Easy Mincemeat Buns
These Mincemeat Buns are a cinch to make and the perfect festive breakfast. Ready in under 45 mins they'll satisfy the whole family.
Servings 12
Ingredients
- 2 350g/12.3oz rolls of pre made croissant dough
- 3/4 stick (85g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup (66g) light brown sugar
- 12 oz (340g) jar of mincemeat
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200C/400F and spray a muffin tin with cooking spray.
- I found it easier to measure all the filling ingredients into separate bowls before I started making the rolls of dough. Butter in one, sugar another and mincemeat another. Unless your jar of mincemeat is 12oz, then you can just leave it in the jar!
- Place a silicone mat onto your work surface, or flour lightly. Unroll one of the packets of croissant dough, so the longest edge is folding you. Spread half the butter thinly onto the dough, then sprinkle with half of the sugar.
- Next, spread half of the mincemeat on top of the sugar. You do want thinner layers and for there not to be tonnes of mincemeat. It's fine to have spaces between the fruit. Once you roll it up and bake it, you will realise you don't want it overflowing with mincemeat as it will become a soggy mess.
- To roll, I roll from the short side. I have tried similar recipes with croissant dough and rolling long ways doesn't give you many layers in your roll/bun. Make sure you are gently rolling the dough up, but tight enough that it doesn't have huge gaps.
- Once you have finished rolling up the dough, take a sharp knife and divide the roll into 6. Each roll should be around 1 inch thick. How you place them into the muffin tin is important when it comes to how they will bake and how easy it is to get them out of the pan later. I put two of mine in wrong and the filling leaked out as the middle sort of fell down into the middle. You want the pastry base to bake together so it traps the mincemeat inside!
- The best way I found to place in the muffin tins was to take each roll and spin it round slowly on the worktop with both hands, this shaped it into a perfect circle. Then, I gently picked it up in both hands and, with my fingers, coaxed the bottom of the rolled dough into a rounded cone shape the width of my muffin tin holes. This just closes up the bottom of the bun. You'll still see the layers at the top, but you'll have an actual muffin shaped bun with filling.
- Then, now that the base is narrower and the top is wider, place into each muffin tin. Make sure you've closed that base up and it's the correct diameter for the muffin tin holes, otherwise the buns may collapse in on themselves!
- Repeat the above steps with your other packet of croissant dough, spreading the remaining butter onto it, sprinkling the sugar and spreading the mincemeat before rolling and slicing.
- Place in the oven at 200C/400F for 10 minutes. This will get that initial rise and make the tops golden brown. Then, take a large piece of foil and cover loosely. Turn the oven to 180C/350F and bake for a further 15-20 minutes. Mine took the full 20 minutes.
- The middle will look soft, but set. If you pull them out and the middle looks really wet and there are pools of liquid, place back in the oven. It can be slightly tricky to see if they're done as, obviously, the mincemeat will be bubbling a little. However, the mincemeat is brown, this liquid will be clear and it's from the butter and dough baking.
- Leave Mincemeat Buns in the tin to cool for at least 20 mins before attempting to serve. They're great warm or at room temperature. I also made a glaze when they were cool - 1/3 cup icing sugar and around 1tbsp of water. Mix into a paste in a shallow bowl and drizzle over buns with a spoon.
- Easy Mincemeat Buns will keep in an airtight container, at room temperature, for 4 days.