To make the fruit mince –

1. If you have a food processor. Add the peeled, cored, and roughly chopped apples to the bowl of your food processor. Blitz until they form a chunky paste, then transfer to a large mixing bowl. Working in a couple of batches, add the currants, sultanas, dried apricots, almonds, toasted coconut, mixed peel, glacé cherries, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom, superfine sugar, salt, and vegetarian suet to the bowl of the food processor and blitz to chop and mix them all up. Transfer to the mixing bowl with the apples. 
2. If you don’t have a food processor: Chop the apples very finely, or grate them with a box grater. Chop the dried fruit and nuts roughly, then add them to your mixing bowl with the suet, sugar, spices, coconut, and salt. 
3. Mix the fruit mince and macerate. Pour in the brandy and give everything a very good mix with a large wooden spoon or spatula. Cover tightly with plastic wrap or aluminium foil and let sit at room temperature for 3 days, stirring every day. PRO TIP: You don’t have to let the fruit mince macerate over time – the purpose is for the apple juice and brandy to soften and plump up the dried fruit and to intensify the flavor, but if you want to use it right away, you can.

To make the pastry –

1. If you have a food processor. Add the flour, baking powder, powdered sugar, and salt to the bowl of your food processor and pulse a couple of times to mix everything together. Add the cold butter and pulse again. The mixture will look like floury breadcrumbs at this point. Whisk the egg and milk together in a cup, then with the motor running, pour the mixture into the food processor until the pastry starts to come together. It’ll start looking like little yellow beads. At this point, it’s ready.
2. If you don’t have a food processor: Add the flour, baking powder, icing sugar, and salt to a large mixing bowl. Mix the ingredients so they’re all combined, then add the butter. Use your fingers to rub the butter and flour mix together until it starts to look like little breadcrumbs. Try to break up the butter as much as you can, but don’t worry hugely if there are little chunks of butter in the bowl. Whisk the egg and milk together in a cup, then slowly drizzle it into the bowl, mixing with a knife until the pastry starts to come together – if you press it in your hand, it should hold in place. Once it’s at that point, it’s ready (you might not need all of the milk/egg).
3. Let it rest. Lightly flour a clean, flat surface and transfer the pastry onto it. Bring it together with your hands into a rough circle. Wrap it tightly with plastic wrap, then pop it into the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

To make the fruit mince pies – 

1. Prepare the pastry. When you’re ready to make your pies, heat your oven to 350°F (180°C fan) and grease your mini muffin pan with butter or oil. Prepare two large pieces of parchment paper. Get the pastry out of the fridge and cut it in half. Place one half in the middle of one sheet of parchment paper, then rewrap the other half in plastic wrap and put it back in the fridge.
2. Roll out the pastry. Place the other sheet of parchment paper on top of the pastry, then smack it with a rolling pin to help flatten it. Roll the pastry out thinly – about 5mm. Peel back the top layer of baking paper, then, using a small cookie cutter (or the rim of a small glass), cut out circles a little larger than your muffin pan. Carefully peel them off the parchment paper and press them into the lined pan. Don’t worry if the pastry tears; you can just patch it up with more pastry.
3. Fill the pies. Once you’ve filled the tin with pastry cases, spoon in a heaped teaspoon of the fruit mince into the cases. Use the back of your spoon to press the filling down into the cases. You can fill it right to the top of the pastry.
4. Top the pies. Bundle up your pastry scraps, then re-roll them using the parchment paper. Use a small star cutter to cut out little star shapes (you can do any shape you like – or cut out small circles to top the whole pies). Carefully peel the stars and place them on top of the fruit mince pies in the pan.
5. Bake the pies. Transfer to the oven and bake for 20 – 25 minutes, until the pies look golden brown and smell unbelievable. Remove the tin from the oven and let the pies sit in the tin for about 10 minutes (if you skip this, you might find the pastry crumbles and breaks when you try to get the pies out). Carefully remove them from the pan and transfer them to a wire rack to cool fully. Use a sieve to dust with powdered sugar, and serve.