Christmas Fruit Mince Pies with Light Pastry

For the pastry:
Place flour in a bowl and rub the butter into the flour using your fingers until it looks like fine crumbs. Add salt and sour cream and mix with a metal spoon until pastry comes together. Form into a ball with your hands, place in a plastic bag and rest in the fridge overnight.

To assemble the pies:
Preheat oven to 180°C (355ºF).

On a clean, floured surface, roll the pastry thin and cut out circles for the base and stars for the top. Place the base circles into an ungreased mince pie tin (or shallow cupcake tin) and spoon in 1 heaping teaspoon of mincemeat into each pie. Wet the corners of the stars with a little milk and place on top, pressing down lightly in the corners so that they stick to the base pastry. Brush the stars gently with some milk and then use a fork to make 4 little holes in the middle of the stars to let out the steam.

Bake in the middle of the oven for about 20 minutes until they are golden. Then do the next batch.

Notes:
1. If you don’t have time to leave the pastry in the fridge overnight, rest it in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours.
2. If you don’t have a star pastry cutter, use a slightly smaller circle than the circle cutter you are using for the base. Stick them down in the normal way with a little milk around the edges. Brush gently with milk, and use a fork to make a row of little holes on the top to let the steam out.