Only two months until Christmas everyone!

Soph started our Xmas today by soaking lots of dried fruit in booze, I then collected up the leftover packets and went to work on the mincemeat.

We've got a new slow cooker, so of course I'll be using it for everything! The new one is bigger, and has a timer that switches from high or low to warm. The plan is to set it cooking in the morning before work, have it cook for 8 hours, then let it warm until we get home.

One benefit of slow cooking this: no need to do things in stages on the hob. Just bung it all in the slow cooker, mix it up, set for 8 hours, and leave it overnight!

The details of how to slow cook came from The Pink Whisk, with additional ingredients from the veg mincemeat I made last last year, plus whatever Soph had left over :)

So here's what went in it:

150g light suet

200g suet

400g (aka 2) cooking apples, cored, peeled and diced

140g candied peel

200g raisins

200g currants

200g sultanas

200g cranberries

80g chopped apricots

100g chopped crystallised ginger

250g chopped walnuts and dates mixed

150ml ruby port

60ml Calvados

2tbsp honey

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp gournd cloves

100g soft light brown sugar

1 orange, zest and juice

1 lemon, zest and juice

The only reason for 150g of light suet in there is that we had some lying around. We've discovered it contains palm oil, which we're avoiding for ethical reasons, so from now on it's full-fat suet (not that the light stuff saved many calories anyway).

Anyway as I said… throw it all in the slow cooker, big mix with a big wooden spoon.

Then on for 8 hours on low, then warm until we wake up and deal with it.

Next morning it's all gone lovely and dark!

After cooling I took the top off an it smelled amazing!

Then it gets a good stir. Ah. Now we hit a problem… the back left side (which looks dark in the above pic if you look carefully) is actually burnt rock solid :(

The burnt part is, unsurprisingly, very bitter and not very nice at all. Thankfully the rest of it tastes great :)

Now it's time to put it in jars. These need sterilising first, and as we don't have a dishwasher that means washing in soapy water followed by 5 minutes in a 160c fan oven.

I managed to get 3 full jars out of it.

Unfortunately there was another jar's worth stuck to the pot :(

So the pot is now soaking… and I'm off to the pub! I'm not sure if I just cooked for too long, kept warm for too long, or if the back left part of my slow cooker is hotter than other parts…

Tomorrow I'm planning Tex-Mex chicken in the slow cooker, so I'll keep an eye out for hot spots.