Sweet mincemeat is our taste of Christmas. I always bake mince pies on Christmas Eve. I leave them until last as they are gone in a flash in our household!

When we first came to Spain and made friends with a local Spanish girl, Emelia, who teaches English, I made mince pies and Christmas cake and took them to her school for the children to try. Em loved them – The children?… They were not keen at all; but it is a very different flavour to the flavours the Spanish are used to!

For most of us Brits, Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without sweet mincemeat. Unless I go on a car journey to find a British supermarket, the only way to enjoy sweet mincemeat is to make my own. Thankfully it is an easy thing to make.

Sweet mincemeat is so easy to make at home!

If you have never tried making your own sweet mincemeat give it a go! The dried fruits here available on the markets are usually around the 5€ a kilo mark and are excellent quality. Although cooking apples are usually recommended, I use eating apples, and I do bake it in the oven first, although there are many recipes around which are just everything mixed up together and then added to sterilised jars.

The amount of ingredients here makes five 340g jars. For the dried fruits you can use different things such as dried cherries or sultanas, as long as the total weight adds up. Do try to use some currants though if you can find them.

I often talk about the markets and shops on Cooks In Spain. It is a huge part of life here. The fruit and veg stalls are fabulous and I love to meander around them.

Shopping for my Sweet Mincemeat Ingredients in Spain

One of my favourite market stalls (especially around Christmas time), is the ‘Chucheria’ or ‘Sweetie Stall’. If the grandchildren are with me, they cannot resist choosing their ‘Pick n Mix’. Whilst they are busy, I cannot resist buying dried fruits, which are part of the same stall.

The only dried fruit I seem to struggle to find is currants, so if I find some, I stock up! I particularly like them in my Christmas cake and of course sweet mincemeat. If you cannot get any though, don’t despair, you can still make an excellent batch of sweet mincemeat using other fruits.

What else do you need for your sweet mincemeat?

As well as your chosen fruits, you will need soft brown sugar, mixed spice – you can find the recipe for mixed spice here , fresh lemons and oranges, and nuts if you are OK to eat them? Brandy is also absolutely vital. And finally another ingredient hard to find is ‘suet’. I can find it if I go on a little journey to a British supermarket. This is one of them https://www.solsupermercado.es/ if this isn’t an option you can find it on Amazon.es – Link below.

So without further ado, the mystery of how to make your own sweet mincemeat is now below for you! Make sure you have containers to store it in, this is a large quantity.