Put the flour and salt with the diced, chilled butter in a large bowl. Combine using your fingertips to pinch the butter into the flour. This will produce flakier pastry. You should have largish bits of butter evenly distributed in the flour. Sprinkle the cold water on top. Stir the dough together with a fork; do not knead the dough. Sprinkle a little more water (very little) if required. Try not err on the dry side.

You should be able to press together the dough into a ball that feels somewhat moist but not wet. Bring the dough together into a ball. Flatten into a thick disc and wrap in cling film. Refrigerate it for a minimum of an hour, or till you’re ready to bake the pies.

Whisk together all the ingredients for the filling in a bowl till smooth. Keep aside. You can refrigerate this for a few hours if necessary.

Remove the dough from the fridge. Wait till it is soft enough to roll out, if necessary. Flour your work surface and roll the dough out to a rough 9" circle. Use more flour as needed to prevent the dough sticking.

Cut out rounds using a 3 1/2 or 4-inch cookie cutter depending on the size of your muffin cups. Gather together the scraps (do not knead), roll out cut more rounds. You should have about 18 or so rounds. Re-roll any remaining scraps to cut out shapes to top the pies, if you want.

Place one dough round into each lightly greased muffin cup, pushing it in to fit gently with your fingers. Divide the filling between the muffin cups, filling a bit short of the edges. The filling will puff up a bit while baking. Gently place the cut out topping shapes, if any, on the filling.

Bake them at 190C (375F) for 25 to 30 minutes till the pastry starts browning and the filling is firm. Let mini pies cool in muffin cups completely before removing. The puffed up filling will settle slightly. Run a very thin knife around the edges of the pies, if necessary, to pop them out of the muffin pan. Serve at room temperature or chilled with whipped cream or ice-cream.