Mince Pies with Orange and Almond Pastry

Preheat the oven to 190°C.

Make the pastry by putting all the ingredients, except the orange juice, into a food processor and whizz until it resembles breadcrumbs. Now add 3 tablespoons of the orange juice and whizz until the dough comes together into a ball. Remove, wrap in cling film and leave to chill in the fridge for 1 hour.

Roll out two-thirds of the pastry on a floured board to a 3mm thickness. Cut 12 circles out with a 7.5-9cm fluted cutter. Gently press these into the holes of a 12-hole patty tin. The pastry should protrude above the holes slightly to allow for shrinkage when cooked.

Mix the mincemeat, amaretto and orange zest together then spoon a little mincemeat into each pastry case, but don’t overfill them.

You now have three options to top them.

1) Cover the tops with a pastry lid and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown then sprinkle with edible glitter.

2) To cover 6 in a cranberry glaze, mix together 4 tbsp of cranberry jelly and 100g of roughly chopped roasted hazelnuts. Spoon the topping onto the open mince pies and bake for 15-20 minutes.

3) Once the pies are filled with mincemeat, bake uncovered for 15-20 minutes. Then beat 2 egg whites to stiff peaks then spoon in 100g of caster sugar to make a meringue. Spoon on top of the baked mince pies, then place under a hot grill for 5 minutes or back into the oven for 5 until golden brown.