Filo Parcels with Mincemeat, Goats’ Cheese & Pistachio
A heady mix of festive flavour in this recipe with intensely sweet mincemeat complimenting the fresh clean goat’s cheese baked here as a crisp filo parcel all dusted with icing sugar and pistachios, certainly one to rival the very best mince pie. Served warmed with the whipped goat’s butter, scented with rum and cardamom, this is an elegant pudding or afternoon treat. This recipe is easy to upscale, simply one sheet of filo with a smattering of spreadable goats’ cheese and a tbsp of mincemeat per parcel to bake. The butter is very rich, any leftovers will keep well in the fridge for up to a month.
- Servings: 4 Parcels
What you'll need
4 sheets of filo pastry, use 1 sheet per parcel
175g goat’s butter, softened
80g icing sugar, + extra to dust
20g soft light brown sugar
Pinch of ground cardamon
2 tbsp rum, or use whisky or brandy
100g spreadable goats’ cheese
4 tbsp. or approx. 80g mincemeat
1 orange, zest
40g pistachio, roughly chopped
How to make it...
- In a small pan over a moderate heat melt 75g of the butter then remove from the heat and put to one side and keep warm.
- Preheat the oven 180°C
- Using an electric mixer add the remaining 100g softened butter along with the icing sugar and soft brown sugar and beat until smooth and creamy, at least 4 – 5 minutes on high speed. Finally, add the cardamom and the rum, 1 tbsp at a time, mixing continually as you do. Put the whipped butter to one side in a serving bowl. If you find the butter splits, remove from the bowl of the mixer and add another heaped tbsp icing sugar to the bowl of the mixer and beat in the butter, 1 tbsp at a time, until all it is all incorporated.
- On a clean dry work surface lie one sheet of filo pastry horizontally then brush liberally with some of the melted butter. To one half of the butter brushed sheet of filo spread ¼ of the goats' cheese and dot with 1 tbsp of the mincemeat. Fold the filo in half, sealing the mincemeat and goats' cheese in the pastry. Brush the sealed half of filo pastry with more melted butter and fold in half again to create a smaller rectangle shaped parcel. Repeat with the remaining filo, mincemeat, goats' cheese and melted butter to create 4 parcels. Brush the top of each parcel with any remaining butter. Place side by side on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.
- Cook the parcels in the hot oven for 12 – 14 minutes until crisp and golden. Remove from the oven and add ¼ of the pistachios and ¼ of the orange zest to the top of each parcel and then dust each liberally with extra icing sugar.
- Serve warm with the whipped cardamom and rum butter.