Mincemeat

This is the ideal recipe to follow the Christmas cake because if you are anything like me you have tonnes of dried fruit left over at this point (not to mention a fair bit of brandy).

It is vegan, vegetarian, nut free, gluten free and utterly delicious!

Ingredients

• 225g Bramley or other cooking apples, peeled and coarsely grated
• 125g candied peel, chopped
• 225g sultanas
• 225g raisins
• 225g currants
• 175g soft brown sugar
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1 orange, zest and juice (get an un-waxed organic one if you can)
• 150ml Brandy 
• 50ml Cointreau

It's almost laughable that I try to give you quantities for this because to be honest it is literally all the remains of my dried fruit plus a few extras. Make this recipe your own, tinker with it, change the proportions of Cointreau and brandy, add some ginger or some cranberries, anything goes!

Just put all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Sterilise your jars (to be honest I use kiln jars straight out of the hottest wash on the dishwasher) then bung it up and leave it for a year. It is that simple.

You will notice the lack of suet or vegetable shortening this is simply because I have not been able to find one without palm in. I don't see the point of messing around with butter because a) I'm not sure it would keep as long and b) it tastes great just as it is. This is possibly because the fruit is already covered in plenty of sunflower oil (notice I didn't wash the fruit this time!)

Word of warning though, it is highly alcoholic, don't let drivers eat it raw and for kids always cook it on a high temperature and never leave them alone with a spoon and an open jar, big mistake...........