Help (with Mince Pies) please bakers

[greenishfing]

My husband loves Mince Pies and for a number of years I have had a go. Until I managed to make decent pastry it was a lost cause. I used to use my mother's pastry recipe-why I don't know as her pastry was pretty awful too. But with a recipe off the internet and the use of a food processer to keep my hot little hands off it I can now make pastry. Last year I had a go at mincemeat using the hairy bikers recipe. It was horrible. This year I typed "traditional mincemeat" into google and I've got great mincemeat.

Today I decided to make mince pies. Great pastry, great mincemeat but they stuck to the tin! I did grease the tins first. (they are ancient) Do you reckon I need new tins or is it just me. Am I fated to never make the perfect mince pie.




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[Nannysally99]

It's probably new tins, unless you used too much mincemeat and it overflowed causing the pastry to stick.
Bet they still tasted great

[greenishfing]

It's probably new tins, unless you used too much mincemeat and it overflowed causing the pastry to stick.
Bet they still tasted great

No the mincemeat didn't overflow but the tins must be 70 or 80 years old, definitely pre non-stick coatings. Do you know if the silicone tins are any good?

And yes they tasted great just messy and falling to pieces.

[Lardman]

Took me ages to make a decent mince pie - they're really difficult !

Silicon will fix your sticking problem but will ruin your pies - they just don't cook right in anything other than metal. What ratio of fat to flour did you use in the pastry? Not enough fat can also cause things to stick.

[greenishfing]

Took me ages to make a decent mince pie - they're really difficult !

...What ratio of fat to flour did you use in the pastry? Not enough fat can also cause things to stick.

More than half fat to flour.

Silicon will fix your sticking problem but will ruin your pies - they just don't cook right in anything other than metal.

Drat and double drat! Thought it might just be the answer to my prayers. Think I might invest in some decent non-stick tins then. The ancient ones I'm using have got fancy patterned bottoms - lots of grooves for the pastry to stick to.

ETA: I have added quotes for clarity but if they are not right let me know and I'll put it back as it was

[Alison]

Personally I don't like silicone "tins", fine much better heat distribution with stainless steel and avoid ones with non stick coatings as infind they flake off over time and inreally don't want to ingest that! Old tins that are properly seasoned should work brilliantly. What did you use to grease them with and when did you take the mince pies out?

[greenishfing]

Personally I don't like silicone "tins", fine much better heat distribution with stainless steel and avoid ones with non stick coatings as infind they flake off over time and inreally don't want to ingest that! Old tins that are properly seasoned should work brilliantly. What did you use to grease them with and when did you take the mince pies out?

I greased with butter and took them out after about 5 minutes.

[greenishfing]

Just had a thought. I can't remember where these tins came from. Some elderly relative probably gave them to me years ago because they thought they were useless too!!

Well you never know.

[Thelma Sanders]

I use pan grease in all my old baking tins - it really does work!

Professional Bakery Pan Grease - Gretchen's Bakery

I use Trex for the shortening and paint the tins with a brush. Keeps in the fridge for months and months

[greenishfing]

I use pan grease in all my old baking tins

I will definitely give it a go. I am definitely blaming these tins now because the scraps of pastry that were left over I rolled out into a circle and made into a mini pasty and just bunged onto an ungreased tray and that just slid off.

[Lardman]

All this talk of pie is making me hungry - trying to convince myself it's too late in the day to start making pastry.

I have some very cheap supermarket non-stick tins which I don't grease. I make a savoury shortcrust with 2:1 flour/butter I've not had any stick unless the mincemeat has bubbled out.

[Thelma Sanders]

I have a Bundt tin which, although a lovely shape, would never release successfully until I read about pan grease. I usually use it at xmas, so I'll try to remember to take a pic.

[craftymarie]

It seems it is the tins at fault. I use non-stick pans (mine were a gift from lakeland) for mince pies and jam tarts and never have a problem of the pastry sticking unless the jam or filling overflows and then there is a small amount of sticking.

I do agree that ones with non-stick coating have less of a shelf life because eventually the non stick coating starts to flake off and you definitely don't want to be eating it. For this reason, I only use plain stainless steel saucepans for cooking with because they are used everyday and get heavy use.

Pie pans only get occasional use and therefore should last longer before the coating starts to break down so the idea of using non-stick ones for me is preferable to the idea of using any non-stick sprays with artificial ingredients in.

Mince pies are the tops nom nom. Hope the baking goes better next time

[craftymarie]

I should add that I don't grease my non-stick tins either. Decent ones should not require greasing beforehand.

[Thelma Sanders]

non-stick sprays with artificial ingredients in.

Just to clarify - the pan grease recipe I linked to has no artificial ingredients in it