BakeryBits is known the world over for making it easy to buy and enjoy excellent and unusual stoneground flours, heritage grains, as well as the finest roller-milled flours used by the best artisan bakers. So, we thought that this year our mince pies should continue that celebration and combine stoneground flour – from one of our many great millers we stock, or out of your own Mockmill – with the finest white flour to produce what we think are the most delicious mince pies we’ve eaten in a long while. The three-grain shortcrust recipe used here combines the flavours and textures of these exceptional flours – wheat, rye, spelt – with butter, egg, unrefined sugar and great scotch whisky. Just the thing to keep you smiling this festive season.

I've used our BakeryBits 12 Cup Muffin Tray for these mince pies, manufactured by USA Pan who are part of the world's largest industrial bakeware manufacturers. This 12 cup muffin pan is tough like commercial bakeware but designed for the domestic baker: meaning you get a sturdy tray that will last extremely well.

Method

Roll the pastry out on a floured surface to about 1/4cm thick, cut disks from it and press them into either deep muffin-tray pockets or shallow patty tin tray (you can rub the pockets of the tray first with butter but I don’t and haven’t found they stick). Fill the pockets with spoonfuls of mincemeat then roll disks for the top and press them down around the edges to seal. Or if you want to be fancier for a special occasion you can cut fine strips of pastry and weave them together into a sheet of dough then cut circles from that.

Heat the oven to 200C fan. Make a small hole in the top of each pie for the steam to be released, brush lightly with beaten egg, then bake for about 18-20 minutes (less for shallow pans) until just beginning to colour around the edge. The very hot oven means that the pastry will brown quickly on the outside so watch it carefully. Remove from the oven, and carefully remove from the tin and leave to cool on a plate.