Cut your butter into 1cm cubes using two knives to avoid touching it with your hands, and place it in a large mixing bowl.

Add your flour and salt. Gently rub the butter into the flours using your fingertips until you reach a breadcrumb-type consistency – don’t overwork it. Sift in your icing sugar and combine.

Mix your egg yolk with 2 tablespoons of cold water, and sprinkle it evenly over the mixture. Use a blunt kitchen knife to incorporate it as quickly as possible and bring the dough together. If you need more water add it gradually and sparingly – you only need enough to bind the dough. If your ingredients look dry then add some more water, but stop before it becomes wet and tacky. If you push your ball of dough together and it cracks, the gluten needs a little more working.

Shape the dough into a disc and wrap it up to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 200°C, and lightly butter a non-stick mince pie or tartlet tin.

Lightly dust your worktop with flour, and roll out your pastry to around 3mm thick. Cut out 10 bases and tops. (You may need to re-form the scraps into a ball and roll the pastry out again.)

Place the bases gently in the tin. Fill each with roughly one heaped teaspoon of mincemeat. Fix the lids on top, and glaze with egg-wash. Sprinkle each top liberally with crunchy brown sugar.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, checking halfway through to make sure the tops are not browning too quickly. When the tops are golden brown and the pastry is cooked through, remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for five minutes or so, before transferring to a wire rack.

Serve warm.