Decadent orange & cream cheese mince pies (2024 recipe)

20 Dec

Hand holding half an orange pastry and cream cheese mince pie with pies dusted with icing sugar in background for Christmas — Look at that beautiful cream cheese filling in these mince pies!

Six mince pies with orange pastry and cream cheese filling dusted with icing sugar with fairy lights and flower decorations — A bit of icing sugar dusting is the perfect way to present these mince pies

The most marvellous mince pie recipe: a decadent treat for Christmas… Growing up I was not a fan of dried fruit in cakes and biscuits like so many young children (don’t get me started on why garibaldis should be consigned to room 101). So needless to say, mince pies were on my firm list of no-nos! My Mum used to do an annual big Christmas bake with a friend, filling the house with smells of canapés, cakes and Christmas treats, and one year she made these mince-pies…

The rest, as they say, is history!

The thing that makes these mince pies so decadent is that the pastry is made with fresh oranges giving it a wonderful tangy taste. Each mince pie is also filled with the traditional mincemeat filling and a generous dollop of cream cheese frosting is also sealed inside the case. Eaten warm they are so tasty and the cream cheese is a welcome surprise.

When I shared this on Instagram last week, followers who have sampled these mince pies were quick to message privately asking for some to be immediately boxed up and sent in the post. It is honestly that good!

With the festive season now in full swing, I decided it was time to cook up a batch of these delicious mince pies.

The recipe makes 24 mince pies

Mince meat, oranges, white flour, bowl and butter wrapped up ready to be made into Christmas mince pies — Getting all the ingredients ready is a good way to feel more Christmas-y!

What you need for orange & cream cheese mince pies

Orange pastry mix

You’ll need the following ingredients for the orange pastry of the mince pies:

500g Plain strong flour
150g icing sugar
375g unsalted butter
Orange zest and juice from an orange
1 egg beaten

Cream cheese filling

The following are the ingredients for the filling made from cream cheese:

I jar of good quality mincemeat filling
350g caster sugar
280g full-fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese

Serving suggestion for your mince pies

Don’t forget to top off your Christmas mince pies with some (or all!) of the following:

Devon clotted Cream - I especially like Gayes Creamery or
Brandy Butter

Method for orange & cream cheese mince pies

1. Heat the oven to 180*c

2. Grate the butter into a large bowl (this makes it easier to rub in the flour)

3. Sieve in the flour

4. Rub until it resembles a fine breadcrumb texture and there are no lumps of butter

Woman holding butter in hand next to white mixing bowl ready to make mince pies with fairy lights in background — Use good quality butter

Grater over white bowl with grated butter for Christmas mince pie recipe — Grate the butter to make it easier to rub in flour

Sieved flour falling into white bowl with grated butter for Christmas mince pie recipe — Sieve the flour

White bowl with grated butter and sieved flour ready to be mixed for Christmas mince pies and fairy lights in background — Flour and butter ready for rubbing to create breadcrumb

5. Sieve in the icing sugar and lightly stir

6. Zest an orange and squeeze the juice and add as much as needed to bring together the pastry

7. Don’t overwork the pastry, it should come together just enough to create a soft ball

8. Roll out to 3mm thick on a floured surface

Woman rubbing grated butter and sieved flour together by hands with fingers for Christmas mince pie recipe — Rub the flour and butter together

Woman sieving icing sugar into mince pie crumb of butter and flour before Christmas — Sieve in hte icing sugar

Woman pouring orange zest and juice from ceramic jug into white bowl with butter, flour and icing sugar for mince pie recipe — Zest and juice of once orange

Woman bringing together mince pie mixture by hand in a white mixing bowl for mince pies with baking tray in background — Bring the pastry together, don’t overwork it

9. Butter your tin mould

10. Cut out the pie shapes using a fluted cutter; you will need a slightly larger cutter for the base and a smaller one for the top

11. Spoon in the mincemeat filling

12. Whip your cream cheese and caster sugar together until there are no more lumps and spoon the mix on top of the mincemeat. Take care not to overfill each one