Place all of the cranberry sauce ingredients in a pan, bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer for about twenty minutes, until the cranberries are soft. Your house will be filled with a wonderful aroma as well.
300 g fresh cranberries, 100 g light brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 3 tbsp water
You can then refrigerate the cranberry sauce and use it when needed, or allow it to cool and proceed with the next steps. Or, use a ready-made cranberry sauce if you prefer.
For the pastry:
Make up your pastry to line your mince pie or muffin tins. I used this recipe from BBC Good Food. You could also buy the pastry ready-made and save time here too.
225 g butter, 350 g plain flour (all-purpose flour), 100 g golden caster sugar
Use a cutter to cut out the circles to line the holes in your tin. I made 12 normal sized pies and 6 muffin sized pies.
For the cheesecake filling:
Mix the cheesecake ingredients together until smooth.
280 g cream cheese, 80 g caster sugar (superfine sugar), 1 egg, 3 tbsp plain flour (all-purpose flour)
To assemble and bake the pies:
Place 1 dessertspoon approx. of the mixture into each pie base. They should be filled but the cheesecake filling should not be running over the sides. If you have any leftover mix, you can make some mini cheesecakes as well.
Now add cranberries from the sauce you made earlier, or from the ready-made sauce, on top of the mixture.
Bake at 180℃ / 350℉ for around 20 minutes, or until the cases are golden and the cheesecake filling is set.