I had all this dried fruit leftover from the fruitcake adventures so I decided to try my hand at making my own mincemeat. I usually buy it in the jar but I thought....why not?
Christmas breakfast is always a slice of mincemeat pie and a tangerine. Now that's it's just me eating it, I use these cute little pie and tart pans that I found on clearance at Micheal's a few Christmases ago.
I studied recipes for days. There are two types. Cooked and fermented.
I went with cooked and subbed out the suet for butter.
It looked lovely.
It smelled lovely. I had to send The Mister on an Allspice run. It was the one thing I didn't have on the spice shelf and it made all the difference.
Since I already had the brandy out I gave the fruitcakes a bath. I also gave them a nibble. Alton was right. His is better. Mine is a traditional brick of a cake. His is light as a feather.
After cooling, the mincemeat got jarred up. Now it will sit until I am ready to make pie.
I also managed to squeak out a pan of Hello Dollies aka Magic Cookie Bars. It was the one and only cookie I ever remember my grandma making and it's a good one. It's The Mister's favorite too and I'm glad. I hate standing in front of the stove baking pans of individual cookies.
Having said that, of course I went and made some "regular" cookies too.
I'll use any excuse to use my new Echo Show thingy to ask for recipes. I love that thing. She even has a cooking music playlist.
.jpg-large)
It all looks delicious. I have never had mincemeat. It sounds like it could be a sweet dish but I’ve also heard it’s savory.Hmmmm? The cookies look wonderful. I may even try my hand at some myself tomorrow. Blessings, Betsy
ReplyDeleteI also use brandy for my fruitcake. And will be cooking minced meat pies on Monday.
ReplyDeleteMom's relish called for All Spice, and as soon as I opened the jar, all I could think of was "It smells like Christmas!"
ReplyDeleteyour Fruitcake is making me very hungry!
I LOVE mincemeat! That looks wonderful (and I like that you subbed butter for the suet).
ReplyDeleteYour kitchen must smell fabulous after all that baking!
ReplyDeleteI could get hungry just scrolling thru your photos in this post. Had never heard magic cookie bars called Hello Dollies. I absolutely love those things but will only make them when someone asks me to bring them for a get-together. Left in my house, I could make myself sick eating them. They are so good and so rich and just habit forming. Bet your house smells heavenly.
ReplyDeleteOh those cookies. THey are darling. Just look at your gingerbread men!
ReplyDelete