- Roll out the puff pastry (it needs to be quite thin, about the thickness of a pound coin)
- Cut out into rounds with a cutter
- Place into a bun tin and prick the base with a fork (this will stop the base puffing up.
- Open the tin of custard and stir in the ground almonds and a couple of drops of vanilla.
- Spoon a small amount in the base of the pastry (1/2 - 1 tsp) depending on the size you are making. 
- Spoon a smaller amount of mincemeat on the top. 
- Bake in the oven for approx 10 mins. 




Note - don't worry if it looks like the filling is boiling out. This adds to the rustic homemade appearance. You can always try and add back in when you are taking them out of the oven. 

Place on cooling wire. Best served just warm with a sprinkle of icing sugar