For The Mincemeat For The Pastry For Decorating

For The Mincemeat

1. Begin this process the day before you intend to bake. In a medium bowl, combine all of the mincemeat components in the order listed.
2. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 24 hours.

For The Pastry

1. Combine the vegan butter, flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor and pulse briefly until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
2. Pour the mixture into a medium bowl and mix in the ice-cold water with a fork. Mix until the crumbs begin to clump together into larger lumps. Avoid overmixing.
3. Transfer the crumbly mixture to a counter and knead once or twice to form a crumbly ball of dough.
4. Grease a non-stick 12-well cupcake tin with extra vegan butter and preheat the oven to 180°C. Use a small cookie scoop to portion a walnut-sized ball of dough into each well (this should leave just under half of the dough remaining for the pie lids).
5. Use your thumbs to press the dough down and up the sides of each well by about 1.5 cm to create your pie crusts.
6. Distribute the mincemeat evenly among the pie crusts. To make the lids, sprinkle a little flour on a counter and flatten another slightly smaller ball of dough with the palm of your hand until it is roughly the size of the pie top.
7. Position the pie lid over a filled pie and roughly press the edges of the lid and the crust together (you don't need to be meticulous, the pastry should seal itself loosely). Brush the top with a little plant milk.
8. Place the cupcake tin of filled and topped pies in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove and let cool in the tin for 5 minutes.
9. Carefully run a small sharp knife around each cupcake well to loosen the pies and gently remove them. Transfer the pies to a wire cooling rack until completely cooled.
10. To decorate the pies, cut a design from a piece of cardboard. Place it on top of a pie and sprinkle with icing sugar, using the cardboard as a stencil. Remove the cardboard to reveal the design before serving.