I have a very last minute recipe for you – one that can be made throughout the festive period as long as you have a packet of filo pastry, apples, butter and cranberry mincemeat. Now, you can make your own as I have done for these Christmas cranberry and apple filo mincemeat pies using Nigella’s recipe. Or you can simply buy a jar or mincemeat and throw in some extra dried cranberries, cranberry sauce and Port.
The only small cooking you’ll need to do is to fry off small chunks of apple in butter, cinnamon and sugar for around five minutes until they are softened and the rest of the recipe is simply assembling the mince filo pies.
What is great about using filo is how crisp the pastry becomes. The pies still taste of Christmas but with a crisp shell instead of a crumbly crust. The apples lighten up the mix too, so if mincemeat isn’t really your thing then give these pies a try. They are almost like a Christmassy mini spiced apple strudel.
This will be my last recipe here for 2016, so before we all head into full festive party mode I’d like to wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS !
I look forward to sharing lots more recipes with you in 2017. My aim is to keep being as creative as possible in the kitchen – learning, developing and photographing my progress along the way.
Here are a few more ideas for new spins on traditional mince pies:
Sweet apple & cider mince pies – Veggie Desserts
Paleo mince pies – Natural Kitchen Adventures
Frangipane mince pies – Franglais Kitchen
Raw mince pies – Nadia’s Healthy Kitchen
Marzipan mince pies – Frugal Feeding
Mini filo mince pies – Urvashi Roe
Chocolate mince pies – Kerry Cooks
Mince pie samosas – The Spicy Pear
Mini mince pie puffs – Eats Amazing
Chilli & chocolate mincemeat slice – Tin & Thyme

Christmas Cranberry & Apple Filo Mincemeat Pies
Ingredients
- 1 packet of filo pastry
- 1 jar home made/shop bought cranberry mincemeat
- 4 apples peeled, diced and fried in butter, sugar and cinnamon for 5 minutes until lightly cooked
- 50 g melted butter
- 25 g caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- Icing sugar to decorate
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees
- Cut the filo pastry into 4 equal strips lengthways (cutting from the longest side)
- Combine the cooked apples and the mincemeat in a mixing bowl
- Take one strip of filo, butter it, then place another strip on top of it
- Place a couple of spoonfuls of the apple mincemeat mixture near the top of strip, butter the sides, fold them inwards then roll the filo into a suasage roll shape and place onto lined baking tray
- Repeat this process until you have used up all of the filo and mincemeat mixture
Brush the filo mince pies with melted butter and bake in the oven until golden brown which will take 20 minutes
When cool, dust with icing sugar
Serve with Brandy cream, Brandy butter or whipped cream
Recipe Notes
These cranberry and apple filo mince pies will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 days. Just re-heat in the oven (5 minutes at 200 degrees) to crisp them up and serve with the cream of your choice.
Happy Christmas! They are delicious.
Hooray!
You had me at fry apples in butter. Yummmm
I love apples cooked like this too Urvashi 🙂
They look and sound amazing Laura 😀 Nice touch using filo pastry. Hope you had a lovely Christmas x
Hi Nadia, thanks and I hope you had a lovely Christmas too
These look delicious! I hope you had a lovely Christmas. Happy New Year!
Thanks Tina and a Happy New Year to you too!