I the made a fairly reasonable fist of rolling it out thin enough and cut two discs - the top one slightly smaller than the bottom. I'd done this in the belief that this is just what you do; to make up for bending the lower pastry around the tray. I'd clearly overcompensated as the lids ended up a little smaller than the bases.
All is not lost though; I've been watching the Hairy Baker boys and the bigger fella did this deliberately. So, apparently this is a bona-fide mince pie presentation technique. Get in! Obviously he wasn't quite a dozy as me; and hadn't over filled the pies with mince.
To try to mimic my very favourite pastry based product (a Greggs Apple Turnover), I added some crunchy brown sugar to the top. Once they'd cooked, I pooped them back in the cooling oven. I don't know if this is a proper cooking technique or not, but it seemed to do the trick and the sugar doesn't fall off when you pick them up.
Happy days. Much better than Mr Kipling's (although not so good as the Fortnum and Mason's ones I got in their sale last year).
Merry Christmas.
