Recipe: Appetizing Last-minute Christmas Mincemeat

Last-minute Christmas Mincemeat. Great recipe for Last-minute Christmas Mincemeat. Mincemeat is meant to be made about three months in advance, to give time for the flavour and texture to develop. I thought that maybe with a cooked version this might not be necessary so I adapted a Mary Berry mincemeat recipe, and it worked.

It does contain suet, however, a saturated animal fat that's used in British baking, but there are vegetarian suet options; you can also use vegetable shortening (freeze it first). The suet melts in the oven and helps to preserve the mincemeat, and gives it lots of flavor. This cake is from Delia Smith's Delia Online and is ideal for those who may not have had time to make the more traditional cake, that is fed over a few weeks. You can have Last-minute Christmas Mincemeat using 10 ingredients and 5 steps. Here is how you achieve it.

Ingredients of Last-minute Christmas Mincemeat

1. It's 400 g of dried fruit, I used raisins and sultanas only but you could also add dried cranberries, cherries, mixed peel etc.
2. It's 1 of eating apple, peeled.
3. You need 100 g of marzipan, grated.
4. You need 50 g of butter.
5. You need 50 g of chopped almonds or cashew nuts.
6. You need 75 g of soft muscovado sugar.
7. You need 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon.
8. It's 1 tsp of mixed spice.
9. You need of finely grated rind and juice of 1 lemon.
10. You need 200 ml of brandy, rum or whiskey.

To prepare: Empty the mincemeat into a large bowl and, using a wooden spoon, stir in the grated orange zest and brandy. Sift the self-raising flour and spice together and stir into the mincemeat mixture with the breadcrumbs. If you've been meaning to make a Christmas cake but haven't got round to it, fear not - this one can be mad. If you've been meaning to make a Christmas cake but haven't got round to it, fear not - this one can be made at the last minute.

Last-minute Christmas Mincemeat instructions

1. Mix the dried fruit together. Weigh the nuts and break them up gently with the end of a rolling pin or chop roughly with a knife..
2. Grate the marzipan and the apple. Put in a pan together with the dried fruit, nuts and butter..
3. Add the sugar and spices and grate in the lemon zest, then squeeze the lemon and add the juice to the pan. Cover and heat gently, stirring as the butter and marzipan melt so everything mixes together..
4. Simmer gently for about 10 minutes, then leave to cool. When completely cool add and stir in the rum, whiskey or brandy..
5. I left it to stand for a while longer as it looked too liquid, and in about an hour or two the rum had been absorbed into the fruit. I then transferred it to jars (two of them) left them to stand overnight, then used the mincemeat to make mince pies the next day, see separate recipe..

In fact you could bake it on Christ. Put the peeled and grated Bramley apples, light muscovado sugar and the zest and juice of the orange and lemon into a large bowl with the ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, allspice, mixed dried fruit and brandy. Measure all of the ingredients except the alcohol into a large pan. Allow the mixture to cool completely then stir in the brandy, rum or sherry. Spoon the mincemeat into sterilised jam jars, seal tightly, label and store in a cool place.