Name: Homemade Christmas Mincemeat
Prep time: 30 min
Ingredients: 450 g Bramley apples (cored and chopped small (not peeled)); 225 g shredded suet (you can use vegetarian in the same quantity); 350 g raisins; 225 g sultanas; 225 g currants; 225 g mixed peel pre-chopped; 350 g soft dark brown sugar; the grated zest and juice of 2 oranges; the grated zest and juice of 2 lemons; 50 g flaked almonds; 4 tsp mixed ground spice; 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon; whole nutmeg (for grating); 6 tbsp brandy

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It’s that time of year, once again, where we make our own Christmas mincemeat. It’s become a lovely family tradition for us thanks to my good friend Leah who inspired us with her own traditions. The children help chop, weigh, mix and fill jars of delicious mincemeat. They smell, taste, touch and explore the flavours and ingredients and we spend Autumn and Winter making mince pies for family and friends.

Autumn activities

Autumn is the perfect time to make your homemade mincemeat, I have bought all the ingredients ready to make ours this weekend. It’s perfect for anyone looking for a simple baking activity to do with children.

As the mix cooks the house fills with the magical smell of Christmas.

By changing the 'lid' of the pies you can really customise the look — as shown here.

Christmas traditions

In autumn we start preparing a number of our family traditions. This homemade mincemeat is one. We also make homemade Damson and Sloe gins. This tradition came from Jims family and now in early autumn we forage fruits to mix with sugar and gin to serve with fizz over the Christmas holidays. And toward Bon fire night and beyond we will make and serve mulled wine using our homemade mulled wine syrup. As always autumn and winter is the season for cooking and celebrating my Mum’s Tater Ash – an affordable, delicious, comforting family meal.

Eat now or store for later

It is worth noting that this homemade mincemeat recipe can be made ahead and stored. The original recipe is from the queen of home cooking herself, Delia Smith. She says this recipe can be kept indefinitely in a cool dark cupboard. Though she does suggest it’s at its best within a year of making it. That means that you can make a batch now, use some throughout December and store the rest for next year.

In the video below I have doubled this recipe as we shared jars with family and friends last year. If you follow the recipe below you will end up with half the amount I do in the video.

These mince pies were the perfect accompaniment to our wreath making.

The Pastry

When I make my mince pies I always use Mary Berry’s sweet short crust pastry from the video below. It is without doubt, the easiest, lightest pastry recipe I have found.

I double the quantities (for 24 mince pies) and I baked mine on 180ºC fan for 10-12 mins. Ovens do vary as do the size of your mince pies. For my deeper filled mince pies, I baked them for 15 minutes so always adapt to suit.

Vegetarian mincemeat

Mincemeat contains suet which is an animal fat, making most mincemeat not suitable for vegetarians. Delia suggests swapping the suet for vegetarian suet which I do this every year now as my sisters and sister in law is vegetarian and I want to include them. Vegetarian suet makes great mince meat and all my meat eating family and friends have never complained

Christmas eve

I think the most exciting part of the mincemeat recipe is my anticipation of baking mince pies on Christmas Eve for Father Christmas with our children. It has become a special tradition for us all. This year I am serving mince pies on Christmas Day so I will make them all on Christmas Eve and store them in the fridge, ready to bake the next day and serve warm with clotted cream.