“Better than mince pies,” said my husband, devouring two in quick succession. These mincemeat swirls, or pinwheels, are the lazy girl’s answer to Christmas catering. With a bigger than average ratio of filling to pastry, they require less than an hour of your time and only three ingredients.
But make sure those ingredients are the best you can get your hands on. I used all-butter puff pastry and my home-made quincemeat (made to my friend Ruth’s recipe) although you can pimp shop-bought in minutes with a good slug of brandy, some orange and/or lemon zest and extra spice.
I much prefer these to conventional mince pies. They’re fruitier, less stodgy and dangerously easy to eat. And if you’re pushed for time in the run-up to Christmas, they’re an absolute boon.
Mincemeat Swirls
Ingredients:
About 350g mincemeat
1 sheet of ready-rolled all-butter puff pastry
150g of shelled pistachio nuts.
Method:
Chop the nuts to your preferred texture – I like some nubbly bits and some chopped more finely. Line a couple of baking sheets with baking paper
Unroll the pastry, leaving it on the paper it was wrapped in. Spread it evenly with mincemeat, leaving a small margin all the way round to allow for spreading. Scatter the pistachios over the top, reserving a tablespoon to garnish.
Starting at one of the short ends, roll the pastry up as tightly as possible. Refrigerate for 20 minutes while you heat the oven to 200C/180 fan/400F/Gas Mark 6.
Then using a very sharp knife, divide it into 12 equal pieces. The easiest way to do this is to cut it in half across its circumference, then into quarters, and slice each of those into three.
Lay flat on the baking sheets, allowing plenty of room for spreading, and bake for 12-15 minutes or until the pastry is puffed and golden. Remove from the oven and while the swirls are still warm, scatter them with the remaining chopped nuts.
Cool briefly on the baking sheets before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight tin.
PS If you’re wondering why there are so few mincemeat swirls in the picture when the recipe makes 12, it’s because we’d already eaten half of them before I got round to photographing them.
If these are more more-ish than mince pies, they’re dangerous. My husband is an Official Mince Pie Addict.
So is mine. You Have Been Warned. 😀
Cor! I was just thinking what to do with the roll of puff pastry in my fridge. They look delicious. ‘Tis the season indeed but sadly not enough quinces for me to make my quincemeat this year. Thanks for sharing my recipe though. (Luckily my 87 yr old Mum turned up with lots of her homemade mincemeat.)
It’s such a good recipe, Ruth, thanks for sharing. And yay – mum to the rescue! I hope I’m still making mincemeat when I’m 87. Lxxx
Perfect timing, as I followed one of my family recipes yesterday and – even after halving the amount of ingredients – have ended up with 2.5kg of mincemeat! No quinces in mine but a somewhat indecent amount of cherry brandy. x
Gosh, I bet that tastes fabulous! And as it happens I have an ancient bottle of cherry brandy lurking in the cupboard … maybe time to make a different mincemeat. 🙂
Have you changed the settings , have always been able to print off your lovely recipes. But not this one ? ☹️
Hmn, not sure what happened there, sorry. Try it now, Lynne, and thanks for the heads-up.
Half of the people in my family don’t care for mincemeat, but half do. I’m with the latter!
Is it the mincemeat or the conventional pies? You never know, this might convert them!
I know with my daughter, because it has the word “meat” in it, she thinks it is all wrong, even though we haven’t made our mincemeat with meat for decades!
Er, no! Although there was a trend a few years ago to revisit the old recipes. I think she’s missing out but hey ho, all the more for the rest of us.
Looks lovely, Linda! And they sound quite easy to make. But of course, if you were truly lazy, you’d just buy them at the store, lol!
Ha, yes, but I bet they wouldn’t taste as good! Just admiring your latest delicious recipe this end. Escarole are tricky to find where I live but I’ll look out for them at the market. Lx
oh yum and pretty too.
Thanks, Sherry!