Mince Pies and Mulled Wine

Today we made mince pies. I can’t remember making my own since I was small but I certainly eat enough of them every year (not until 1 December though).

We made mincemeat to this recipe (which I think is Nigella’s):

Hettie Potter’s suet-free mincemeat
Makes about 2kg

250g soft dark sugar
250ml medium dry cider
1 kg cooking apples, peeled, halved and quartered
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
250g currants
250g raisins
75g glace cherries, roughly chopped
75g blanched almonds, finely chopped
rind and juice of 1/2 lemon
6 tbsp brandy or rum

In large saucepan, dissolve the sugar in the cider over a gentle heat. Add the roughly chopped apples to the saucepan. Add all the ingredients, apart from brandy/rum and simmer for around 30 min until everything has a pulpy consistency. Take off the heat and when it has cooled slightly stir in brandy/rum.

I left out the glace cherries because I don’t like them and just added extra fruit and nuts to make up for it. The end result was really tasty although next time I’ll chop the apples smaller.

With the mice pies we served mulled wine, made to this recipe:

Mulled Wine

750ml red wine
300ml smooth orange juice
150ml brandy
1 tsp sugar (optional)
1 tsp allspice
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp whole cloves
generous pinch of grated nutmeg.
1 sliced lemon
1 sliced orange
1 diced apple

1) Place all ingredients (apart from the fruit) in the saucepan. You can either tie all the spices up in a piece of muslin or strain the wine at the end.

2) Heat gently for about 30 min to let the flavours develop. Don’t boil it. Put in fruit about 10 mins before the end of cooking, this will allow the fuit to absorb the mulled wine but won’t get to mushy. Probably the best bit about mulled wine is fishing out the alcoholic fruit from the bottom of your glass at the end!