For those not already familiar with their place in our national psyche, Christmas Mince Pies – with their hard to interpret ‘mincemeat’ filling – come weighted with all the baggage of their history and origins. The fact that they are filled with sugar and spice and all things fruit, rather than ‘meat’, is just the starting gun on the troubles they find in translating for an away crowd.
What’s in a name?
The ‘mince’ refers to the fact that the filling ingredients are cut small – the ‘meat’, on the other hand, was once a reality, and the ‘suet’ that is a residual trace ingredient is, not un-coincidentally, originally from an animal source. Vegetable suet is, however, now a readily available alternative and, more often than not, the ingredient that will be included in your pie – so to answer the obvious question: yes, they are now mostly meatless, but no, still not always entirely so.
They are, however, blessedly, still mostly seasonal. Unlike their distant cousin the Hot Cross Bun – often found unmoored from its Easter origins – the mince pie does at least stick to its lane – it’s to be enjoyed at Christmas and would feel out of place at other gatherings.
Ready-Made v Home-Made
The ‘shop-bought’ tends toward the disappointingly sickly sweet and gloopily textured – the pastry often soft enough to stick to teeth and the mincemeat too lean on the fruit and the spice to be properly satisfying. Some are better than others, but none is a patch on the potential of a made-from-scratch version – and by making from scratch we mean all the way from the mincemeat up. If you think you have run out of time, think again – we have a (relatively) quick cheat using the wonders of low temperature steaming.
… take a mixture of fruit, nuts, citrus …
We might add that making your own mincemeat doesn’t even really count as cooking – it’s ultimately, a simple matter of assembly – take a mixture of fruit, nuts, citrus, add to it a sprinkling of sugar, spice, and spirits, then stir in some ready prepared suet – you make a list, check it twice (once to source, once while you add), and then put it in jars and leave to mature (a minimum of two weeks is a norm).
And having now (at time of writing) officially run down the maturation timeline, we are here to offer cheats: on the one hand there is the option of using a newly made batch and getting away with the deception – at least among those who can’t tell the difference – and on the other, you can use a steam oven to wind the clock forward in a matter of hours rather than weeks.
The recipe that follows provides a basic list of ingredients with method (including cheats). It’s there to give ball-park proportions, but feel free to tweak the specifics: use a different mix of dried and candied fruit, alternative spice combinations, change the almonds up with other nutty alternatives, use a spirit or an essence of your choosing, or mix up the citrus – whatever takes your fancy (within reason), will make this recipe uniquely yours while still being traditionally ‘Christmas’ – and almost certainly better than anything industrially produced.
Ingredients
- 250g (each): raisins, sultanas, currants
- 1 box ready-shredded suet (200g-240g)
- 1 x cooking apple – approx. 250g
- 125g chopped candied peel
- 185g brown sugar (soft brown – dark or light – or demerara)
- 2 tsps ground mixed spice
- 30g flaked, nibbed or chopped almonds
- 1 x lemon (zest and juice)
- 80ml brandy
Method
- Coarsely chop the raisins and sultanas (with a cook’s knife or in a food processor on a pulse setting) – put into a large mixing bowl, mix with the currants.
- Peel core and grate the apple and stir in with the dried fruit.
- Add the candied peel with the sugar, almonds, and spices
- Grate the zest of the lemon into the mix, add the squeezed juice.
- If you have time to mature the mincemeat (at least two weeks is a normal minimum), you can also add the brandy and the suet at this point, unless you want a more immediately useable version – in which case leave the suet and the brandy until after the next stage.
‘Instant’ Maturing
- Mix the ingredients in the bowl and allow them to sit for at least an hour (preferably a few hours) to get to know each other. Then decant into clean glass jars (with lids). Put in the steam oven (lids on) at 85ºC (with steam) for an hour and a half – this gentle slow cooking shortcuts the maturing process by cooking the raw ingredients and blending the dissolvable ones.
[What if I don’t have a steam oven?]
- [Alternatively, you could cook the ingredients over a gentle heat in a pan on a stovetop, or take a risk with Delia Smith’s conventional oven version (she sets her oven to 120ºC for three hours – I only tried this once with disastrously overcooked results that were not necessarily Delia’s fault!) – but in both these cases the result will likely be a more aggressively ‘cooked’ result than can be achieved with a controlled and gentler steaming.]
Choices, choices, choices, …
- The suet can be included or not at this cooking stage – if it is included it will melt, and then require regular stirring while it cools to redistribute evenly. I prefer to add the suet back into the mix when the mixture is cooled and when I can keep an eye on distribution.
- Once the steam oven has done it’s work, put the mincemeat back into a mixing bowl, cool it down as quickly as possible, then add in the suet (if not already included) and the brandy (alcohol will boil at a temperatures of around 78ºC, which is why it isn’t included earlier).
- Your mincemeat is now ready to jar – make sure your jars are clean and sterilised (another job for the steam oven) – and store them in a cool place. I normally keep mine in the fridge just to be safe.
Mince Pie Assembly
- To make the mince pies, line some small tart tins with shortcrust pastry – fill up to 2/3 full with prepared mincemeat, top with a circle of pastry, cut a literal ‘dash’ across their tops with a small sharp knife, brush the tops with a little beaten egg white and sprinkle sugar over the glazed surface – bake at 190ºC (fan) for 15 – 20 minutes – until the pastry is golden brown. If you have the option, you can also use 5 minutes of ‘bottom heat’ as a part of the process (at the beginning or the end) – to avoid the risk of any soggy bottoms.
Serving Suggestions
- Serve with cream, crème fraîche, brandy or rum butter, or just as they are. They are delicious either warm or at room temperature – and can also be refreshed in a moderately warm oven (160ºC) for a few minutes at a moment’s notice!
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