Christmas Eve Fruit Mince Pies
I have been spending my Christmas season researching the traditions of a 19th century holiday celebration. It’s been a fun way to spend the time and find inspiration in another time, recreating old-fashioned recipes and traditions and making them more fitting to the 21st century. During my research, I’ve been hunting for the perfect traditional dessert to share with my family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The most common dessert from the time period, during the late 1800s specifically, was Plum Pudding. Have you heard of it? It’s essentially dried fruits boiled in water for hours and mashed through a cheese cloth. Eventually I would like to try this, but it did not seem like something my family would find appealing. Then I came across mince pies. This was something I had heard of, but it is very uncommon in the United States.
Mince pies were little tarts filled with meat, usually lamb, and made into an ovular shape to represent the manger that Jesus slept in. They were a status symbol in the United Kingdom and were made to “show off” with different types of shapes cut out on top like stars, crescents, hearts, flowers, and more. It was a custom to eat mince pies, which are now mostly made with dried fruits rather than meats, every day from Christmas to Twelfth Night. Doing so would mean happiness and luck until the following year!
Ingredients & Recipe:
2 large apples, cored and chopped
1 large orange; zested, peeled, and chopped
1 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried tart cherries
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup cherry flavored brandy
DIRECTIONS:
Prepare your pie crusts. It is possible to stretch one crust for the entire recipe, but I would suggest making two crusts just in case.
Combine the apples, orange, orange zest, golden raisins, raisins, cherries, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in a saucepan. Heat over medium until boiling and lower heat. Cook, stirring constantly to prevent burning, for 25-30 minutes or until the fruit has softened and the juices have been soaked in.
Remove from heat and stir in the brandy until well combined. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease a standard 12 cup muffin tin. Roll out the pie dough and cut into circles with a cookie cutter or some round shape, like the rim of a large cup. Place each circle into a muffin tin cup and press down into the bottom. Fill each crust to the top with mince. You can use any remaining crust to create a top shape to cover the mince. A star is traditional! Brush lightly with an egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling.
Serve warm. You can freeze these little pies until you are ready to serve them. Simply pop into a 200 degree oven for about 15 minutes to warm, if you prefer.
NOTE: If you would like these to not contain alcohol for little ones, simply replace the brandy with apple cider or apple juice.
If you are making your mince pies with brandy, you may want to have your little ones leave out a couple of pies on Christmas Eve for Father Christmas! This is also a UK tradition that I think is really sweet. I love learning about holiday traditions from other places in the world. With my heritage largely being from England, Scotland, and Ireland it’s easy to see why these old British customs fascinate me! This year we will start the tradition of eating mince pies on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I can’t wait to have Tad leave out a little pie for Santa Claus! So cute!
xoxo Kayla
