Mother-in-Law's Mince Pies

Keep Calm and Bake On

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My British mother-in-law is a smart, lovely woman, who maybe didn’t imagine her precious only son would marry a nice girl from New Jersey. She embraced me all the same and only once asked if New York City was really like it appeared on “Cagney and Lacey.”

Even at the age of 93, Moira still cooks three meals a day for her and my father-in-law, Terry. (He helps! And always does the dishes.) Dinner always comes with three vegetables, two of which are always potatoes and carrots. Moira’s strengths as a cook can be seen in her memorable desserts, including a perfect blackberry and apple crisp, a sherry trifle that is fabulously more sherry than trifle and her mince pies.

About three minutes after eating one of her mince pies for the first time, I asked her for the recipe. It took another few Christmas visits to finally get it off of her. It's written in elegant longhand script on a lined paper and now has pride of place in my recipe collection.

This mince pie is simple and plain. “Plain” to her is a compliment. The crust is tender and yields with a crumble to the gooey filling which manages to be sweet, spicy and tangy. Mince pies are best served warm, maybe with a little vanilla ice cream and a glass of sherry on the side.