Mincemeat Squares

5 reasons why I had to share this recipe:

1/ As far as I'm concerned, it's not Christmas without mincemeat (especially homemade mincemeat).
2/ It's a nice change from mince pies.
3/ Brown butter is involved (and you know how I feel about brown butter).
4/ It's a quick, one-bowl, mix-with-a-spoon sort of thing.
5/ It makes buttery, nutty biscuit bars with a mincemeat core that caramelises at the edges.



I'll be back on the 31st with a Best of 2013 roundup to continue the tradition. Until then all that's left to say is...

Merry Christmas!



Mincemeat Squares
(adapted from Fig & Hazelnut Crumble Bars and inspired by a recipe in Delia's Christmas)

150g unsalted butter
150g plain flour
125g ground almonds
65g soft brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
two pinches of fine sea salt
350g mincemeat

Preheat to 180C/350F. Line a shallow tin (around 11x7"/28x18cm) with baking parchment or parchment lined foil. Brown the butter in a big pan (see here for a tutorial if you haven't made it before) and pour into a bowl to cool. Stir the flour, almonds, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. Add the brown butter and mix together. Tip half of the mixture into the lined tin and press down with your fingers into an even layer. Spoon the mincemeat into the tin and spread it out evenly. Fork up the remaining topping into pebbles and spread over the top. Press down lightly with the fork. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool fully in the tin on a wire rack before cutting into squares - they can be a bit crumbly when they're warm. They keep for about 4 days in a tin.

(Makes 20 small squares or 12 bigger ones)



Four recipes that I'd make for a party dessert:
Tiramisu
Crêpes Suzette
Ginger Bourbon Pecan Pie
Hervé's Two Ingredient Chocolate Mousse

Mince Pies v.2

A few weeks ago I was asked by The Everygirl if I'd like to write a piece about one of my favourite festive recipes. Without a moment of hesitation, I chose mince pies.

Back in 2010, I posted recipes for our mincemeat and mince pies.  Homemade mincemeat is genuinely one of my favourite things to eat. In a pie, on a spoon - I don't care. It's completely different from the stuff you can buy. For the piece I reshot the photos and adapted the recipes into cups. Other than that I didn't change too many things, so the original posts still stand for gram measurements (though the mincemeat is a half batch in the feature, I used a few dried cranberries and I added the brandy at the beginning).

You can read the feature here - it also includes recipes from the lovely ladies at Sprinkle Bakes, Butter me up, Brooklyn!, Channeling Contessa and Ever Hungry.

While I was writing up the recipe, an idea kept niggling at me: shortbread instead of pastry. After I'd sent it in, I adapted my Whole Vanilla Bean Shortbread recipe and gave it a go. It was such a success that I wandered around the house for about an hour with a big grin on my face. I used to think that a rich pastry would be too much. It's not.

Of course, when I googled it, I discovered that it's a totally normal variation. But still. Best mince pies I've ever made.

Shortbread Mince Pies

50g cold unsalted butter
25g caster sugar
65g plain flour
pinch of sea salt
Approx 5 tbsp homemade mincemeat

Cut four thin strips of baking parchment and place them across the bottom of four cups in a muffin tin, making sure the ends reach up to the top of the sides (like a ribbon to take out a battery). Place the butter and sugar into a food processor and blend until you have a paste (you could also beat it in a stand mixer, but be careful not to overwork it). Add the flour and pinch of salt and pulse until the mixture has combined and starts to form tiny clumps. Divide the mixture between the cups then press into the walls and bottom as evenly as you can. Neaten up the top with a knife if you like - you can use any extra to make decorations. Place in the fridge and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 160C/320F. Spoon about 3-4 teaspoons of mincemeat into each cup. Bake for 16-18 minutes until the shortbread is golden brown and the mincemeat is bubbling. Leave in the tin to cool for five minutes them use the strips to pull them out of the tin. Serve warm with plenty of cream.

(Makes 4, easily scaled up)



A few related posts:
Bûche de Noël
Quick Christmas Fruit Cake
Stollen Wreaths

Christmas Mincemeat

Mincemeat is a bit like Marmite.

People tend to either love it or hate it. I am firmly in the love it category.

I do truly believe, however, that a significant portion of the haters would feel differently if they tasted homemade mincemeat. When I was interning at delicious., I helped out with the Christmas food taste test. Among other things (cakes, stollen, panettone, puddings) we tested mincemeat and mince pies from a wide range of brands and price points. Even the ones that won weren't a patch on homemade.

So if you make one thing from my blog this Christmas, please make it mincemeat. Take a look at the ingredients above. Is there anything you dislike? There's no suet, no soggy candied peel.



Making mincemeat is a family tradition. Mum and I have made it together for years. It's a very simple recipe - the only thing is stirring it every now and then. We love stirring because it's an excuse to take a peek, sample some and let the gorgeous aroma out.

Nothing smells more like Christmas to me.

Our recipe is adapted from Delia's. You cook the mincemeat on low for a few hours in the oven, which lets the butter and spices thickly coat all the apple pieces and fruits and seals all their juices in. We don't use suet or candied peel because we don't really like them, but you could sub the suet in instead of the butter and replace some of the fruits with peel.



Apart from gorgeous mince pies (my current recipe is here), you can use mincemeat in a variety of other things. One of our favourites is sandwiched in a crunchy slice. You could make a tart. Delia does a strudel. There's a another great Delia recipe for a mincemeat cake that's delicious - it was our Christmas cake last year.

This makes enough to last us through a Christmas season. Half it if you're not sure. If you're on the fence or have never had it before (it is quite a British thing) then go for it.

Edit 2012: I recently wrote about this mincemeat recipe for The Everygirl - as they're American, the recipe I wrote for them is in cups (it's also a half recipe) but otherwise it's the same.



Mincemeat
(adapted from Delia Smith's Christmas)

450g apples (cooking or sour) - roughly 2 big bramleys
225g unsalted butter
340g raisins
340g sultanas
340g golden sultanas
340g dark brown sugar
2 oranges
2 lemons
50g whole almonds
3 tsp mixed spice*
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp/a good grating nutmeg
6 tbsp brandy

Core and chop the apples but don't peel them, then weigh out the 450g. Chop the almonds into slivers. Weigh out the raisins, sultanas, golden sultanas, sugar and spices into a big roasting tray. Add the apples and almonds. Zest and juice the oranges and lemons and add that on top. Mix well. Cover with foil and leave overnight to steep. Stir every now and then.

The next day, preheat the oven to 120C/225F. Cube the butter and add to the tray. Give it a good stir then put the foil-covered tray into the oven for 2 hours. Take out, stir and leave to cool. It will look fatty but don't worry. As it cools, try to stir it every now and again. When cool, stir in the brandy and jar.

(Makes 3 big jars)

* If you can't get mixed spice, I suggest 1 extra tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ground ginger, 1/4 tsp ground cloves and 1/4 tsp allspice.

Updated 05/12/16: Just to edit some of the spices and reduce the sugar by 10g.

Updated 18/12/17: I now add the butter the next day - it doesn't need to sit there overnight. I've also tried a small amount of this with coconut oil (took off 1/6th of the recipe after steeping overnight) for my mum who isn't eating dairy at the moment, and it seems to have worked OK. Over the years I've also subbed in some cranberries and I subbed in 100g of dried pears I needed to use up this year, which I actually really like (both instead of more golden sultanas).



Three more Christmas recipes:
Mince Pies
Moulded Gingerbread Cookies
Galette des Rois