mincemeat recipe

With a hint of spice and little pockets of mincemeat, this is a lovely post-Christmas cake, great with warm custard

Pear & mincemeat crumble cake

pears

golden caster sugar

tsp mixed spice

pack salted butter

tsp vanilla extract

eggs

self-raising flour

ground almonds

tbsp plain flour

tbsp mincemeat

Put pears into a non-stick frying pan with 2 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsp water. Cover, then cook over a medium heat for 10 mins until just tender, stirring every so often. There shouldn’t be juices once the pears are cooked. Add the spice; leave to cool.

Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Butter then line the base and sides of a 20cm round, deep cake tin. Put butter, sugar, vanilla and ¼ tsp salt into a large bowl. Beat with an electric hand whisk until pale and fluffy. Add eggs and flour, beat until smooth, then fold in almonds with a spoon. Remove 85g batter and put into a small bowl. Into this add the plain flour and chop into the mix with a cutlery knife to make a soft, crumbly-looking mix.

Spoon half the cake mix into the tin, top with half the pears, dot over half the mincemeat, then dollop the rest of the cake mix on top. Scatter with remaining pears, mincemeat, then the crumble mix. Sprinkle with final 1 tbsp sugar. Bake for 1½ hrs, covering with foil after 1 hr, until golden, risen and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then cool on a rack. Keep it in the lining paper, as this will help it stay moist. Will keep, well wrapped in an airtight tin, for 5 days. Freeze for 1 month.

Christmas Shortbread made simple! Quick, no fuss, no cookie cutters required. Just perfectly short and crumbly, buttery, vegan shortbread bars with a layer of festive mincemeat sandwiched effortlessly through the middle.   

Christmas Shortbread

(312 grams) all-purpose flour (, plain flour in the UK)

⅓ cup (48 grams) cornstarch (, cornflour in the UK)

sugar

salt

(240 grams) vegan butter

(100 grams) vegan mincemeat

almonds

cranberries

Preheat oven to 320° F (160 °C) and place an oven shelf about ⅓ up from the bottom of the oven.

Grease a 9 x 5 inch (or similar) loaf pan. Place a long thin strip of parchment paper down the middle of the pan, with some overhang over the ends. Once that&#x27;s in place rub a little grease on it to &quot;stick&quot; the next strip. The second strip needs to be wider and go across the pan the other way with some overhang again. The overhang acts as handles for lifting the shortbread out and the grease helps to keep everything in place. To see exactly how to put the paper in see my picture in the post above.

To the bowl of a food processor, add the flour, cornstarch, sugar, salt and butter. Pulse until the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs and is just starting to clump. Test to see if it&#x27;s ready by grabbing a walnut sized piece and squeezing it together in your hand. If it sticks together in a ball it is ready. If it doesn&#x27;t put the lid on the food processor again and pulse until it is ready.

Take the blade out of the machine, and put roughly half (eyeballing it is fine) of the dough into the loaf pan. Using your hands, compact it down evenly and tightly.

Spread the mincemeat over the top of the shortbread layer with a spoon so it&#x27;s even, then top with the remaining shortbread and press it down really hard all over so it&#x27;s even and smooth.

Press the flaked almonds and cranberries into the top, then bake in the oven for about 65 minutes until it is just starting to turn a little golden around the edges.

Remove from the oven and leave in the pan for 15 to 20 minutes, then lift out using the parchment paper handles. Leave on the paper, and place on a cutting board.  Slice very carefully into portions, then lift it onto a cooling rack using the paper aagin,  and allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

This easy mincemeat filling recipe is full of traditional Christmas flavor: warm spices, fresh and dried fruit, a lacing of brandy, and a pop of citrus. Once you learn how to make mincemeat, the store-bought pie filling might become a thing of the past!

Easy Mincemeat Recipe

apples

sweet red apple

raisins

golden raisins (sultanas)

dried cranberries (or dried currants)

orange juice (from 1 large orange)

lemon juice (from 1 large lemon)

apple cider

dark brown sugar (lightly packed)

cinnamon

ginger

nutmeg

allspice

cloves

unsalted butter

orange

lemon

brandy (optional (or add up to 1/2 cup))

Add the chopped apple, raisins, golden raisins, dried cranberries, orange juice, lemon juice, apple cider, brown sugar, almonds, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, salt, and butter to a medium-large pot over medium heat.

Once boiling, cover the pot, turn the heat down to a simmer, and cook 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. After that, remove the lid and continue cooking uncovered until the mixture has turned dark and is thickened, about 15 minutes, stirring frequently.

Remove from the heat and stir in the orange zest, lemon zest, and brandy.

You can eat it now, but it’s even better after the flavors have blended for a couple days!

Thank you for this recipe! I am planning to make a couple of jars to use for tarts next Christmas. If I use candied citrus peel, do I add it with everything else and cook it all together, or do I add it afterwards as you do with the zest? Also, I saw that you pressure can yours; would a water bath work, as you would do for jam?

When there are no jars of MM on the shelves and mince pie is a tradition going back to the 50’s, you have to make your own. This recipe was easy and tasty even better than the jar.

Tasty but I doubled the amount of nutmeg and cloves. I don't know how more cinnamon that I added but I've heard that its hard to add too much cinnamon. 
After these minor adjustments, it was great.

Thank you so much!  This was a life saver for me. I made a special cake for my 80 year old brother as a Christmas gift. And you need to use mincemeat in the recipe. This year mincemeat is really high for a 16 oz. jar. And I called and looked everywhere for mincemeat and could not find it. So  I decided to look at my Chromebook and found this recipe and it turned out awesome.   I did change a couple things but not many because of my budget.  But it still turns out great. Thank you

You have saved the holidays. After a lot of searching, I finally came across this recipe. After reading the reviews, I decided that this was the one I would try. This is so much better than the jar filling that most of us can no longer buy in our local grocery stores. I just made my second double batch. It fills the house with the smell of the holidays. I think my husband wants to get some vanilla ice cream and use this as a topping.

This is FABULOUS!  Better than the Nonesuch rum and brandy that I have used in my fruitcake since the 1970s.

My oranges wouldn’t zest properly, so I added a slug of Cointreau, and it was divine.

Will definitely make again, and share as gifts.  This double batch is going into my fruitcakes.

Thank you so much for this recipe.

This is a wonderful recipe and I love the flavour. However, it took much longer to cook than what the recipe indicated. The first 1/2 hour of cooking was fine but it took another 45 min for it to darken and thicken up. I ended up having to turn up the heat in order to reach the desired consistency.

Can't find mincemeat in the grocery stores, and my husband loves mincemeat.  Found your recipe made it and it's delicious. We will have a mince meat pie for Christmas!  Oh yeah my husband said it was better than store bought

Thank goodness for this recipe.  I have hunted for weeks for a jarred mincemeat and none of the local stores or online have it.  Finally a grocer said it doesn't sell any more, so they are not ordering any.

Mincemeat is a family tradition for over 100 years, I know.  Thank you for saving our Christmas!

Couldn’t find mincemeat in the stores so thought I’ll make my own. I left out the lemon juice, added orange extract, left out the almonds (family allergies), added a few chopped dates, and upped the cinnamon to 2 teaspoons and doubled the cloves a s well. DELICIOUS! I’ll never buy again!!

This is delicious - a great alternative to the commercial versions of mincemeat. I plan to use this as a filling for hand pies to serve during the holidays. I was so glad to find this recipe!

Mincemeat is a big part of my Christmas past, so I am especially grateful for an easy way to be able to make it when I am so busy! And as usual, your photography is nothing short of exquisite!

Top 3 mincemeat recipe recipes from across the web

The most viewed mincemeat recipe recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine

Top Tags

Pear & mincemeat crumble cake

Christmas Shortbread

Easy Mincemeat Recipe

Top 3 mincemeat recipe recipes from across the web

The most viewed mincemeat recipe recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

Pear & mincemeat crumble cake

Christmas Shortbread

Easy Mincemeat Recipe

The most viewed mincemeat recipe recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine