one mince pie

12 Days of Delicious Christmas Dishes

• Day 1: Partridge in a Pear Tree. Jonny Valiant; Food styling Vivian Lui; Prop styling: Paige Hicks.
• Day 2: Turtle Doves.
• Day 3: French Hens.
• Day 4: Calling Birds.
• Day 5: Golden Rings.
• Day 6: Geese A-Laying.
• Day 7: Swans A-Swimming.
• Day 8: Maids A-Milking.

Cake. Cakes and many other baked goods are typically served from Christmas to New Year’s, but they have to be round in order to bring good luck. In several cultures, a special trinket or coin is hidden inside the cake, and the recipient, it’s been said, will be very lucky in the year to come.

Louisianans and Mardis Gras fans know to start their year off with a sweet ringed king cake topped with colorful icing and sprinkles and baked with a trinket, such as a plastic baby, hidden inside. The lucky person who finds the trinket is named “king” or “queen” for the day.

It is illegal to eat mince pies on Christmas Day. However, mince pies themselves were never banned, although they were strongly disapproved of as a symbol of the immoral excesses of the festive season. Further legislation was proposed in 1656 to clamp down on illicit Christmas celebrations, but it was never enacted.

According to English tradition, superstition dictates that you must always stir clockwise when making mince pies. Apparently, stirring anti-clockwise will bring bad luck.

Oliver Cromwell

Mince pies are high in calories, saturated fat and sugar because of the pastry case, as well as the suet and sugar in the mincemeat filling. If you’re baking your own, only use pastry for the base and leave the top open, just add a small star of pastry or use a lower-fat pastry, such as filo.

Shop-bought mince pies generally contain preservatives, so if they are past their “best before” date they might still be OK to eat, they just might be a bit soggy or stale.

As they are home-made they do not keep quite as long as commercial mince pies and we suggest that you keep them in an airtight container for up to one week. The baked mince pies do freeze very well and can be frozen for up to 3 months.

Nutrition

Typical Values	Per 100g	One mince pie (54g)
Energy	1616kJ / 385kcal	879kJ / 209kcal
Fat	13.5g	7.3g
Saturates	5.8g	3.2g
Carbohydrate	60.8g	33.1g

Calories in Mince Beef and Onion Pie

Calories	384.2
Sodium	359.3 mg
Potassium	269.4 mg
Total Carbohydrate	26.9 g
Dietary Fiber	1.3 g

Scotch Pie (1 serving) contains 25g of carbs, 10g of protein, 6.2g of fat, and 191 calories.

Energy: 229 calories

Protein	2.3g
Carbs	35.8g
Fat	8.1g

100% Natural Flavours & No Artificial Colours. Suitable for Vegetarians. Cooking Instructions – General: Pies can be served warm or cold. All cooking appliances vary in performance, these are given as guidelines only.

“Our food parcels contain a wide variety of items, but we don’t give out anything containing alcohol. “This is out of respect to those people who may have some sort of struggle with alcohol addiction – we want to help people, not make life harder for them.”

3-3.5 Syns

Mince is a really versatile food when you’re on a slimming diet. As you probably know, it’s free when you choose 5% fat beef, pork or turkey mince.

4 syns

There’s approximately 5-6 syns and just over 100 calories per serving if you lice into 20 squares, less if you slice into more squares!

Christmas Pudding – 4 syns per 25g. Beer – approx. 8-10 syns per pint.

Mince pies A traditional mince pie apparently contains 0.14 units of alcohol, meaning it would take 29 of them for me to fail a breathalyser test (in the UK, excluding Scotland, the legal limit for drivers is 80mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood).

Poor quality. We have bought Mr Kipling mince pies for years and they were always delicious. This year’s offering is horrible: thick, hard pastry and a dry and sticky filling, with very little variety in the fruit. Won’t be buying again.

Mince pies, Christmas cake and fruit cakes (the alcohol evaporates in the oven) are all ideal for you to tuck into! Make sure to avoid the brandy butter though and keep an eye out for raw eggs in mousses and custard.

Cranberries, cranberry juice, and cranberry extracts are safe. Excessive amounts could cause upset stomach or diarrhea. Pregnant women might suffer these side effects at lower doses.

Turkey, chicken, beef & pork are all fine as long as they’ve been cooked to the right temperature and you eat them while hot. A word of warning on stuffing – cooking it inside the bird isn’t safe. Instead, cook it separately in a baking dish. If you’re eating salads on the side, make sure they are freshly prepared.

Rich crumbly pastry packed with a delicious mix of plump vine fruits, Napoleon glacé cherries, festive spices and citrus peel. Rich crumbly pastry packed with a delicious mix of plump vine fruits, Napoleon glacé cherries, festive spices and citrus peel. Infused with Cognac, French brandy and port for a deeper flavour.

The best mince pies for Christmas 2020 revealed

• Morrisons The Best Mince Pies.
• Mr Kipling Deep Filled Mince Pies.
• Betty’s Classic Mince Pies.
• Booth’s All Butter Mince Pies.
• M&S Collection Mince Pies.
• Co-op Irresistible 6 Luxury Mince Pies.
• Aldi Specially Selected Mince Pies.

These are the best and worst supermarket mince pies available for Christmas

• Tesco Finest All Butter Pastry Mince Pies – £1.75.
• Asda Extra Special Luxury Mince Pies – £1.75.
• Waitrose All Butter Mince Pies – £2.50.
• Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Mince Pies – £1.50.
• Iceland All Butter Mince Pies – £1.89.

Counterintuitive as it may seem, microwaving a mince pie for between ten and 15 seconds, and then letting it stand for two minutes or so, does the job well and conveniently. The microwaves heat the mincemeat very quickly, but the pastry case is hardly affected.