MIXING IT UP WITH MINCE PIES

These festive staples aren’t to everyone’s taste – but with a few tweaks, they may well be

MINCE pies, like other traditional desserts and snacks, are not immune from a bit of a transformation.

The same is true for hot cross buns and trifle – they are updated and re-worked, to appease our changing tastes or diets.

Mince pies are a bit trickier to give a facelift, or in this case a tastelift, though. They’re something you either love or hate, and once you start chopping and changing the basic ingredients, can you even call them mince pies?

It’s those trademark spices and fruit and shortcrust pastry that makes for an authentic mince pie, but those are the same ingredients that need to be tweaked if you want to recreate the Christmas staple.

The spiced fruit is the first ingredient to get a new lease on life – it’s also the most common element that makes people turn up their noses and say: “I don’t like mince pies”.

But there are options out there, which means you can still enjoy the festive treat if you’re brave enough to try a mince pie with a twist.