Sift the flour into a shallow bowl, and add small mounds of crisco.

Add the butter, shake to cover it and place in the freezer to chill for 20 minutes.

Mix the orange juice and salt in a separate bowl. cover and leave in the fridge to chill.

Rub the chilled flour in between your fingers to form crumb-like pieces. gradually add the chilled orange juice and bring the dough together.

If you have some juice leftover, thats fine. dont use all of it. however, if you have used up all your juice and the dough is not quite there yet, add a splash or two of ice cold water and bring it together.

Turn the mixture out onto a clean floured worktop and knead together to a ball.

Divide the dough and shape into three equal sized disks.

Wrap each in plastic and rest in the fridge for about 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C.

Remove a disk from the fridge and roll out thinly on a clean, floured worktop.

Using a fluted pastry cutter cut out 12 circles just a little wider than the moulds of a 12 hole tart tin (or cupcake tin).

Place each circle in the tart tin, and fill with about a teaspoon (heaped) of mincemeat.

Re-roll the scraps, and cut out 12 star shapes and place onto the pies.

Transfer to the oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until the pastry is a light golden brown (they cook very quickly, so keep an eye on them).

Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Repeat the steps till all the dough is used up (this recipe makes 36 pies, so thats three cycles).

Dust the cooled pies with confectioners sugar. serve!