Second instalment of #Willeyschristmasbake. I love Christmas baking so much but actually a lot of Christmas recipes I am not a big fan of Mince pies being one of them, too many raisins for my liking. But this is a way to make mince pies a million times better! I know you could say this is slightly cheating as I didn’t make the pastry but filo is very very fiddly and time consuming and at this time of year I don’t have time for that!
IngredientsÂ
- 220g Mincemeat
- 1 Pack of filo pastry
- 50g Pistachios
- 50g Ground almonds
- 75g Butter
- 2 Oranges
- 80g Granulated sugar
- Cointreau, Gran manier or triple sec
MethodÂ
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.
- Chop the pistachios into small pieces.
- In a large bowl, mix the mince meat, pistachios, ground almonds, zest of two oranges until evenly mixed.
- Line a 20 x 30cm baking tray with a teflon sheet.
- Melt the butter in a small bowl.
- Layer filo pastry brushing with butter between layers, lay about 5 sheets.
- Spread a thin layer of the mince pie filling on top of the filo pastry.
- Then layer 5 more sheets of filo pastry on top repeating step 6.
- Repeat step 7 using the remaining mince pie filling.
- Repeat step 6 again, be liberal with the butter at this stage.
- Then cut diagonal lines across the baklava to create a diamond shape.
- Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
- Whilst in the oven make the sugar syrup by adding the juice of one orange, and 2 tbsp of cointreau and the granulated sugar into a small saucepan.
- Making sure to stir the syrup constantly on a medium heat until all the sugar has dissolved.
- Then pour and brush the syrup oven the baklava and bake in the oven for a further 5 minutes.
- Enjoy warm or cold.
