Vegan Mincemeat - Homemade Fruit Mince with Cherries

This vegan mincemeat with cherries is very easy to make and it's overflowing with festive fruits, spices and alcohol. Use this homemade fruit mince in all your Christmas bakes and gift a few jars to friends.

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Mincemeat and mince pies are to a British Christmas like pumpkin pies are to American Thanksgiving celebrations. Things wouldn't be the same without them. However, the increase in popularity of vegan diets over the last few years can mean that mince pies are off-limits for some people unless they can be certain that they contain vegan mincemeat.

With that in mind, devising a delicious yet easy to make vegan and vegetarian mincemeat seemed like a good idea. It may not solve the problem when dining out, but at least vegan and vegetarian home bakers can be assured of mouthwatering mince pies stuffed with the best homemade fruit mince in the comfort of their own homes.

What is fruit mince?

Fruit mince is an alternative name for sweet mincemeat. It is a popular delicacy enjoyed at Christmas-time when it features in snacks and desserts such as mince pies and mincemeat tarts.

Original recipes for fruit mince date back centuries, with the first ones being meat-based. The passing of time has shifted the nature of this delicacy considerably and these days the vast majority of fruit mince is meatless since minced apples replaced the meat in most recipes around the late 19th century (a change I feel we should applaud).

A typical modern sweet mincemeat recipe consists of a long list of ingredients including:

• finely diced apples
• dried fruits such as currants and raisins
• spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and clove
• distilled spirits such as brandy or rum
• brown sugar
• a burst of citrus - either lemon or orange
• beef suet and/ or butter

Clearly, if made using suet, despite being meatless, not all fruit mince is vegetarian. Let alone vegan! Fortunately, it's very easy to convert a quality mincemeat recipe to be both vegetarian and vegan. Follow this recipe for the best vegan mincemeat you could wish for this Christmas.

Why make this recipe?

If you've gone to the effort of making your own mince pies, then making your own sweet mincemeat pie filling is quite a sensible plan. This way those pies are 100% created by you.

Besides, I've often found shop-bought mincemeat to be a little on the tart side. In contrast, this vegan mincemeat is not sharp. But it is loaded with festive spices and a bounty of mixed dried fruits all tied together with a generous glug of alcohol. It's sweet, fruity, mellow, beautifully spiced and the kick of alcohol makes it ultra-delicious.

The recipe is very easy and produces plenty. Around 2kg to be precise. That's enough for 5-6 full-sized (340g) jars.

And of course, the beauty of homemade is that you can take away any ingredients that you are not so keen on and replace with something else. In this instance, I've replaced beef suet with a meat and dairy-free alternative to make vegan mincemeat.

Ingredients

I have two star ingredients in my homemade mincemeat - dried cherries and currants.

Dried cherries may not be a classic ingredient, but they do add a luxurious and zesty touch to the overall flavour. If you want to make the best sweet mincemeat possible, trust me, cherries should feature.

Currants are a traditional ingredient in mincemeat. I'll be honest, I've shied away from using them at all for quite some time because I thought them dry and somewhat bitter. But when I went shopping for ingredients for this vegan mincemeat recipe, I spotted some juicy and soft Vostissa currants in my local M & S, so I decided to try them out. I'm so glad I did. They add that extra flavour dimension that my homemade mincemeat of last year lacked (I had a bit left, so I tasted them side by side).

This discovery leads me to impart some crucial advice: buy the best dried fruit that you can find - the varieties that look plump and juicy and have a soft feel about them. Your mince pies will thank you for it.

Similarly, use whole candied peel if possible and chop it finely. Again, the quality advantage this provides is worth the extra effort.

As for the alcohol, it's fine to omit the cherry brandy and replace with an equal quantity of brandy, rum or perhaps Grand Marnier if you would like to enhance the orange flavour.

Step by Step Instructions

Despite the long list of ingredients, homemade vegan mincemeat, is incredibly easy to put together:

1. Weigh out the dried fruits then chop the cherries and candied peel into smaller pieces (about the size of currants). Zest & juice the oranges & lemon. Measure out the spices, sugar and suet. Finally, peel and coarsely grate the apple
2. Put everything, except the alcohol into a large oven-proof bowl and use your hands to mix all ingredients together
3. Cover the bowl loosely with foil and leave for at least 12 hours for the fruit to soak up the juice and flavours. When ready to cook, give everything a quick stir again then re-cover with the foil and bake for 3 hours
4. Remove from the oven and give the mincemeat a regular stir as it cools to prevent lumps of suet fat forming (every 30 minutes to begin with, more frequently as it is nears cold)
5. When the mincemeat is cold stir through the alcohol and spoon into sterilised jars, pushing down firmly to remove any pockets of air. Seal, label and store for up to 1 year

Expert Tips

This homemade vegan mincemeat is incredibly easy. Time and the oven do most of the work, but here are a few tips to help you achieve some splendid mincemeat:

• pick quality dried fruits. Soft, plump and juicy fruits make the tastiest mincemeat, so don't be tempted to throw in old ingredients just because they need using up
• prepare everything else before grating the apple since it oxidises with the air and browns incredibly quickly (as is evident in my step by step image above)
• don't rush the soaking time. Prepare the fruits in the evening and leave overnight to soak up the fruit juice and spice flavours before cookings. It's the best way to pump that dried fruit full of festive flavours
• Once cooked, stir the mincemeat every 30 minutes until warm rather than hot, then every 10 minutes until completely cold. This helps keep the fat on the fruit, rather than clotting in puddles in the bowl
• Similarly, do not put the freshly cooked mincemeat in the fridge to speed up the cooling process - this is a surefire way to end up with lumps of fat rather than evenly distributed fat
• If storing for any length of time use sterilised jars
• Although mincemeat can technically be frozen there is absolutely no need to do so. It fairs better stored in a sealed jar in a cool dark cupboard where the flavours can continue to age and deepen. It can be stored like this for at least a year (in the freezer it would only last a few months).

Frequently Asked Questions

Recipes made with mincemeat

There are so many ways homemade mincemeat can be used. Here are a handful of suggestions (please note that not all of these tempting recipes are vegan):

• Mince pies - obviously
• Mincemeat frangipane tart
• Mincemeat Plait (vegan)
• Individual Baked Alaskas with Panettone & Mincemeat
• Madeleines - for a touch of elegance
• Mincemeat muffins (vegan)
• Gift it - find a pretty jar and give some to a friend

Have you made my vegan mincemeat? Let me know what you thought of it in the comments below and don't forget to show me what you made with it on Instagram - use #littlesugarsnaps and tag me @jane_littlesugarsnaps.