
These gingerbread mince pies pair buttery spiced pastry with a rich mincemeat filling lifted by stem ginger and ginger syrup. Finished with tiny pastry gingerbread people and a snowy dusting of icing sugar, they are festive, fragrant, and perfect for holiday baking.
Make the pastry: add the flour, cinnamon, ground ginger, salt, and cold butter to a large bowl. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs, then stir in the sugar.
Add the beaten egg and mix with a table knife until the dough starts to clump. Turn it onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly just until smooth. Shape into a disc, wrap, and chill for at least 30 minutes.
Heat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. In a bowl, stir the mincemeat with the chopped stem ginger and ginger syrup until evenly combined.
Roll the chilled pastry on a lightly floured surface to about 3 mm thick. Cut out 12 rounds with an 8 cm cutter and gently press them into a 12-hole cupcake or mince pie tin.
Spoon about 1 tbsp of the ginger mincemeat filling into each pastry case. Re-roll the scraps, cut out 12 small gingerbread people, and place one on top of each pie.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until the pastry is crisp and lightly golden. If baking from frozen, bake for about 30 minutes.
Leave the pies in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust lightly with icing sugar before serving.
Keep the butter and dough cold for the shortest, flakiest pastry. Do not overfill the cases, as mincemeat bubbles as it bakes. The unbaked pies can be frozen for up to 2 months and baked straight from frozen; baked pies keep in an airtight container for up to 4 days.