Short crust pastry pies, filled with minced fruit with rains, currants, possibly orange or lemon peel, a bit of fat (originally suet, but now a bit of vegetable sauce).  The fruit mixture can be soaked or souced in brandy or rum.

My favourites were the ones mum used to make. The pastry was rich and buttery, but it crumbled as you bit into it. Not to much filling, so there was a good balance to the flavour. Not to sweet. Then served cold with a cup of tea, or when we got a bit older, warmed through in the oven and served with a little glass of sherry.

In our house we would leave a sherry and a mince pie out for Santa, and carrots for the reindeer.

Now there are a plethora of boxes of six mince pies in the supermarket, with a choice of rich butter pastry, or with added alcohol, normal, or with pastry lattice tops. Jars of various types of mincemeat (the original pies apparently had some meat in them, now it’s a fruit mix) are for sale so you can back your own batches of them. We used to give them to Carol singers. Which was OK because we only used to get a few who called. Nice memories. I might make a big pie for my hubby.