The perfect make ahead recipe for Christmas mince pies on the day. My Christmas Fruit Mince recipe is quick, easy & perfectly fruity and spiced!
Out of all my favourite Christmas treats (and there are a lot!) Christmas fruit mince pies are my favourite. They're sweet, spicy and smell amazing coming out of the oven. Plus, no treat plate left out for Santa is complete without them! But before we jump right into the whole pie thing, let's start with a super important step...homemade Christmas fruit mince!
Up until a few years ago, I didn't even know you could buy Christmas fruit mince. I used to spend a day before Christmas every year with my Granny, sitting over a gigantic plastic tub on the floor of her kitchen with rubber gloves on, getting in there with my little hands and making it. I have total confidence that this is why I love it so much. I remember the first time I ate a Christmas mince pie made using bought fruit mince and it was GROSS!! So please, do me a favour this Christmas. I don't care if you buy the pastry for the pies, but please please please use this recipe to make the fruit mince!
This recipe is not my Granny's special recipe. That one was very time intensive and involved using the mincer to feed all ingredients through, and then getting deep in with your hands to mush it all together. Great fun for an 8 year old at her Granny's but not so much for a full-time working gal trying to get 1 million things done before Christmas without going mad.
This recipe for Christmas fruit mince can either be made in the food processor, or just in a bowl. I like to use the food processor to blitz up the raisins, cranberries, mixed peel and apples first but if you don't have a food processor, you can just chop up the dried fruit and grate the apples and then mix everything else in. The other ingredients are currants, brown sugar and then the killer spice combination of nutmeg, mixed spice, cinnamon & ground cloves. Add the zest and juice of 1 lemon and of course the sherry or brandy to make it nice and boozy - but don't worry, the alcohol evaporates off when you cook in case you are worried about feeding these to your kiddies 🙂
The Christmas fruit mince will keep in well sealed jars in the fridge for months, making it the perfect Christmas make-ahead treat. Make it now and the flavours will have developed even more come Christmas Day...perfect! Go ahead and make the fruit mince now...I'll be back in a few days with a killer sweet shortcrust pastry recipe to make the pies!
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Christmas Fruit Mince
Ingredients
- 200 g raisins
- 100 g dried cranberries
- ¼ cup 50g mixed peel
- 2 Granny Smith apples
- 200 g currants
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon mixed spice
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- Juice and zest of 1 lemon
- 2 tablespoon sherry or brandy
Instructions
- Add raisins, cranberries and mixed peel to the bowl of a food processor and mix on low speed for 30 seconds. Add the peeled, cored and roughly chopped apples and mix until the apples are in small pieces. If you are not using a food processor, add raisins, cranberries and mixed peel to a large bowl and grate the apple in.
- Add the remaining ingredients and mix together thoroughly.
- Store in clean jars in the fridge. Christmas fruit mince will keep for months in the fridge.
This recipe is fantastic. I made Christmas gin and used the infused fruit in this recipe. No waste and if my Mum is impressed with the flavour then I'm happy! The fruit mince teamed with Mum's shortcake pastry recipe for the mince pies and everyone loves the combination. Hard to stop at one Christmas mince pie.
Hi Laura,
I have made my own mince meat for years and did shifting house clean out threw away book with recipe in.
I don't have sherry or bandy can you use fruit juice instead?
Thank you 😊
Definitely!
Hi Laura, loved your fruit mince recipe, in your article you mentioned that you would post a 'killer pastry 'recipe, is that available somewhere? Would love to see that. Thanks.
Hi Betty, the pastry recipe is in the post for the fruit mince pies, just search Christmas mince pies and you will find them!
Hi, Laura...I was looking for a recipe to make my own fruit mince when I found 'you'. This recipe sounds delicious. Obviously, it's only May at the moment but I will definitely make this later and keep in the fridge till I need it. Thanks, Laura
Grandma recipes are the best!! homemade is so much better than store bought - thanks so much for this recipe Laura
So much better right?! Thanks Jayne, Merry Christmas!
Kia ora Laura,
For once in trying to be ovet-organised for Christmas! If I wanted to make this, say, six or eight months in advance to let it mature, would you advise feeding it sporadically like a Christmas cake? Also, would adding almonds make it less likely to keep at all? Thanks!
Hi Stephanie, I've only ever kept it in the fridge without feeding it, but it does keep well for a good few months just left alone!
Yum, this sounds delicious! I've never known anyone who makes their own fruit mince but it looks pretty tasty!
Thanks Meagan! I wouldn't do it any other way - you should try it! 🙂