About This Recipe
These individual mince pies have butter pastry and a homemade filling of apple, raisins and dried Zante currants. Honey sweetens the cooked fruit mixture, with orange and warm spices alongside it. Let the filling cool before it touches the pastry, then finish each pie with a lid pierced by a small star-shaped vent. The recipe makes twelve standard muffin-tin pies.
Recipe
Honey Mince Pies with Homemade Apple and Raisin Filling
Fill butter pastry with a cooked honey, apple, raisin and dried-currant mixture. Includes filling cooling, pastry chilling and twelve individual pies.
14Ingredients
Yield: 12 servings
- 250 g all-purpose flour
- 150 g unsalted butter, divided
- 30 g powdered sugar, divided
- 45 g water, cold
- 1 g table salt
- 150 g peeled apple, cored and finely diced
- 200 g dark seedless raisins
- 75 g dried Zante currants
- 84 g honey
- 60 g fresh orange juice
- 3 g orange zest
- 2.6 g ground cinnamon
- 0.5 g ground cloves
- 0.5 g ground nutmeg
Ingredient amounts scale; instructions show the original batch. Cooking times and pan sizes may need adjustment. Season to taste. Honey grams use US measures at 20°C and 17.5% moisture, a density estimate; weigh your honey for precision.
Instructions
- 1Cook the fruit fillingPut the apple, raisins, dried Zante currants, honey, orange juice, orange zest, spices and 20 g butter in a saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring, for 20 to 25 minutes until the apple softens and the mixture is thick and spoonable. If it catches before the apple softens, add a small splash of water.
- 2Cool the fillingSpread the fruit mixture in a shallow heatproof bowl. Cool for about 1 hour, moving it to the refrigerator once it has stopped steaming heavily. The filling must be cool before filling the pastry. Refrigerate it promptly if the kitchen is hot.
- 3Make and chill the pastryRub 125 g cold butter into the flour and salt until small butter flakes remain. Mix in 20 g powdered sugar, then stir in the cold water just until the dough gathers. Form a disk, wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes while the filling cools.
- 4Line the tin and fillHeat the oven to 375 F (190 C). Grease the twelve wells of a standard muffin tin with the remaining 5 g butter. Roll the pastry between sheets of baking paper to about 2 mm thick. Cut circles about 10 cm across, easing them into the wells without stretching. Divide the cooled filling among the shells, keeping it below the rims.
- 5Add vented lids and bakeReroll the scraps to about 2 mm thick and cut twelve lids about 7 cm across. Cut a small star-shaped vent from the center of each lid, then lay them over the filling and press the edges gently against the shells. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the pastry is golden and the filling is hot. Bake any small pastry remnants separately; the ingredient estimate includes the full dough.
- 6Rest and dustLeave the pies in the tin for 10 minutes, then ease them onto a rack. Cool for at least another 5 minutes before serving because the fruit filling stays hot. Dust with the remaining 10 g powdered sugar. The 160-minute total includes the filling cooling and the overlapping pastry chill. Refrigerate leftovers promptly.
Estimated nutrition per serving
273.78 calories · 10.45 g fat · 44.6 g carbohydrate · 3.12 g protein · 41.83 mg sodium
Serving: 1 of 12 servings
Calculated from ingredient weights and USDA FoodData Central: 168894, 173430, 169656, 173647, 173468, 171689, 168165, 171724, 169640, 169098, 169103, 171320, 171321, 171326. Estimates use ingredient input weights; actual portions, brands and cooking losses vary. Omitted nutrient values are unavailable, not zero.
The Filling Is Made from Named Fruits
The filling combines peeled apple, dark seedless raisins and dried Zante currants. Honey is its added sweetener. Orange juice is the cooking liquid, and butter rounds out the fruit mixture. There is no purchased mincemeat to map to an unspecified ingredient blend.
Cook until the apple is soft and the mixture holds together on a spoon. It should not have a puddle of free juice. Extra water used only to keep the pan from catching does not add nutrients to the estimate.
Flavor intensity uses an editorial culinary scale: 1 is mild and 5 is bold. These are tasting suggestions, not laboratory measurements.
Sources: UC Agriculture and Natural Resources: cooking with honey; USDA FoodData Central: Currants, zante, dried; Nigella Lawson: star-topped mince-pie assembly.
1 = mild, 5 = bold. Editorial pairing guidance, not laboratory measurements; jars vary.
- Clover
- Apple and raisins
- Wildflower
- Orange and warm spice
- Buckwheat
- A stronger dried-fruit filling
Get the Honey Buyer's Cheat Sheet (free PDF)
16 varieties on one page — color, flavor, best use and what a fair price looks like — from the 304 honeys we track.
Cool Before Filling the Pastry
Warm fruit softens cold pastry before the tin reaches the oven. Spread the cooked filling in a shallow bowl so the waiting period is manageable, and make the dough while it cools. The pastry chill fits inside that hour.
Keep the filling and dough chilled if you prepare them ahead. This is a fresh pie-filling method, not a tested canning process. Do not store sealed jars of this mixture on a shelf.
A Butter-Pastry Variation
Nigella Lawson's star-topped mince-pie method is a useful primary reference for small pastry shells with fruit filling. These larger pies use butter throughout the dough and round lids with star-shaped vents, an explicit presentation variation. The vents leave the dark fruit visible and let steam escape.
Roll between baking paper to avoid adding extra unmeasured flour. Fit the rounds into the wells gently. If the dough becomes soft while cutting the lids, return it to the refrigerator for a short rest.
Honey, Orange and Warm Spice
Clover keeps the honey mild. Wildflower gives the filling more floral character. The stated honey amount belongs in the fruit mixture, where it coats the raisins and apple during cooking.
Serve one pie per portion. For a whole pie to cut at the table, try honey pecan pie, honey pumpkin pie or salted honey pie.
What the Estimate Includes
The estimate divides the complete filling and pastry into twelve portions. It includes the butter used on the tin and the full dusting of powdered sugar. A small amount of leftover pastry or sugar on the rack can make it a slight overestimate.
There is no cream, custard or extra honey in the calculation. If a commercial pastry or mincemeat is used, its label and actual weight need their own nutrition calculation.
Choosing the Honey
Use Clover Honey or Wildflower Honey for the flavor described in this recipe. See our honey selection guide for other culinary choices.
