Cherry mincemeat
- Published: 16 Nov 21
- Updated: 25 Mar 24
Debora Robertson’s cherry mincemeat makes a zesty, fruity mince pie filling and is vegan-friendly to boot. Perfect for Christmas food gifts.
Once your mincemeat has had time to mature and develop those delicious fruity flavours, use it to make a round of our classic mince pies.
- Makes around 1.7kg
- Hands-on time 20 min, plus macerating and cooling time
Ingredients
- 1.2kg bramley apples (about 5), peeled, cored and cut roughly into 2cm pieces
- Juice and zest 3 oranges (weigh the dried fruit and zest the oranges directly onto it, so you don’t lose any fragrant oils)
- 500g crisp eating apples (about 3), such as russets or braeburns, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm cubes
- 400g jar good cherries in syrup – use the precious syrup too, don’t discard it, pour it in there with the rest
- 200g currants
- 200g raisins
- 200g sultanas
- 150g blanched almonds, roughly chopped
- 120g good cherry jam (we used Bonne Maman Black Cherry Conserve)
- 125g demerara sugar
- 125g light muscovado sugar
- Juice 2 lemons
- 2 tbsp ground ginger
- ½ nutmeg, grated
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground cardamom
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- 150ml kirsch
You’ll also need
- Sterilised jars with lids
Method
- Tip the bramley apple pieces into a pan with the orange juice and cook gently for 15 minutes until they form a silky purée with a few small pieces left in it. Pour the purée into a bowl and stir in the rest of the ingredients except for the booze. Cover and leave everything to macerate for 12 hours – I start it off the day before I want to make the mincemeat.
- Heat the oven to 110ºC fan/gas 1. Put the mincemeat on a large baking tray and cook for 2 hours 10 minutes to 2 hours 20 minutes, stirring once or twice. The fruit should look luscious and the mixture slightly loose – it will firm up as it cools. Stir in the kirsch and spoon into warm sterilised jars. Seal and store in dark, cool place until Christmas. Use within 12 months.
- Recipe from November 2021 Issue
Nutrition
- Calories
- 75kcals
- Fat
- 1.3g (0.1g saturated)
- Protein
- 0.9g
- Carbohydrates
- 13.5g (13.4g sugars)
- Fibre
- 0.7g
- Salt
- 0.1g
delicious. tips
Debora says: “I prefer a mincemeat without suet because I think the flavour is brighter and vegetarians can eat it too. The method for my mincemeat is inspired by River Cottage’s Pam ‘The Jam’ Corbin, who uses plum purée. I use apple purée and load up the cherries shamelessly. This makes around 1.7kg so you’ll need to sterilise the jars and start the soaking the day before cooking.”
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I’ve finished preparing everything before leaving to moderate, and the smell is already glorious!