Holiday Mincemeat Pie

by Millie Bentley

Greetings! Christmas will soon be here and our minds have been on holiday cooking. When we were kids, mom used to make wonderful pies, including real mincemeat pie. We didn’t much like mincemeat pie, so she used to mix it with other things. Her most successful effort was a combination of apple and cranberry disguising the look of a mincemeat pie. I used to call it the Big Mac pie in later years when I served it to my kids. It is really good; your kids will think that big mincemeat-apple-cranberry pie is better than that other Big Mac. Ha ha ha!

Big Mac Pie

1 baked 9-inch pie crust

1 ½ cups prepared mincemeat

2 green, tart apples, sliced thinly

2 tablespoons flour

3 tablespoons sugar

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

2 cups cranberries, fresh

½ cup sugar

Topping

¾ cup flour

¼ cup sugar

½ cup (1 stick) butter, sliced

Mix together apples, two tablespoons flour, three tablespoons sugar and cinnamon. Set aside. Cook cranberries and sugar in a heavy pan over medium heat about five minutes, stirring constantly. Set aside, prepare topping by cutting butter into flour and sugar until very crumbly. Set aside. Spread mincemeat (canned or prepared, using boxed mincemeat mix) over bottom of cooled , baked 9-inch pie crust; top mincemeat with coated apples; spread cooked cranberries over apples. Spread crumb topping over cranberries. Bake at 375˚F about 35 minutes until lightly brown. Cool for at least an hour before serving. Yum!

Until next time, dear readers. Vaya con Dios!