I'll make mincemeat of you!

Good morning and hello to you! How are you this fine Thursday morning? I'm cheery although i am doing a long shift at work today so i guess it's a good thing i'm in a chipper mood!

I have been over run with plums and damsons in the past few weeks and have been trying to come up with new things to make. Which is hard. I have a lot of jam now so i thought it was time to think outside the box and try something different.

So yesterday i decided to try damson mincemeat, and it had turned out fab. Yup.

I based it vaguely on this recipe here. Although i used damsons instead of plums. I also added 200g glacé cherries, used white granulated sugar instead of demerara (as i didn't have any), used all spice instead of the cloves and nutmeg, added a teaspoon of cinnamon, didn't add the walnuts or the brandy/sloe gin. Just a few small changes then!

Most of these changes were because they were either ingredients i didn't have or one's i didn't like. Plus i really like cherries so added them.

I started it on Tuesday afternoon as the mixture has to be left for 24 hours before it is cooked in the oven. It looked a wee bit watery when i left it last night but by this morning it was lovely and thick and smelt of Christmas!

I now have to leave it until December to mature. I hope it ends up tasting as good as it looks, as it looks yummy. I might give it to people in jars or i might make some mince pies. Mmmm mince pies (i'm sorry, i'll stop talking about Christmas in September).

I still have lots of damsons left, and they won't fit in the freezer as there is already blackberries and plums in there. So i will keep on looking for new ways of using them. If you have any ideas, don't be shy, i bet they're goodies!