Mince Pies

It's December, and mince pie baking season is in full swing.

When baking mince pies, I use a particular pastry recipe that I copied from my mother's cooking notebook, and that she had copied from my grandmother's notebook.

It makes the lightest melt-in-the-mouth mince pies you could ask for, but it is a bit tricky to work with...

Improving Shop-Bought Mincemeat

When baking mince pies in bulk - for an event or bake sale - even if you normally make your own mincemeat from scratch, there comes a point where you need more mincemeat, and need to buy some in.

Commercially made mincemeat can however be somewhat disappointing. Too often the producers go overboard on cheap spice-flavoured syrup or apple sauce and skimp on the more expensive dried fruit.

When faced with using a tub of commercial mincemeat that has been made overly-cheaply in this way, this is how I give it a bit more body.

Mincemeat

I have an aversion to citrus - specifically orange peel. So I have never really eaten things that have candied peel in - which includes many traditional Xmas cakes.

However, one Xmas when I was growing up, Sainsburys decided to stock citrus (peel)-free mince pies. They tasted great - but they didn't stock them again, ever.

So, if I want to have mince pies for Xmas that I can eat, then I need to make my own mincemeat. Which means that I need to get round to making it in September to give time for the flavour to mature.

Fortunately, mincemeat is so easy that it really barely counts as cooking!