LONDON, Dec 23 — Every Christmas, Brits devour about 800 million mince pies, but moves to jazz up the festive sweet treats made of dried fruit and pastry are stirring anger among purists. It is the source of some puzzlement to the outside world that British mince pies have not in fact been filled with minced meat for centuries. Instead, the mincemeat encased in an individual shortcrust pastry pie is a mixture of different dried fruits, chopped apples and spices soaked in spirits such as brandy and rum.
In recent years, however, home cooks and big supermarket chains have begun to experiment, putting their own twist on the pies by adding less traditional ingredients to try to tempt more adventurous palates. Variations include topping the individual oven-baked pies with glace icing or frangipane, adding chocolate, salted caramel or even custard to the filling — to the dismay of food writer Felicity Cloake. “Monstrosities” is how Cloake describes such adaptations, telling AFP mince pies “are not broke and do not need fixing”.
It seems palates have become “so jaded these days that we need to ring the changes and have whatever fashionable flavour is currently dominating TikTok in the pies,” she said. She said she wasn’t against tweaking recipes, but that the fruit and traditional flavours should always be the star attraction. ‘Contemporary twist’ Cloake said her main objections to new recipes were they added overpowering flavours and too much sweetness.
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