I just finished making this mincemeat filling for the first time, so this is still a work in progress, until I bake off the pies at holiday time. However, I tasted the filling after it cooled and I thought it was delicious and can only imagine how it will be once the alcohol has had time to mellow over the next couple of months. It’s nicely spiced, but not overly strong and the sweetness is there but again, subtle and balanced from the alcohol and the citrus juice.
I was inspired to make my own mince pies after eating them in London. From what I’ve researched, bakeries will often prepare the mincemeat filling months, sometimes years ahead, to really develop the flavor. While I’d love to try that one day, I decided to shortcut for my first bake, and bought a jar from a gourmet shop while in London.
Update August 2026: I ended up not liking the flavor from the store-bought mincemeat. It was far too sweet and spiced. So, this year, I have gotten a head start with holiday baking and jarred my own homemade mincemeat filling, so it has time to develop over the next few months.
This is my family’s Thanksgiving dessert, apple crumb pie. We unanimously love apple. I use a mix of baking apples to get different flavors in the pie. Granny Smith, Macintosh, Cortland, Braeburn and Jonagold are all good varieties to use. I chose a crumb top because it adds great texture, plus it’s less fussy than decorating the top of a pie. Normally, I’d challenge myself to do a fancy pie design, but my family and I cook the entire Thanksgiving meal from scratch which is so tiring but worth it, and there are just some things we need to keep simple. I blend up the oats until they’re finely ground, because the pieces of oats makes it to much like granola for me.
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I’ve been wanting to try my friend Lauren Ko’s geometric spoke pie design for a a while now. We first met in 2018 at her spoke pie class in Portland and again for brunch in New York City, where she was very hush hush about her trip (to film an episode of Martha Bakes, NO BIG DEAL). Fast forward to 2020 and her pie creations are now in print, a debut cookbook called Pieometry, with her signature spoke pie design on the cover.