Cranberry and Pear Pies

These cute and festive pies make a good warm dessert or a tangy alternative to mince pies

350g plain flour
85g ground almonds
140g caster sugar, plus extra to decorate
225g butter, chopped
1 egg, beaten

For the filling:

400g cranberries, fresh or frozen
50g caster sugar
25g cornflour
325g jar orange curd
450g just-ripe pears, peeled, cored and chopped

• To make the almond pastry, tip the flour, almonds and sugar into a food processor
• Pulse in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. 
• Pulse in up to 5 tbsp cold water until mixture comes together as a dough. 
• Wrap in cling film and chill for 1 hr. 
• To make the filling, tip the cranberries into a pan with the sugar and cornflour and stir well. 
• Stir in the orange curd, then cook for a few mins until thickened. 
• Add the pears and cook a few mins more, stirring frequently. Cool. 
• Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5 with a large baking sheet inside. 
• Roll out the pastry and use to line 8 x 10cm individual Yorkshire pudding tins or 10cm individual tart tins 
• Spoon in the cooled filling. 
• Roll out the rest of the dough and stamp out 4 x 9cm rounds to make lids. 
• Cut out the centres with a medium star cutter. 
• Carefully cover half the pies with the pastry lids and place the stars on a baking tray. 
• Crimp the edges of each pie with your finger and thumb. 
• Brush the pies and stars with the egg then dredge with sugar. 
• Bake the stars for 8-10 mins and the pies for 15-20 mins until golden.
• Dredge with more sugar once out of the oven. 
• Place a star on the open pies and serve with cream or ice cream

Recipe : BBC Good Food