An Englishman In America

In my view, mince pies are almost the best part of Christmas, aside from presents and maybe run a close third by Christmas pudding that is, but pretty close to being the best part anyway. My mum always made loads of these scrumptious little devils back in England around Christmas time and since I’m a few thousand miles away now, I’ve been carrying on the tradition…and not just for Christmas either now I’ve got control of the kitchen!

What Is A Mince Pie?

Despite the name, “mince pies” or “mincemeat pies” depending upon your preference, are certainly NOT a savoury pie at all despite the ‘meat’ part of the name. Whilst in the distant past, and up until around Victorian times, mince pies consisted of a pastry with a spiced meat filling mixed with dry fruits, the meat part has long been left out of the recipe with only suet remaining to remind us of its past history.

Nowadays, the filling of a mince pie consists of minced fruit ‘mincemeat’ (may also be called fruitmince) which usually consists of such things as raisons, sultanas, apricots, glace cherries, candied citrus peel, apples, various types of nuts and mixed spices typically nutmeg and cinnamon. Many types of mincemeat filling also contain some form of alcohol usually brandy or rum although I did buy some rather tasty Walker’s mince pies from World Market which contained Glenfiddich whiskey.

As mince pies may contain suet they might not be suitable for vegetarians so when buying, or making your own, look for mincemeat filling made with vegetable fat instead of the suet and you’ll be fine.

Mince Pie Folklore, Traditions and Trivia

In the UK, the main tradition surrounding mince pies is that you should always leave a couple of them out for Santa on Christmas Eve along with a nice glass of sherry at the foot of the chimney. We always used to leave out a bucket of water and a carrot for the reindeer too when I was a young’un. No wonder Father Christmas is so portly…it’s all those mince pies!

Another tradition surrounds the eating of mince pies. Apparently you should make a wish whilst eating your first one and eat at least one on all of the twelve days of Christmas in order to receive good luck throughout the rest of the year.

If you choose to make your own mincemeat filling for your pies rather than buying some like I do (lazy) then you should always stir the mixture clockwise. Stirring anti-clockwise will bring you bad luck for the new year.

Any more? If you know any more, I’d love to hear about them in the comments section!

British Mince Pie Recipe

So, how do you make mince pies eh? The following mincemeat pie recipe makes individual size mince pies using either sweet shortcrust or puff pastry. You can make them closed pies with a pastry top or leave the top off to make mince tarts instead.

The following is one recipe for making mince pies using sweet shortcrust pastry and ready-made mincemeat, such as Robertsons classic mincemeat which I picked up at a local World Market as they generally seem to start stocking it around this time of year or Borden’s None Such Classic Mincemeat (they also have a Brandy & Rum variety) which I stumbled across in Wal-mart and is also pretty good. You can also use puff pastry or rough puff pastry…or any other kind I guess, but I find I personally like this style better.

You Will Need:

1 Jar of shop bought prepared mincemeat or your own homemade mincemeat filling.

1 tartlet tin or shallow muffing tin.

8oz Self Raising Flour.

2oz Butter (room temperature)

2oz Lard or Shortening (room temperature)

A half a teaspoon of salt.

1 egg yolk

1oz Castor Sugar

A little cold water

OK, so first things first – you might be asking what caster sugar is unless you’re a Brit. Basically, this is a super fine type of sugar which, if you can’t find it in the U.S. you can make yourself using normal cane sugar and a blender – just blitz it for a minute or two and let settle as this will make sugar dust. In the United States you might find it labelled as “Super Fine” but it is definitely not powdered sugar (which we call icing sugar) which is different entirely which can not be used as a good substitute.

Once you’ve got your hands on some castor sugar you are ready to start making your mince pies, starting with your shortcrust pastry.

Holding your sieve up high, sift the flour, castor sugar and salt into a bowl to start. This incorporates air into the flour.

Now, cut up the butter and lard into managable chunks of around a half an inch in size and using a knife, cut this into the flour until it looks fairly well mixed. Then, using your fingertips, lightly rub the fat into the flour until the mixture starts looking like bread crumbs, lifting the mixture up high as you do so and letting it fall back into the bowl which again, allows air to be incorporated as you go.

Now, make a well in the centre of the mixture and start adding the water and beaten egg yolk, cutting in with a knife until you get a soft doughy mixture which should be soft but not sticky. When the dough starts forming you can discard the knife and work with your fingers. Flour absorbs water at different rates so no exact measurement of water can be given here but suffice to say, too much water will make the dough sticky and will result in a hard pastry when baked whilst too little will result in pastry which is too crumbly.

Now, you need to let your pastry rest as this allows it to become more elastic and easier to roll. Place you pastry dough in a Ziploc or polythene bag and let it sit in your refrigerator for around 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, start preheating your oven to around 375F or 190C and prepare your tartlet tin or shallow muffin tin with whatever you choose to make it non-stick so the pies come out easily.

When the pastry has sat long enough, pull out of the fridge and roll out into a thin layer and cut out rounds for the pie base using a tartlet cutter, or if you do not have one available, a good sized cup or glass will do the trick. Do the same for the lids.

Place each mince pie base carefully into the tartlet tin and fill to about three-quarters deep with mincemeat filling.

Now, damped the edges of both the lids and the top edges of the base and carefully press together so that they are sealed and make a small slit in the top of each pie to let the steam escape, this help prevent the mincemeat spilling out of the sides during cooking.

Once all pies are prepared, you will want to brush the top with a little milk or egg white and put them into your preheated oven for about 15 to 20 minutes until they turn a light, golden brown colour.

Mince pies can be served hot with cream or brandy butter, or cold sprinkled with a little castor sugar. They’re also pretty good hot with custard or ice cream.

Did You Know: Mince Pies is Cockney rhyming slang for eyes. As in “she’s got a loverly pair o’ mince pies!”. Usually it gets abbreviated to minces or mincers.

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I started playing with an interesting new concept a few weeks ago over at a site called Squidoo. If you like blogging, then you’ll probably like to give it a try too as it’s just like a blog…except erm, different.

The basic idea behind Squidoo is to allow people who have knowledge of a subject to share that knowledge on what is basically a one page blog which they call a “Lens”. These “lenses” are a great place to write about a subject you are interested in and share the links, web pages, blog posts, products and anything else you have found out about a subject with the rest of the world. You can even write about your own business or point links to your own blog posts and use you lens to generate more traffic to those areas if you choose.

Now, you might ask what’s in it for you other than a little free promotion of your own websites, affiliate programs or services and you’d be right to do so especially when you could probably put the same information you might write for Squidoo and add it to your own weblogs, web sites etc. Providing content for someone else has to be mutually beneficial and with Squidoo, it is.

You see, you are able to monetise your lens should you choose to do so. Lenses can very easily be integrated with Ebay, Amazon, Google Adsense, Netflix and a bunch of other top affiliate programs online and you get a share of any affiliate profit your lens generates in the course of its lifetime. One lens, in a popular, well trafficked area might earn a few dollars a day but create a lot and it might be a nice money-spinner.

In addition, lenses receive favourable treatment with the major search engines which means your information is potentially more easily found than if you were to throw the same information down onto a blog or less well favoured website. By setting up a detailed, well crafted lens on a subject you are knowledgable about, you can enhance your reputation as an expert in this field, almost like pre-selling yourself before someone clicks through to your business or services website. You have the potential to reach a wider audience, network with other like-minded Squidoo Lensmasters in the group section and discussion boards, and generally, if your lens points to your website, blog, etc. can potentially increase your traffic and website visitors.

If nothing else, a Squidoo lens can be used to collate together all the great links and information sources you have found on a particular subject which interests you and hold them in one handy location. In this way you can use your Squidoo lens as a social bookmarking tool like say, del.icio.us or magnolia, but also have the potential to earn some money from your bookmarking at the same time. One of the Lenses I created is about beaded flowers and was created with bookmarking useful sites in mind. My wife got interested in the idea of making bead and wire flowers but found there was very little information online about the subject so I went looking around online, and have been using this lens to bookmark useful free pattern resources and tutorials on the subject whenever either of us stumble across them…whilst making a little money from Ebay and Amazon traffic at the same time.

Another Lens I created was purely for the hell of it, this time about sudoku because I happen to like playing Sudoku. The lens took very little time to create and offers a steady trickle of traffic to one of my other websites.

Squidoo has a nice little community based around it which allows you to network and share ideas You can also visit SquidU which is packed with tips and information about building a successful lens and spreading the word about your creations.

I would say Squidoo has the potential to become a very popular site in future times and is already building momentum as it grows. If you are an expert on a subject, are a fan, like to write, love to research, are looking for more ways to promote your blog or business, or otherwise want to check it out then you’ll find the Squidoo site by Clicking Here. It’s free to join and free to use.

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