Do you fancy one of my mince pies? (Favourite Homemade Christmas Recipes)

Member Name: SusanLesley

Product:	Favourite Homemade Christmas Recipes
Date:	24/11/08 (281 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tastes great, you can customise it to suit

Disadvantages: You eat too many mince pies!

I have always made my own mincemeat at Christmas following in the footsteps of my mother and grandmother. I used to love helping nan make hers on that old scrubbed kitchen table - sorry, I'm off into the realms of childhood memories there!

I now use a recipe that I found in a book called Everyday Cookery by Mrs. Beeton, which I received for my 21st birthday - OK so it almost qualifies as an antique now - I thought I'd say that before any of you did! I have adapted the recipe to personal taste, health and using my memories of how my mother and grandmother used to do it.

I thought I would share it with you, as it might be useful with the festivities fast approaching....

First of all I will go through the reasons behind the various adaptations to the original recipe.

1. I use a vegetarian equivalent of suet rather than the beef suet recommended. This is for two reasons, firstly it is a lot lower in saturated fat and secondly it means that, since I make my pastry with White Flora as opposed to lard, vegetarians can still eat my mince pies. I will just mention here that this makes absolutely no difference to the taste.

2. I use whisky as the main alcohol in the mincemeat together with just a drop of brandy. My grandmother always made hers with whisky and it tasted great! What better recommendation do I need?

3. I do not put candied peel in my mincemeat purely because I don't like it and neither does any of my family!

OK then enough of the build up - here is the recipe and instructions to make delicious mincemeat!

Ingredients
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(As the book is over 25 years old the weights and measures are Imperial not metric!)
1lb cooking apples (prepared weight)
1lb currants
1lb raisins
½ lb sultanas
1lb suet (add this carefully 1lb may be too much for some tastes - I usually use more like ½ lb)
1lb demerara sugar
2oz blanched chopped almonds
Grated rind and juice of 2 lemons
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon salt
¼ pint whisky

Method
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The best way to make the mincemeat is to use a mincer for the fruit as this gives the correct texture, but I suppose it could also be achieved by grating the apples and finely chopping the dried fruit.
Quite simply all you do is prepare the fruit as described above and add it to all the other ingredients in a large bowl and mix it! That's all!

For storage I use some Kilner jars that I was given years ago. They are ideal for the mincemeat and get reused every year - how's that for recycling? I wash and dry them thoroughly and fill each one with the mincemeat. I then cover the top of the jar with greaseproof paper before putting the lid on.

The whole process usually takes me about an hour from start to finish.

Because of the fact that there is alcohol in the mixture, which is a known preservative, the mincemeat will last for ages. It doesn't of course as it tastes so nice it gets used quickly!

Apart from the obvious use of making mince pies another delicious use is in baked apples. Remove the core and fill the resulting hole with mincemeat and then bake as usual. Yummy!

I also now have a recipe for mincemeat and sultana muffins which hubby says are great!

I made my mincemeat last week and my first batch of mince pies at the weekend and they went down a storm even if I do say so myself.

Summary: A great recipe for mincemeat