Every famous cook has a mince pie recipe, and every one of them is sure theirs is right. Some swear by lard. Some put ground almonds in the pastry. One grinds up satsuma peel. The Queen’s pastry chefs soaked their mincemeat in four different spirits.
We’ve lined up six of the best-known recipes to see how they differ and who each one suits. We don’t reprint them here; they belong to their authors, and there are links to every original at the bottom. What you get instead is the useful bit: what each cook does differently, and whether it’s worth the effort.
At a glance
| Recipe | Pastry | Mincemeat | The twist | Makes | Oven |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delia Smith | Plain shortcrust, lard and butter, no sugar | Shop-bought | Rolled very thin for lots of small pies | About 20 | 200°C, 20 to 25 min |
| Paul Hollywood | Sweet, butter and egg | Shop-bought, plus tangerine and apple | Deep muffin-tin pies | 6 | 200°C, 20 min |
| Raymond Blanc | Sweet, butter, icing sugar and egg | Homemade, with Bramley apple, suet and cognac | Thick pastry, rested an hour | 30 | 190°C, 25 min |
| Felicity Cloake | Rich, butter, ground almonds and egg yolks | Homemade, with figs, cherries, pecans, stem ginger and whisky | Optional orange blossom water | 20 | 200°C, 20 min |
| Phil Vickery | Very buttery, about equal flour and butter, one egg | Shop-bought, thickened with breadcrumbs or ground almonds, plus cinnamon and zest | “Satsuma dust” made from dried, ground peel | Not stated | Not stated |
| The royal kitchens | Sweet, rolled 2 to 3mm | Homemade, russet apples, brandy, port, rum and sherry, soaked a week | Rested in the fridge after assembly | Not stated | 190°C, 15 min |
The six recipes
Delia Smith: the no-nonsense classic
Delia goes old school. Her pastry is a plain, unsweetened shortcrust made with half lard and half butter (or margarine), and the fats can go in straight from the fridge. Lard is what gives that short, crumbly, almost sandy texture your nan’s pies had. The mincemeat comes from a jar, and each pie gets just a rounded teaspoon of it.
The trick is rolling the pastry as thin as you dare. That’s what gets you about 20 neat little pies out of one batch. There’s a gluten-free version in the original too.
Best for: anyone who wants proper traditional pies without a fuss, and bakers who think modern mince pies are too sweet.
Paul Hollywood: go big or go home
Paul makes six pies, not twenty. They’re baked in a deep muffin tin with a sweet, egg-rich pastry, so each one is closer to a small tart than a two-bite snack. He uses jarred mincemeat but perks it up with the zest and flesh of two tangerines and a diced apple. It’s a smart move: fresh fruit cuts through the sticky sweetness of shop-bought filling.
Best for: a dessert you’d serve warm with cream, rather than something to hand round with mulled wine.
Raymond Blanc: the French take
Raymond’s pastry is a pâte sucrée, sweetened with icing sugar and bound with egg. It needs to rest for at least an hour, and he rolls it a little under 5mm, which is noticeably thicker than the others. The mincemeat is homemade, with Bramley apple, suet, citrus and a good splash of cognac, and it keeps in jars for up to a month.
One batch makes 30, so this is the recipe for people who give pies away. He also says they reheat well in the oven, which is the right way to refresh any mince pie (never the microwave).
Best for: batch bakers and anyone who likes a sturdier, biscuity case.
Felicity Cloake: the one that’s been tested to death
Felicity’s whole method is about testing everyone else’s recipes and keeping the best bits, and it shows. Her pastry is rich: all butter, with ground almonds and egg yolks, plus an optional splash of orange blossom water. Her homemade mincemeat is loaded with figs, glacé cherries, toasted pecans and almonds, and stem ginger with its syrup, then finished with whisky. She’s relaxed about swaps: brandy, rum, amaretto or sloe gin all work.
It takes the most work of the six, but it’s also the one you’d most want to adapt to your own taste.
Best for: keen bakers who want to make their own mincemeat and fiddle with it.
Phil Vickery: making jarred mincemeat behave
Phil’s tip is for everyone who buys mincemeat in a jar. Cheaper mincemeat is runny with syrup, which bubbles out in the oven and leaves you with a half-empty pie. He stirs in a few fresh breadcrumbs or some ground almonds to soak it up, adds cinnamon and orange and lemon zest, and then fills the cases right to the top. His pastry is very buttery, roughly equal flour and butter with one egg, so leave the pies in the tin for 10 minutes before lifting them out.
The wildcard is his “Satsuma dust”: leftover satsuma peel, dried and ground to a powder, which gives the filling a marmalade-ish kick. Watch Phil make them.
Best for: anyone who buys jarred mincemeat and is fed up with half-empty pies.
The royal kitchens: start a week early
According to the Express, the Queen’s pastry chefs made the Palace’s mince pies months ahead. The mincemeat uses russet apples, suet, dried fruit and peel, and four spirits: brandy, port, rum and sherry. It then soaks for at least a week before it goes anywhere near pastry.
The method has a couple of tips worth borrowing for any recipe. Prick the bases so they don’t puff up, and rest the assembled pies in the fridge for half an hour before baking so the pastry holds its shape.
Best for: planners. If you’re reading this in late November, start now.
Which one should you make?
- Short on time? Delia or Paul. Both use jarred mincemeat, and Paul’s tangerine trick makes shop-bought filling taste homemade.
- Feeding a crowd? Raymond Blanc. Thirty pies from one batch, and they reheat well.
- Want to make your own mincemeat? Felicity Cloake, then tweak it until it’s yours.
- Bored of the usual? Phil Vickery’s Satsuma dust.
- Planning ahead? The royal recipe, but you need to start the mincemeat at least a week before you bake.
Want ours instead? Our Classic Homemade Mince Pies recipe is the one the Club actually makes, with a printable recipe card. If you’d rather leave the baking to someone else, our mince pie reviews will tell you which supermarket pies are worth buying.
Which famous recipe is your favourite? Tell us in the comments.
The original recipes
All credit to the cooks. Here’s where to find each recipe in full:
- Delia Smith’s Easy Mince Pies (Delia Online)
- Paul Hollywood’s mince pies (BBC Food)
- Raymond Blanc’s mince pies (raymondblanc.com)
- Felicity Cloake’s mince pie masterclass (The Guardian)
- Phil Vickery’s Perfect Homemade Mince Pies (ITV This Morning)
- The Queen’s favourite mince pies (Express)