This is the best homemade fruit mince recipe and it’s very 21st century as it’s grown to be a fully vegetarian and vegan fruit mince recipe.
I admit what is supposed to be a festive holiday recipe has grown out of some minor food trauma experienced at my earliest Christmas celebrations in Australia in the 1980s. I suspect it’s actually shared food trauma as I’ve concluded that a many Australians have a fairly complex relationship with fruit mince bakes, particularly tarts.
I don’t remember being offered a homemade fruit mince tart during the first Christmases celebrations I attended in Australia. At those gatherings, I was surprised when there was no attempt by the host to hide the fact the fruit mince tarts came from the grocery store. The tarts were served up at dessert time still in their festive cardboard boxes. It was noticeable that most Australians at the table simply ignored them and went for the pavlova, chocolates or Christmas pudding.
Maybe the tarts were on offer as a bit of nostalgia. But it felt more like some sense of obligation that the Christmas table wasn’t complete without them.
Who actually likes candied citrus peel?
I did eventually enjoy some authentic fruit mince tarts baked by some excellent Australian home bakers.
But I struggled with the candied citrus peel. You can’t miss it, right? It may have been a luxury ingredient for home bakers in Victorian England but, seriously, store bought candied peel is virtually inedible! And, while I grew up loving my Mom’s mincemeat tarts in Canada, I had to do my best to ignore the bits of peel.
I believe candied citrus peel is merely an historical aberration. I mean, who actually likes citrus peel? My theory is that citrus peel is the main culprit in why fruit mince tarts seem to be so polarising in Australia.
So if you like fruit mince but you detest candied citrus peel like me, read on without fear, this recipe has no citrus peel or any other candied fruit for that matter. Don’t get me started on glacé cherries!
Great Grandma Downs’ recipe
Let me translate Marion’s recipe for you:
That’s 20kg of mincemeat! Marion would have processed the mincemeat in jars and perhaps gave some away. But she did run a boarding house for male university students, so I suspect a goodamount of it ended up in dozens of pies and tarts to feed her boarders.
My Mom’s recipe changed little from her grandmother’s. Mom not so secretly hated baking and the stress it caused her. But she always made sure her Christmas treats and desserts were all homemade. Mom’s mincemeat tart pastry was super thin and short. The tarts were petite and held just two bites of mincemeat filling. She finished them with just a sprinkle of sugar. These tarts literally melted in your mouth.
I’ve been tweaking the family recipe since Mom read it out to me over a long distance call in the 1990s. Obviously, I ditched the citrus peel immediately but I believe my fruit mince , while very much a modern recipe, continues to pay homage to Marion’s.
21st century fruit mince
My homemade fruit mince recipe has been evolving for the last quarter of a century.
No candied peel to be seen in this recipe. The citrus peel is replaced with the zest and juice of whole lemons and oranges. I use dried fruits including raisins, sultanas, currants, dates and prunes. Whole raw almonds are a feature. No need to peel the granny smith apples. And it’s low in added sugar as it relies on the natural sugar in the dried fruits and citrus juice.
I was quick to replace beef suet was with melted butter. And, in recent years, the recipe has become a fully vegetarian and vegan fruit mince recipe as I have swapped out the butter for coconut oil.
I subscribe to the theory that you should cook only cook with alcohol of a quality that you would drink. So I use pretty decent brandy in my homemade fruit mince.
What’s the final quantity of fruit mince?
While my recipe does not get anywhere near Marion’s 20kg yield, it produces about 3kg of fruit mince. You can easily halve this recipe. But it’s quite surprising how this tart and pie filling can get used up in just a few bakes. Especially if you are hosting large gatherings. For example, 18 individual tarts made in t Texas muffin tin pans take about 1kg of filling. These are individual dessert sized fruit mince tarts.
Make the prep as easy as possible
There’s no need to be precious about precision chopping when preparing your fruit mince ingredients. After all, no one is going to take a ruler to your the filling of your finished bake. I also think this filling looks better if the size of the individual elements varies.
There are a couple of tricks to making the prep work for your fruit mince a breeze. Chop the almonds in a food processor, using the pulse button to ensure they’re not overprocessed.
Process in small batches as this helps make sure that you don’t end up with ground almonds. Some ground almond is fine. I pick out any super large pieces of almond and throw them in with the next batch I am processing.
The dried fruit should chill out
The larger dried fruit needs chopping. Again, irregularity is the order of the day. But you’re aiming for a maximum of one-centimetre cubes.
The currants are good as is. For the sultana and raisins, it really depends on how large they are. If they’re a bit large, you can roughly chop them up.
You do need to be more particular with the dried dates and plums. Be wary for the odd pit even if they claim to be pitted. The trick to cutting up sticky prunes and dates is to freeze the fruit semi-solid before starting the job. I use a small, serrated paring knife and look for roughly one-centimetre cubes.
Keep the peel on the apples
I zest and juice the lemons before prepping the apples, so I can sprinkle the grated apple with lemon juice and prevent it from browning.
There’s no need to peel the granny smith apples before you grate them.
I prefer to use a hand grater over a food processor to grate, as I don’t have to core the apples. Grate around the core and sprinkle the lemon juice on the grated apple as you go.
There will be the occasional big chunk of peel and I just pick that out when I’m stirring the final mixture.
Now that gifted bottle of brandy has a purpose in life
I am all for a boozy fruit mince. Keep in mind the mix will be cooked before using so the alcohol will burn off. And what better use for that stray bottle of gifted brandy lurking in the back of your pantry?
When I went back to Marion’s recipe, I was surprised to see she used rum. By the time the recipe got to my Mom it had transitioned to brandy. Grandma Muriel wasn’t partial to rum. Brandy it is then!
Both the brandy and the fruit juices plump up the dried fruit as the mixture matures in the fridge. So you can choose to go with just orange and lemon juice if you would like an alcohol free fruit mince. The use of alcohol originated from the need to preserve the mixture, especially when it contained meat. It sill aids in increasing the ‘shelf’ life of fruit mince.
If you choose not to use alcohol, I recommend freezing your leftover fruit mince after the Christmas period. Then you’re well placed for some Christmas in July bakes.
The brandy-soaked mix is fine in the fridge for up to 6 months but I usually end up freezing it after Christmas.
Get your Christmas bakes going!
This Christmas fruit mince recipe calls for 700ml of brandy but don’t add it all at once. I leave the bottle by the fridge and sprinkle brandy over the mixture and stir it in as a daily routine. Make sure you use super clean utensils when mixing in the brandy .
You can choose when to stop adding alcohol. If the mix appears to get a bit of liquid that isn’t absorbing in that’s a good sign to stop the brandy.
My Christmas fruit mince bake recipes will be posted shortly. This holiday season, I’m planning a fruit mince frangipane pie, Sandra’s famous fruit mince tarts, and a fruit mince and custard filo crinkle pie.
Homemade Fruit Mince
Equipment
- Food processor (optional)
- 4-5 litre sealed plastic container
- Serrated paring knife (optional)
- Microplane or citrus zester
- Juicer
- Medium size grater
Ingredients
- 200 g pitted prunes
- 200 g dried pitted dates
- 300 g sultanas
- 300 g raisins
- 300 g currants
- 350 g whole raw almonds
- 4 medium granny smith apples (450g)
- 100 g coconut oil or butter
- 2 Navel oranges (zest and juice)
- 2 Lemons (zest and juice)
- 2 teaspoons table salt
- 180 g golden syrup
- 250 g dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground or fresh grated nutmeg
- 700 ml brandy
Instructions
- Assemble ingredients.
- Make sure the 4-5 litre plastic storage container with sealable lid is super clean and dry.
- To enable easier chopping place prunes and dates in freezer until semi-frozen.
- With the exception of the citrus juice, coconut oil/butter, and brandy, add ingredients to storage container as you go.
- Zest and juice lemons and oranges, set aside juices. Add zest to storage container.
- Roughly chop almonds by hand or, if using a food processor, process in batches.
- Chop semi-frozen prunes and dates with a small serrated knife, aiming for a maximum of one-centimetre cubes.
- Grate apples without peeling them by hand on a medium sized grater. Sprinkle grated apple with lemon juice as you go to prevent browning.
- Add all ingredients except juices, coconut oil/butter, and brandy to the plastic box and stir well.
- Melt oil/butter and add to storage container, stirring well.
- Pour approximately 200ml of combined orange and lemon juice over the fruit mix and stir well. The rest of the juice can be used for other purposes.
- Sprinkle about 200ml of brandy over the mixture and stir well.
- Store the sealed container in the fridge for 1 - 2 weeks. Each day sprinkle with more brandy and stir in with a large clean spoon.
- Stop adding brandy when the fruit is no longer absorbing the liquid you have added.
- The fruit mince is ready to use.
One Response
Beautiful recipe, and story! When I make this alcohol free I feed it with a bit of left over tea from the pot! Maybe a Yorkshire thing. Thanks for sharing!