Running up to Christmas we have a mince pie survey where we try as many different brands as we can find and rank them – taste, texture, amount of fruit, quality of pastry, sweetness etc. We don’t do it all on one day, we do it over maybe six weeks, maybe more, depending on when they appear in the shops. (We draw the line at sampling over the summer, despite them appearing in shops!) However, for some reason we ended up with a number of unopened boxes so we had a mass mincer munch – which was a bit much for one of us who has sworn never to eat a mince pie ever again! I can’t now remember the winner, I know Lidl is often a favourite, but can’t say it definitely was last year.
Because even after our mass munch we had a coupe of boxes left, and even though there best before date was 2024 (yes, really) I popped them into the freezer. Over the last few weeks we have been trying to empty the freezer so we can defrost and clean it. There, lurking, was a box of mincers. We weren’t really in the mood for the, and I had a sudden inspiration. Once defrosted, I put them in the blender and reduced them to what I had best describe as a dough. I rolled it out, put it on greaseproof paper on a baking tray and popped it in the oven, gas mark 7. I gave it about twenty minutes and took it out when it was a nice brown. It was quite soft, but firmed up by the time it was cool.
What was my mince pie biscuit like? It’s very nice, not as sweet as usual biscuits and just right with a cup of tea. If I ever do it again, I would make some lemon icing and just dribble it over in squiggles. Next time we end up with soggy cakes, biscuits, mince pies I’ll do it again! Waste not want not… but if I do it too often I’ll continue to have no waist!!
My featured image is of a gingerbread man and it strikes me that adding ginger to my mince pie mixture would be rather good!
Lois Elsden 
Alas poor mince pie,
Once you were the proud recipient
Of a place in the Elsden freezer,
Just if memory serves me right,
Above the lamb cutlets,
And beside Miss Prentice’s West Country Surprise Cake.
But time and the pressure of Bari’s over ambitious
Elder Berry harvesting enterprise
Pushed you to the back of the freezer,
Where time and the changing seasons
Saw you forgotten and neglected.
But now you are part of a new bold cooking adventure,
As your golden pasty case and your equally delightful filling
Of sweet meats have been pulverised, rolled, shaped and baked.
And now have been reborn as a biscuit,
To be eaten with a cup of unsweetened tea and perhaps a dribble of lemon icing.
I wait the food parcel heading north.
And ponder Lois if you are about to unleash a new legal and financial debate,
On the difference between a cake and a biscuit which kept the humble Jaffa Cake
In a limbo of litigation for years.
Leaving just to ask
The name of the new creation?
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