Mini Mince Pie Puffs Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What ingredients are in a minced pie? ›

Mincemeat

Mince pie / Main ingredient

Mincemeat is a mixture of chopped dried fruit, distilled spirits and spices, and often beef suet, usually used as a pie or pastry filling. Mincemeat formerly contained meat, notably beef or venison. Many modern recipes replace the suet with vegetable shortening.

Wikipedia

Go with the tradition and eat a dozen

There is a tradition of eating one mince pie each day over the 12 days of Christmas from Christmas Eve to 5 January.

The reason mincemeat is called meat is because that's exactly what it used to be: most often mutton, but also beef, rabbit, pork or game. Mince pies were first served in the early middle ages, and the pies were quite sizeable, filled with a mixture of finely minced meat, chopped up fruit and a preserving liquid.

Nowadays, it's easy to find mincemeat pies still made with beef suet and a small amount of minced meats (usually beef). All-vegetarian mincemeat pies are readily available as well, especially if you purchase a premade jar of mincemeat filling.

All About Mincemeat: The Fabulous Filling for Mince Pies

These days, mincemeat is made with a mixture of dried fruit, such as raisins and currants, candied fruit peels, lemon and orange zest, finely chopped apple, brandy, warming spices, and the rendered animal fat suet (or a vegetarian substitute).

It has been claimed that eating the snack is illegal in England if done so on Christmas Day. The tradition comes from the time of Oliver Cromwell in the 1650s, when mince pies were banned at Christmas, along with other tasty treats. Cromwell wanted to tackle gluttony in England.

The mincemeat will last in sealed and sterilised jars for up to six months. The mince pies will last 3-4 days. The pastry can be kept and frozen for up to 3 months. You can use shopbought shortcrust pastry instead - I recommend the 500g packets.

And it turns out we are not alone! With the national average for mince pie devourment sitting at a hefty 19 per person¹, and total UK annual consumption estimates sitting somewhere between 800m and a staggering 1 billion², it's clear that we're a nation of mince pie lovers. Or are we?

By the 18th century it was more likely to be tongue or even tripe, and in the 19th century it was minced beef. It was not until the late Victorian period and early 20th Century that mince pies dropped the meat and had all fruit fillings (albeit with suet). Even today there are traditions associated with mince pies.

What is the difference between mince pie and mincemeat pie? ›

As I write this, I'm biting into a Mince Pie, a sweet pie with a filling of mincemeat, that is, finely chopped dry fruits and spices.

A good mince pie is a delicately spiced, sumptuously light fruit filling encased in a buttery, crumbly crust. They're like souffles in that they're incredibly easy to do badly, but when baked properly they are a gustatory delight!

Mince pies are high in calories, saturated fat and sugar because of the pastry case, as well as the suet and sugar in the mincemeat filling. If you're baking your own, only use pastry for the base and leave the top open, just add a small star of pastry or use a lower-fat pastry, such as filo.

Mince pie: A couple of these will count as a fruit portion. But this isn't the wisest idea, given that this also amounts to around 520 calories, half your daily saturated fat limit and 40 per cent of the total sugars you should eat a day.

Martin Fone investigates the most traditional seasonal food of all, mince pies, and finds that they really did contain meat at one time in the past. Just be grateful you never got served one made with fish...

One bite of a home-made shortcrust pastry mince pie and you'll never want to buy them again. Now you've nailed the pastry, put it to good use with one of our mince pie recipes including date and apple, brownie and frangipane versions.

They are two completely different kinds of pies. Mince pie, also known as mincemeat pie, is made of fruits and contains no meat. It is sweet. A meat pie is savory or spicy and is usually a fried pie, filled with ground meat and onions, spices like cumin, chili peppers, etc.

Traditionally mince pies used to be meat and suet (yummy!!) and some recipes still call for the latter but shop-bought ones tend to contain butter and eggs.