Mincemeat Pastry Squares: 12 Days of Cookies Day 8

Each Christmas I make Mincemeat Pies, but I usually have a jar of mincemeat somewhere in the house. I try and make at least one mincemeat cookie each year, and it can be difficult to find just the right recipe. This year, I came across these pastry squares, which are an old-fashioned cookie. The original recipe calls for any variation of dried fruit, bit I decided that mincemeat would work really well in these cookies. Mincemeat has slightly more moisture, but it’s very similar.

Whenever I read in a recipe that you have to roll out the cookie dough to a certain dimension, I worry. I’m not that talented at rolling out dough, but I do the best that I can. My dough was close to the proper dimensions, but not quite. After I filled the dough and covered the filling, it was not the right size to cut into 16 pieces. 9 pieces make better sized cookies but depending on how talented you are at rolling out dough, you may want more or less pieces.

I admit that these cookies are on the messy side, and I suppose that dried fruit would be slightly less messy. The cookies are old-fashioned, but they taste excellent. I love mincemeat in everything, and these cookies are no exception. I didn’t have fancy sugar, but regular sugar worked just as well. (Ok, I had orange sanding sugar, but that would have been weird.) These take some time, but add an interesting variation to a Christmas cookie tray.

Mincemeat Pastry Squares

1 3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 cup mincemeat

1/4 cup coarse sugar

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and whisk together. In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium until smooth. Add the egg, vanilla, and lemon zest and mix to combine. Add the flour and mix on low until incorporated. Divide the dough in halves and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Allow the dough to come to room temperature before shaping. Roll each half of dough into a rectangle

8-1/2” by 16-1/2”. Spread half of the mincemeat on the bottom half of the short side of the dough. Fold the top over the filling. Top the dough with the coarse sugar and pat to help it stick. Cut into squares, either 9 or 16 squares depending on the size of the dough. Place the cookies on the prepared cookie sheets. Repeat with the remaining dough, mincemeat, and sugar.

Bake for 12-14 minutes, until lightly browned. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before carefully removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe adapted from Food Gal