A Tale of Two Pies......Part 2! The Exciting Conclusion

Mincemeat Pie- without the meat....

Harkening back to my personal failing of not liking figgy pudding, and also sort of wanting to learn how to make just about every kind of pie I can, I decided it was high time I followed through and figured something out for minced meat. I don't know why for so many years I felt I needed to know how to make this one, but I have. I bought a wonderful Mennonite cook book years ago based mostly upon the fact that it contained a recipe for minced meat from scratch and I had only been able to find canned, and/or recipes that call for canned. :(

Since then however, with the advent of the artesianal, handmade, small batch, organic, local, heirloom, food movement, I have found it much easier to find many different recipes to compare! 

The down side to this is that 

1. A lot of those recipes go all the way back and contain suet and venison, so great for them, but not for me personally. 

2. Making minced meat and making minced meat pie are two different things. Making minced meat is like canning and recipes tend to have measurements in lbs. 1 lb of apples, 1lb of sugar. Again, totally awesome, but more than I could possibly ever need unless I went into a minced meat pie business. (Do it! squeals my mother...) 

3. The third problem is similar to my figgy pudding failing, in that I don't really like the flavor of molasses and rum. So what to do? Well, I got creative. And even if this recipe is NOT strictly minced meat, it's pretty awesomely awesome. My family loved it so much I made a very small one for Solstice and was asked to make a full size for the New Years. 

The last thing I have to say before letting you get to the recipe is that once again I will NOT be providing a pastry recipe. Please use your favorite, or find one that looks good. The one I use is not mine to share, and I would have to kill you if I told you :( Sorry.

But for the rest of it! :

(in parenthesis) indicates for small pie size
makes 9 -10” for full or 6-7” for small

Ingredients:

2 (1.5) apples chopped into small cubes

2 (1) pears chopped to small pieces

5 (3) chopped pitted prunes

1 (1/2) cup dried fruit. I used a Trader Joe’s mix of dried berries with raisons. Use what you like!

1/4 (1/8) cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/4 (1/8) cup maple syrup

1/4 (1/8) cup brandy

1/4 (1/8) cup fresh lemon juice

 1/4 (1/8) cup Irish whiskey

1 (1/2) teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 (large pinch) teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 (large pinch) teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 (large pinch) teaspoon ground nutmeg

Pinch (half pinch) of salt

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients into a bowl and allow to sit overnight in a glass container, stirring every few hours or so.

2. Roll out your dough. This pie is for two crusts, top and bottom. Place bottom dough in pie plate, pressing gently for a thorough fit.

3. Fill crust with pie filling using a slotted spoon. There may be a little extra depending on the size of the apples and pears. There will definitely be left over liquid, save it and spoon onto ice cream, or use a little dough and make tiny fold overs. But it's really too good to waste.

4. Roll out your top crust and join with bottom crust at edges, pinching to seal. Take a small knife and make a few ventilation holes.

My Dad's dog Huckle, incognito, desperately begging for pie!

5. Heat oven to 425F. Cover the outer edge of the pie with foil to prevent over browning. Bake for 40-45 (30-40) min.  Remove foil for last 15min of baking. You may also want a catch pan on the rack below in case of sticky boiling over juice.
Enjoy warm.


**For Dutch pie option, mix half (quarter) a package neufchatel cheese with 1/8 cup (2 tbsp) fine sugar and line the bottom of the pie crust before adding fruit mixture.

Enjoy!!!

BKBTY