Christmas Fruit Mince
On a mission to make some Christmas mince pies and steam pudding then realized that all fruit mince you buy is packed with sugar and preservatives so its time to whip up my own. Get the best dried fruit you can have and hunt out organic which are actually the same price in most places for dried fruit. Then you can make this in bulk and freeze in cup sizes. When you are ready to whip up something using fruit mince you have some there.
INGREDIENTS
250 grams apricots 250 grams dates 100 grams raisins 100 grams sultanas peel of 2 oranges peel of 2 apples 2 apples chopped into little cubes juice of 2 oranges 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon nutmeg 1 teaspoon mixed spice 150grams butter/coconut oil 30 grams coconut sugar (optional, the fruit is sweet enough all ready, this just gives a bit more depth, could use honey also) 1 cup water 1 cup brandy (optional) use another cup of water or orange juice if not wanting to use this.
Cooking Instructions
Chop all the fruit up into small pieces, as well as the rind of apple and orange.
Put all the ingredients into a pan, and heat gently and stir. Once the fruit has started to soften reduce heat and continue to stir for around 5 minutes.
If it gets to dry add in more water, this will evaporate, but will allow for fruit and soften further and get richer in taste.
Once it has all softened take off heat, cover and leave over night to develop further. You don’t have to do this, but makes it better. If you used alcohol this would of all cooked off, the brandy just gives it more intensity, and allows it to last a little longer.
I made heaps of this in a big pot, so I used it to make all these xmasy fruit mince recipes. This mixture goes a long way, so freeze any you don’t need, and pull out closer to xmas day or any day of the year and serve with just custard if you want.
