Ginger Christmas Mincemeat
Ginger Christmas Mincemeat is a warmly spicy variation on the classic British fruit preserve. With stem ginger as well as ground, plus optional ginger wine and whisky, this incredibly easy fruity delight makes wonderful mince pies as well as biscuits and other Christmas bakes. So much nicer than any you can buy and with less than half an hour’s hands-on time.
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EASY HOMEMADE CHRISTMAS MINCEMEAT
Hard to believe, but it’s nearly ten years since I started making Christmas mincemeat for the very best mince pies. Adaptable to your own tastes, and with no nasties like palm oil or padding out with inferior ingredients, homemade is hugely superior to any you can buy. And the great news is, it’s incredibly easy.
Unlike sweet preserves such as jam, there’s no watching a bubbling pot worrying about whether you’ve achieved setting point. For fruity, spicy mincemeat all you do is mix up the ingredients, leave to soak overnight then pop in a low oven. Apart from the odd stir, you can forget about it for a couple of hours. All that’s left to do then is pot up and leave to mature.
Two to three weeks is time enough for the flavours to blend beautifully. Although even if you use it straight away it will still be lovely! But if you leave it longer, say a month or so, it gets even better. For a change, this year I’ve made a variation on my classic Homemade Christmas Mincemeat: warmly spicy Ginger Christmas Mincemeat.
Just like the original, this one is perfect not just for mince pies. Because homemade mincemeat can be used in other Christmas bakes including biscuits and breads.
GINGER CHRISTMAS MINCEMEAT
You’ll find ingredient amounts and full instructions in the recipe card at the end. But I recommend you read the whole of this post first for extra tips and step-by-step images to guide you.
INGREDIENTS
This luscious ginger mincemeat is packed with plumped dried fruit. I’ve used raisins, sultanas, currants, and glacé cherries. But you can swap in your favourites e.g. chopped apricots, figs, dates, dried peel, cranberries, dried cherries. I also like fresh fruit in my mincemeat and have swapped the more usual apples with pears as they’re great with ginger. Orange juice and zest bring citrussy zing.
I like a few crunchy nuts in my mincemeat. But the joy of making your own is that you can adapt it to your own taste. So just leave out if you prefer. If you do want to include nuts, almost any will work, singly or a mixture. I’ve gone for almonds, flaked and chopped.
To give my mincemeat a good whack of ginger flavour, I’ve included stem ginger in syrup and ground ginger. To add sweeter notes, there’s ground cinnamon too. I’ve left out the usual mixed spice (a particularly British blend) so the ginger flavours come through more strongly. This also means the mincemeat is a slightly lighter colour than my classic.
I’m partial to a glass of whisky and ginger wine (known as a Whisky Mac) and I’ve replaced the brandy in my classic mincemeat with whisky and ginger wine. As you only need a little ginger wine, I don’t suggest you buy a whole bottle if you don’t normally drink it. It can be replaced with more whisky or just left out. NOTE: If you want alcohol-free mincemeat, use extra orange juice instead of booze.
The only other ingredients you’ll need are:
- Light brown soft sugar. Sugar doesn’t just add sweetness to Christmas mincemeat. It’s also important for preserving it, sometimes for up to a year. If you prefer a less sweet mincemeat, you can reduce the sugar, but in that case I recommend not making it more than 2 weeks before you’re going to eat it. I would also store in the fridge.
- Suet. The inclusion of fat in mincemeat keeps it lovely and moist. I always use beef suet as it’s traditional (and great for making dumplings). Boxes are widely available in supermarkets along with vegetable suet. However, vegetable suet often contains palm oil so I don’t recommend it. If you want to make a vegetarian mincemeat, butter is a better choice. Cut into small dice or grate cold from the fridge.
HOW TO MAKE GINGER CHRISTMAS MINCEMEAT
Making Christmas mincemeat really is simplicity itself. The day before you’re going to pot up, get yourself a deepish baking dish. Mine is approximately 27 x 19 cm and 7.5 cm deep. Don’t use one with too large a base as this will encourage evaporation and you don’t want the mincemeat to go dry.
STIR & SOAK
To start the mincemeat, you add the ingredients to the baking dish and stir well. I peel, core, and grate the pears. If you’ve more patience they can be cut into small dice instead. Chop the stem ginger finely.
If you’re including whisky, add half of it at this stage. Those of you making alcohol-free mincemeat can add all the replacement orange juice. When everything is thoroughly combined, smooth it down then cover (I use foil). Leave at room temperature until the next day.
INTO THE OVEN
In the morning, you’ll be met with a wonderful spicy aroma and the fruit will have plumped up nicely. Give it a good stir to reincorporate any juices that have collected at the bottom of the dish. If you like, have a quick dip in the liquid and marvel at how delicious it is! You can also up the spice if you like.
Now, tightly covered, put the dish into the oven preheated to the temperature shown in the recipe card. Leave it for 2 hours, stirring a few times to check it isn’t sticking or getting dry. The Ginger Christmas Mincemeat should look lovely and moist, so add a splash of orange juice or water if you think it needs it.
During the final 20 – 30 minutes of cooking, prepare your jars and lids as per the next step.
HYGIENE: PREPARE JARS & LIDS
To store and mature the Ginger Christmas Mincemeat, you’ll need several glass jars with screw-on lids. My recipe makes approximately 1.5 kilograms of mincemeat and it’s up to you what size jars to use. As a guide, this batch filled 4 standard size jam jars plus almost filled 1 small jar (the size you might buy mustard or similar in). Because it’s hard to be exact how many jars a batch will make, I always prepare a few more than I think I might need, and of varying sizes.
Hygiene is important in any food preparation. But it’s even more vital when storing for weeks or months. As with homemade jams, in theory you can store mincemeat for up to a year. But no matter how far in advance you make it, you’ll need your jars and lids to be scrupulously clean.
It’s true that heating the mincemeat, combined with the high concentration of sugar (plus alcohol if using), should kill off any nasty bugs. But I strongly recommend you sterilize the jars and lids. But don’t worry, it’s easy. And you can pick a method to suit you.
My method for sterilizing
I hand wash the jars and lids in hot soapy water, rinse, then leave to drain. Twenty minutes before the mincemeat is done, I pop them on a tray on the bottom shelf of the oven. If they’re still a bit wet, I start them off upside down then turn right way up after 10 minutes. Another 5 – 10 minutes and they’ll very hot and sterile.
Other methods of sterilizing
- Boil in a pan of water for 10 minutes.
- Run through a hot dishwasher cycle.
- Wash in hot soapy water, rinse, heat in the microwave (NOT metal lids: use one of the other methods for these).
POTTING UP
For food hygiene reasons the jars and the mincemeat must be hot when potting up. Take the Ginger Christmas Mincemeat out of the oven and set aside for 3 – 5 minutes. Give it a good stir and, if you’ve included whisky, stir in the reserved half.
Now spoon the Ginger Christmas Mincemeat into the jars, packing it down well to avoid air gaps. Fill almost to the jar rims, but not so full that the mincemeat will touch the inside of the lid. To ensure the melted suet is equally distributed among the jars, stir the mincemeat in the dish as you take out each spoonful.
If you don’t have enough to fill your last jar, use one of the smaller extra jars you prepped. Don’t worry if you can’t fill this one; you’ll just need to store in the fridge and use up in a couple of weeks.
Protecting your hands with a cloth, put the lids on the jars. It’s fine if you can’t screw them on completely tight at this stage. I usually find I can twist them on a little more when they’ve cooled a bit. Once the jars are completely cold then the lids, if you press down on the top, should not spring back with a popping sound.
STORING & USING GINGER CHRISTMAS MINCEMEAT
Like most preserves, mincemeat should be stored in a cool, dark, dry place. If you don’t have a pantry, cool cellar or garage, a kitchen cupboard away from the oven or radiators should be fine. As already mentioned, if you’ve reduced the sugar or if any jars aren’t completely full then you should store in the fridge and/or use within 2 weeks.
Properly sterilized and stored jars of mincemeat can keep for up to a year though. In fact, I’ve often made the first mince pies of the year from the previous Christmas’s batch (adding another glug of booze to perk it up!). But my Ginger Christmas Mincemeat is so good that even if you don’t have time to mature it, I think it will still make the most amazing mince pies. Try it in my Traditional Mince Pies or Viennese Whirl Mince Pies and you’ll see what I mean.
MINCEMEAT: NOT JUST FOR MINCE PIES
Since making my own mincemeat, I’ve discovered that it’s great not just for mince pies. I’ve made deliciously moreish Mincemeat Biscuits, a stunning tear and share Mincemeat Christmas Tree with mincemeat between layers of lightly sweet, buttery dough, plus amazing Mincemeat Shortbread Squares topped with almond crumble. And new for this year, there’s super-easy Mince Pie Biscotti.
You’ll find to them all in this round-up of Christmas Baking Recipes.
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If you’ve made my ginger or classic Christmas mincemeat, I’d love to know what you thought. Please do leave a comment and rating.
Ginger Christmas Mincemeat
A warmly spicy variation on the classic British fruit preserve. With stem ginger as well as ground, plus optional ginger wine and whisky, this incredibly easy fruity delight makes wonderful mince pies as well as biscuits and other Christmas bakes.
It's recommended you read the accompanying blog post before starting the recipe.
Ingredients
- 500 g mixed dried fruit (e.g. raisins, sultanas, currants, cherries, peel, chopped figs, apricots, dates etc.)
- 180 g light brown soft sugar
- 125 g stem ginger (+ 1 tbsp of syrup from the jar)
- 125 g shredded suet (can be replaced with grated or diced butter)
- 100 g chopped or flaked almonds (or any other nuts/can be omitted)
- 2 - 3 pears: peeled, cored, and grated or diced small (approx. 300 g after preparation. Can be replaced with cooking or dessert apples)
- 1 large orange (zest finely grated and chopped, juice squeezed)
- 2 rounded tsp ground ginger
- 1 rounded tsp ground cinnamon
- 60 ml ginger wine (can be replaced with whisky, more orange juice, or left out)
- 120 ml (divided in half) whisky (or other spirit OR replace with orange juice for alcohol-free mincemeat)
Instructions
The day before
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Take a deep baking dish (approx. 27 x 19 or similar: using a dish with a larger base can create too much evaporation) and add ALL the ingredients EXCEPT HALF of the whisky. Stir well.
Note: if replacing the alcohol with orange juice add ALL of it now.
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Cover with foil and leave to soak at room temperature overnight.
The next day
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Preheat your oven to 120°C /100° Fan /Gas 1/2 /250° F with a shelf in the middle position and another on the bottom shelf.
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Stir the mixture well, re-cover tightly with foil, and put in the oven.
Cook for 2 hours, stirring 2 - 3 times to distribute the melted suet or butter and ensure nothing's sticking to the bottom of the dish. If the mincemeat starts to look dry turn the temperature down a little and/or add a splash of water or juice.
Tip: complete the next step while the mincemeat is cooking.
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Sterilize your jars (see blog post for alternative methods)
Wash 2 large or 4 medium jars with screw-on lids in hot, soapy water (it's sensible to also prepare a few extra of various sizes in case you need them). Rinse and leave to drain.
During the last 20 minutes of cooking, put the jars and lids on a baking tray and place on the bottom shelf of the oven.
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After 2 hours, take the mincemeat from the oven and rest it for 3 - 5 minutes before stirring in the remaining whisky.
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Remove the hot jars from the oven and pot up the mincemeat, stirring the contents of the baking dish regularly so the melted fat is distributed evenly amongst all the jars. Pack it down well so there are no air gaps.
Important: for food safety reasons the jars and the mincemeat MUST be hot when potting up.
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Protecting your hands with a cloth, screw on the lids and leave to cool. When cool enough to handle, you should be able to tighten the lids a little more.
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Store in a cool, dark place (a kitchen cupboard away from heat sources is usually fine) and leave to mature, ideally for 2-3 weeks but 1 - 2 months is even better.
Should keep for up to a year.
Tip: if the mincemeat is firm when you come to use it, heat the jar (minus its lid) in the microwave for a few seconds or in a low oven for a few minutes. This will melt the suet and make it easier to spoon the mincemeat from the jar.
Recipe Notes
Recipes for using Ginger Christmas Mincemeat
