These are our best mince pie recipes for Christmas 2023 (2024)

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Who's making the best mince pies this year? ›

Go with the tradition and eat a dozen

There is a tradition of eating one mince pie each day over the 12 days of Christmas from Christmas Eve to 5 January.

To spread the joy, it was tradition in England that each member of the family gave the mixture a stir, while making a wish. And if you wanted to be ensure good health and happiness in the upcoming year, you should eat one mince pie every day for the Twelve Days of Christmas, from Christmas Eve until the 5th of January.

A mince pie (also mincemeat pie in North America, and fruit mince pie in Australia and New Zealand) is a sweet pie of English origin filled with mincemeat, being a mixture of fruit, spices and suet. The pies are traditionally served during the Christmas season in much of the English-speaking world.

Apple pie is arguably one of the most popular pie flavors. A symbol of America, the apple pie was actually invented by the British. Apple pie is simply made with sliced apples on double-crusted pastry dough.

Going on to how one should formally eat a mince pie, she explains: 'One would pick up the mince pie with a thumb and first finger, and lift [it] away from the plate. 'The mince pie is crumbly, so make sure anything that falls from the mince pie falls onto your plate.

The mince pies will keep well for at least 1 week, stored in an airtight container at room temperature. The pastry will soften a little in that time, but they'll still taste glorious. Switch out the dried fruit for what you like best – just keep the volume the same.

Pumpkin Pie

This pie is a traditional dessert served during the holiday season. It is made with pumpkin puree, spices, and a flaky crust, and is a popular favorite for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Pumpkin Pie is a traditional American dessert that is commonly enjoyed during the fall and winter seasons.

Mincemeat is a combination of chopped dried fruits, spices, sugar, nuts, distilled spirits, a fat of some type and sometimes meat. The name is a carryover from 15th century England when mincemeat did indeed have meat in the mix; in fact, the whole point of mincemeat was to preserve meat with sugar and alcohol.

Why is the filling in a mince pie called mincemeat? ›

The "mince" in mincemeat comes from the Middle English mincen, and the Old French mincier both traceable to the Vulgar Latin minutiare, meaning chop finely. The word mincemeat is an adaptation of an earlier term minced meat, meaning finely chopped meat. Meat was also a term for food in general, not only animal flesh.

The earliest reference to a small mince pie as a 'minst pye' rather than a chewet occurs in a recipe from 1624, called 'For six Minst Pyes of an Indifferent Bigness'. It's hard to know exactly when meat stopped being included in the mince pie.

Simmer apples, apple cider, candied cherries, brown sugar, apricots, dried cherries, cranberries, currants, figs, orange zest, orange juice, golden raisins, raisins, schmaltz, allspice, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, salt, and ¾ cup rum in a medium pot over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until almost ...

King Henry V had mince pies made as early as in 1413 for his coronation celebration on April 9. During this period it would have been made with various meats, game birds, boiled eggs and spices, which were very rare and extravagant ingredients of the time as this was a pie for celebration.

Aldi Holly Lane Deep-filled Mince Pies 6 Pack

The mincemeat has a forgettable flavour and is unevenly filled but the pastry is worse as it is hard and claggy. Aldi's mince pies may be cheap but they are far from memorable and among the worst in this test.

The Kirkland signature mince pies from Costco. For me and my family these are some of the best mince pies you can buy, and the festive season does not start for us until we get a huge 12 pack of these incredible little cakey pie things.