Easy Mincemeat Traybake Crumble Slices Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How to make shop bought mincemeat taste better? ›

Start by tasting it, then add extra flavours that suit: nearly always add a little freshly grated lemon or orange zest, extra spice, extra brandy or rum and some cherries or nuts.

Vine fruits and apple provide much of the body. Candied fruit is important too—usually lemon and orange peel, but sometimes cherries. Ginger and prunes are welcome additions, too. The essential trinity of spices is cinnamon, clove and nutmeg, but the ingredient list may just say "spices," which isn't very helpful.

As pastry usually contains a lot of butter you don't need to grease your tin.

Heat a pile of mincemeat in a pan with sugar, orange and lemon juice, orange peel, half a cinnamon stick and brandy, wait for it to thicken and then stir in some whipping cream.

I always add extra cherries and brandy to mine. I warm it slightly in a pan and stir in the extra ingredients - then leave it to sit while I sort out the pastry.

If I were in a mince pie emergency situation and had to use shop-bought mincemeat then I am sure it could be very nicely pepped up by adding in a few chopped apples, some spices or a slug of plum brandy.

Ingredients: Water, Corn Syrup, Raisins, Dried Apples, Molasses, Corn Starch Modified, Distilled Vinegar, Dried Orange And Lemon Peel, Salt, Spices, Beef, Fruit Pectin, Natural Flavor.

Versions containing animal fats should be cooked before use but those including butter can be used as they are, perhaps stirred into an ice cream mixture. You could even serve an especially tasty version with whipped or clotted cream as a sumptuous festive topping for warm scones.

Even today there are traditions associated with mince pies. When making the mincemeat mixture for the pies, for good luck it should be stirred in a clockwise direction. You should always make a wish when eating the first mince pie of the season and you should never cut one with a knife.

This is entirely up to you! I don't think you need it, but you can certainly use a parchment paper round on the bottom of the pie dish to prevent sticking. I don't recommend having the parchment paper come up the sides of the dish as the wrinkles will bake into the crust and can be hard to unstick later.

Why are my mince pies soggy on the bottom? ›

If the bottom crust doesn't set before the filling soaks in, it's going to be gummy. A metal pie pan placed on a preheated surface will set the bottom crust quickest; once cooked, the liquids from the filling above won't soak in, and as a result: no soggy bottom.

It's best to cook a pie on a pre-heated solid baking tray or sheet. Not only will this stop any filling dropping onto your oven floor and burning, but the extra heat will help crisp-up the base. You can use this trick for tarts too.

Consider the fat content of mince before you buy. Beef mince, and sometimes lamb, is graded by its fat content, and remember that some fat is desirable as it adds flavour and helps to keep the meat moist during cooking. The standard fat content of mince is 20%, but you can opt for a lean or extra-lean version.

Mincemeat over time does deepen in colour but the bitter taste may be that you pressed too hard when the citrus zests were grated!

20th century. By the mid-twentieth century, most mincemeat recipes did not include meat, but might include animal fat in the form of suet or butter, or alternatively solid vegetable fats, making it vegan.

English tradition demands that the mince meat mixture should only be stirred in a clockwise direction. To stir it anticlockwise is to bring bad luck for the coming year. Another English custom is for all the family to take a turn in stirring the mincemeat mixture whilst making a wish.