You’ve made a tray of mince pies, they look lovely, and then you go at them with a teaspoon of icing sugar and a big sieve. Two pies get buried, the rest get nothing, and the worktop looks like it’s been snowing.
The fix is partly technique and partly using a smaller tool. Here’s both.
Get the technique right first
- Wait until they’re cold. Icing sugar on warm pastry melts into a damp, patchy glaze. Let them cool fully on the rack.
- Dust right before serving. Icing sugar soaks up moisture from the filling. Dust in the morning and by the evening it’s half disappeared. If they’re going in a tin for later, leave them plain and dust when they come out.
- Hold it higher than you think. About a hand’s length above the pies. Too close and you get heavy blobs. Higher up, the sugar spreads out and falls evenly.
- Tap, don’t shake. Hold the shaker or sieve still and tap the side gently with a finger. Shaking it about throws out clumps.
- Do it over the tray. Or lay the pies on a sheet of baking paper first, then tip the spare sugar back into the bag.
Swap the big sieve for a shaker
A full-size sieve is the main reason this gets messy. It holds too much and spreads too wide. A small mesh shaker puts the sugar exactly where you aim it.
The one I’d point people to is the KitchenCraft fine-mesh icing sugar shaker. It’s a small stainless steel pot, 9.1cm tall and 7.3cm wide, with a fine mesh top that breaks up lumps on the way out. You get a tight-fitting lid against spills plus a plastic cover for storage, and that it’s dishwasher safe with a 12-month guarantee.
That storage lid is the bit that makes it worth having. Fill it once in December, keep it in the cupboard, and it’s ready whenever a pie, a yule log or a plate of pancakes needs finishing off. It works for cocoa on a cappuccino too.
A few small extras
- For star shapes or snowflakes, lay a paper doily or a cut-out stencil over the pie, dust, then lift it straight up.
- If your icing sugar has gone lumpy in the bag, the mesh will clog. Give it a quick sieve into the shaker first.
- Rinse and fully dry the shaker before refilling. Any damp left in the mesh turns the next lot of sugar into a crust.
Still sorting the pies themselves? Here’s our take on the best tin for making mince pies.
