||| Chocolate Mince Pies |||

I am not a big fan of mince pies myself and was never tempted to try them out. Discovering these chocolate version kindled me to give mince pies a chance. These chocolate mince pies are a mouthful of amazing flavours. I just love how the rich crunchy chocolate crust contrasts with the zingy mincemeat. Give them a try yourself and impress your guests this Christmas!

Ingredients:

• 300g plain flour, sifted
• 125g icing sugar, sifted
• 50g cocoa powder, sifted
• pinch salt
• 200g cold butter/margarine, diced
• 2 egg yolks
• 500g ready-made mincemeat
• 2 clementines, zest and juice
• 1 tbsp milk

Mix the flour, icing sugar, cocoa powder and salt together in a bowl. Mix in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Stir in the egg until the mixture comes together in clumps. Knead the dough briefly until smooth, wrap in clingfilm and leave to chill in the fridge for one hour.

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.

Mix the mincemeat, clementine zest and juice together in a bowl.

Remove the pastry from the fridge, and roll out to a thickness of 0.5cm. Using a fluted or round cutter, stamp out discs from the pastry and use them to line a bun tin. Fill each hole with two teaspoons of the mincemeat mixture. Do not put too much mincemeat as it will overflow during baking.

Re-roll any remaining pastry and using a star-shaped cutter, cut out stars and use them to top the mince pies.

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the pastry is cooked through.

Leave to cool on a wire rack and decorate with a light sprinkle of icing sugar.