Thursday 15 December 2011

Low-fat mincemeat

Ingredients.

225g soft dark brown sugar
200 ml apple juice
900g cooking apples, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp powdered cinnamon
225g currants
225g raisins
50g slivered almonds
grated rind and juice of a lemon.

Melt the sugar in the apple juice. When completely dissolved add everything else, bring to the boil and then simmer for half an hour until you have a soft mash.
Bottle while hot into sterilised jars. Fills about five jars. 

I like to add a splash of brandy or cointreau to each jar for a little extra flavour.

Because this recipe doesn't contain the usual suet it is not a long keeper but will be fine for a couple of months in a cool, dark place.
(The doctor phoned today and apparently I'm all but rattling with gall stones. Unless someone can give me a fat-free pastry recipe for pastry there will be no mince pies for me!)

6 comments:

  1. this is mincemeat? no meat? holy cow, how did i not know this? too many questions i know. gall stones sound dreadful rosemary. i hope you feel better soon. xo janet

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  2. Fat-free pastry? What's the sense? I love mincemeat, suet and all!

    So sorry about your gall stones. Do you have some kind of surgery on the horizon?

    Happy Low-Fat Holidays to you, then!

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  3. Yum, I love the sound of this recipe.

    Gallstones Yikes!

    I have a few too but they have never passed to my knowledge as I have heard that they are painful.
    Have you been sidelined with them?

    I didn't know there was a link with fat and their formation....

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  4. Greetings Rosemary,

    I have nominated you for a blog award. I hope that you'll pass it along.

    Merry Christmas.

    Hostess
    XO

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  5. Dear Janet, There used to be meat, when fruit and spices were very expensive, but it gradually got sidelined until only the suet remained!

    Dear Steve, I love mincemeat too, and sausages, chocolate and all the rest. But is doesn't love me, not this year anyway. (I'll compensate later!)

    Dear Hostess, An award!! Thank you, and I shall certainly pass it along. If, when you say 'sidelined' you mean put on a strict diet to avoid pain, then yes, I am sidelined! (Seeing a specialist in the new year.)

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  6. Rosemary, I have to make this. My mother made the most wonderful mincemeat cookies. It really was the first cookie I can remember. She made a very nice mincemeat pie as well. No one here has heard of mincemeat. This looks divine. Bonnie

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