Christmas Mince Pie Ice Cream Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the tradition of mince pies at Christmas? ›

To spread the joy, it was tradition in England that each member of the family gave the mixture a stir, while making a wish. And if you wanted to be ensure good health and happiness in the upcoming year, you should eat one mince pie every day for the Twelve Days of Christmas, from Christmas Eve until the 5th of January.

It is a Christmas Pudding, but instead of adding a lengthy list of spices, fruit, and sugars you are just adding in Mincemeat. Mincemeat, in turn, is actually made up of spices, fruit, and sugars and that is why it is a great 'substitute' in this recipe and a fantastically easy way to make this traditional dessert.

Mincemeat is a combination of chopped dried fruits, spices, sugar, nuts, distilled spirits, a fat of some type and sometimes meat. The name is a carryover from 15th century England when mincemeat did indeed have meat in the mix; in fact, the whole point of mincemeat was to preserve meat with sugar and alcohol.

A mince pie (also mincemeat pie in North America, and fruit mince pie in Australia and New Zealand) is a sweet pie of English origin filled with mincemeat, being a mixture of fruit, spices and suet.

It's a rare American I've bumped into who likes Christmas cake or Christmas pudding. Even rarer is one who likes mince pies. But in England, Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without mince pies. We eat dozens of them in December (and only in December.

Go with the tradition and eat a dozen

There is a tradition of eating one mince pie each day over the 12 days of Christmas from Christmas Eve to 5 January.

By the 18th century it was more likely to be tongue or even tripe, and in the 19th century it was minced beef. It was not until the late Victorian period and early 20th Century that mince pies dropped the meat and had all fruit fillings (albeit with suet). Even today there are traditions associated with mince pies.

In American English, "mincemeat" is a sweet pie filling (I think it's mince pie in BrE) which originally contained some meat but in modern times it is generally made mostly of apples and raisins. It's not very popular anymore, but you sometimes see it around Christmas time.

According to reports, medieval people believed that if you ate a mince pie every day between Christmas and Twelfth Night, you'd be brimming with luck and happiness for the next 12 months. While there may not be any truth in the old myth, the tradition of eating mince pies every Christmas has certainly stuck.

Mincemeat isn't difficult to make, but it has a lot of ingredients, which can make it expensive to produce in small batches, and it requires at least a day's advance planning to let the ingredients sit.

Why is there no meat in mincemeat pie? ›

The mince pie was originally filled with meat but it's believed that it wasn't until the late Victorian period and the early 20th century that mince pies shifted to a pie made from fruit fillings. Is it still illegal to eat mince pies on Christmas day?

Mincemeat pie is a dish that isn't very common in the American kitchen, which can lead to some confusion for cooks, even those on the Allrecipes staff.

No. A mince pie is a sweet pie made with dried fruits and spices and, usually, encased in either a rich shortcrust or flaky pastry case. A Scotch Pie is a savoury pie made with, usually, minced mutton and spices and put in a hot water crust pastry shell.

'Tis the season for a Mince Pie and the peak is still to come. Are you appropriately stocked? Mince pies are one of the staples of the UK Christmas. According to Good Housekeeping, we eat around 800 million of them each year.

King Henry V had mince pies made as early as in 1413 for his coronation celebration on April 9. During this period it would have been made with various meats, game birds, boiled eggs and spices, which were very rare and extravagant ingredients of the time as this was a pie for celebration.

The original mince pies were oblong crib shapes decorated with a baby Jesus on top. The contents represent the gifts of the Magi to the Christ child, spices and plump middle eastern fruits. In the 1640's in England, Scotland and Ireland, the Puritans banned Christmas and everything related to the holiday.

Enveloped in tasty pastry, succulent mince pies were the automatic choice for Santa. After all, they were just enough for one or two bites and he had a lot of houses to visit overnight, so there were a lot of mince pies to eat!

Honey and dried fruits were luxuries so using them boasted wealth so mince pies became treats for important events. However by the mid-17th century it seems that a connection was made between mince pies and Christmas. Notably, Samuel Pepys known for his historic diaries enjoyed mince pies at Christmas.

As the pies were often baked in a rectangular shape, people began to associate them with the manger Jesus had laid in. Soon dough effigies of the baby Jesus were placed on top of the pies to reinforce the religious connection.