Many of us are already planning our Christmas spread, from turkey and ham, to Christmas pudding and cake. Front and centre at every Christmas gathering, however, is the humble mince pie.
Flakey crust, boozy filling and a perfect dusting of icing sugar are what we look for as Christmas snackers, but what makes a great mince pie for a baker?
Graham Herterich, a baker, joined Today With Claire Byrne to talk about what makes a perfect mince pie.
"It's a love-hate relationship with mince pies", he told Claire. "I find people love the more unusual flavours I make in the shop, as opposed to the classic mince pies."
He's perfected his mince pies recipe, and said he finishes his pies with an oat crumble topping rather than a pastry top, and fills them with classic mince meat laced through with apple.
For a more indulgent take on the classic, he adds Italian sour cherries, dark chocolate and flaked almonds to the mince meat, with a chocolate and almond crumble on top.
Pushing the boundaries of what a mince pie can be even more, for his final creation he adds smoked bacon, pear and Cheddar into the mince meat, bringing it way back to the traditional version: "Mince pies used to be made of meat! That's where the name comes from."
"They started off in the 13th century and it was European crusaders who were coming back over and what they were bringing with them were these pies that [were filled with] preserved meat and fruit and spices in it", Graham said.
Back then, the pie was much bigger and oval in shape, "so it looked like a manger", Graham added. "So they saw this as very much like the kings bringing back the gifts."
Since then, the mince pie has gotten smaller and more delicate. Getting the pastry super thin is another crucial factor in the perfect mince pie, so Graham uses a rolling pin that has space adjusters on the end to keep the thinness between 2mm-4mm and uniform throughout.
"It takes away having to think about it", he says.
Thin crust leaves plenty of room for luscious filling, which Graham says is a must. "If you put too little in, you know the way it kind of goes hard and sticky?"
Graham starts his mince meat in August, but he added you can cheat your way to delicious homemade mince pies. To jazz up a jar of mince meat, he adds in chopped apple, nuts and extra fruits, as well as a final slog of your tipple of choice.
The same goes for shortcrust pastry, shop bought pastry will be fine.
However, if you want to try Graham's crumble topping, he shared the recipe. "Equal parts butter, sugar, oats and flour, rub it together until it's really crumbly. Not powdery, but nice clusters of crumble, and that can sit in the freezer."
As for how to serve them up, Graham said: "Everything tastes better with some sort of a dairy plonked on top of it." Whipped cream, butter, ice cream or whatever you fancy, you can't go wrong.
To listen back to the full interview, click above.
