Save your money! With Heston’s Mince Pie recipe there’s no need buy overpriced and unsatisfactory Mince Pies from Waitrose. You can make your own at home.

heston blumenthal waitrose mince pie pine scented tangerine sugar recipe

We really should run a series entitled “Don’t Shop at Waitrose”, where we try and make superior quality homemade versions of the frequently disappointing Heston-branded products they sell at Waitrose.

For starters, we’ll try and save you forking out good money on either Heston’s Shortcrust Mince Pies or his Puff Pastry Mince pies currently on sale.

As a base we’ll be using Heston’s Mini Eccles Cake recipe featured in Heston at Home (Eccles cakes, as you know, are also made using puff pastry). We’re adapting this recipe with a filling combination based on Heston’s Deep Fried Mince Pie recipe, with a couple of minor variations.

And we couldn’t give you Heston’s Mince Pie recipe without also providing recipes for the Pine Sugar and Tangerine Sugar to accompany them!

 

SUMMARY

Recipes: Heston’s Puff Pastry Mince Pie recipe, Pine Sugar recipe, Tangerine Sugar recipe

Special Equipment: None

Special Ingredients: None

Time: 1 ½ hour
Cost: Approx £10

Serves: Makes 16 mince pies
Difficulty: Fairly Easy

 

PUFF PASTRY MINCE PIE RECIPE

Ingredients

  • 150g Currants
  • 100g Sultanas
  • 100g Chopped nuts (we like a mix of hazelnuts, almonds & pecans)
  • 150g Golden Caster Sugar
  • 100g Unsalted butter
  • ½ tsp Ground clove
  • 1 tsp Ground nutmeg
  • 1 tsp Ground cinnamon
  • Zest of 1 Lemon
  • Zest of 1 Orange
  • 60ml Lemon Juice
  • ½ tsp Salt
  • 5 drops rosewater
  • 500g All Butter Puff Pastry
  • 1 egg, beaten

Method

  1. Combine the currants, chopped nuts, citrus zests, lemon juice, spices and salt.
  2. Heat butter butter together with sugar in a large saucepan. When butter starts to bubble stir in fruit mixture.
  3. Remove pan from heat. When cool add rosewater.
  4. Divide filling into balls of 25g. Place these into freezer for 1 hour.
  5. Roll puff pastry to a thickness of 2 – 3mm.
  6. Cut circles using a 9cm pastry cutter.
  7. Brush pastry circles with egg, then add a ball of frozen filling to centre of each. Wrap pastry around fillings and seal edges together, rolling to form a ball.
  8. Turn each mince pie over so the join is on the bottom. Slash the top of each mince pie twice.
  9. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes (can be frozen and stored at this point).
  10. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes at 200°C / fan 190°C / Gas mark 5 (adjust times for your oven) or until the pastry has turned golden brown.
  11. Alternatively deep fry until golden in colour.
  12. Allow to cool slightly and dust with sugar before serving

heston blumenthal waitrose mince pie pine scented tangerine sugar recipe

heston blumenthal waitrose mince pie pine scented tangerine sugar recipe

heston-blumenthal-mince-pie-recipe-03

 

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heston blumenthal waitrose mince pie pine scented tangerine sugar recipe

PINE SUGAR RECIPE

Ingredients

  • A large sprig of pine
  • 100g Icing Sugar


Method

  1. Blanch the pine sprig in boiling water for 30 seconds.
  2. Immediately plunge into a bowl of iced water to prevent further cooking or damage.
  3. Leave to dry overnight in a warm place.
  4. When dry place in an airtight jar and cover with the icing sugar.
  5. Leave the flavours to infuse for at least one week before using.
  6. Dust onto mince pies using a fine sieve – to ensure no pine needles fall onto your food!


TANGERINE SUGAR RECIPE

Ingredients

  • Zest of 3 Tangerines
  • 100g Icing Sugar


Method

  1. Zest the oranges, taking care not to remove any bitter white pith
  2. Preheat the oven to 110°C
  3. Place the zest in a deep, parchment lined baking tray and bake for 20 -25 minutes, or until dry.
  4. When dry place in an airtight jar and cover with the icing sugar.
  5. Leave the flavours to infuse for at least one week before using.
  6. Dust onto mince pies using a fine.


VERDICT

heston blumenthal waitrose mince pie pine scented tangerine sugar recipe

We’re pretty pleased with this, if we do say so ourselves. As with Sarah’s Eccles Cake experience, we had a lot of liquid sugar leaking during cooking. But it forms a beautiful caramel. These mince pies freeze exceptionally well. Great to have on standby. They cook perfectly from frozen in around 30 – 35 minutes at 180°C.

This Mince Pie recipe will make about 16 mince pies, for less than the price of 12 slightly disappointing ones from Waitrose.

We might’ve figured out how to make it, but pine sugar really isn’t our thing (it still smells like cheapo toilet freshener to us). Tangerine sugar is nicer, but both flavours have a tendency to overpower the taste of the mince pies themselves. They’re both gimmicks, basically.

We prefer to sprinkle these with a layer of golden caster sugar before baking, which will caramelise in the oven. Or you could be really flash and run a cooks blowtorch over them for an even shell of crispy caramel.

We served these along with Heston’s Potted Stilton recipe as a second dessert course as part of our Heston-themed Christmas dinner. They’re very rich, but absolutely delicious!


If you try this recipe we’d love to see what you make! Please put your comments below or email us some photos.

 

Further Reading:

Sarah Cooks – A brilliant, informative, detailed, helpful and beautifully illustrated write up of this recipe from down-under.