Mincemeat Cookies

I love mincemeat - or maybe I just love the idea of mincemeat - I remember mince pies from my great grandmother, but even though I don't really like mince pie - I can't resist buying a jar of mincemeat at Christmas ...

These are nice soft cookies with lots of raisins and apples - nothing special, just really nice cookies. The original recipe was from Taste of Home, I didn't change much - just added some brandy to the mincemeat - these are really quite sweet, so I didn't frost them.


1 cup softened butter (if you use unsalted butter - add 1/4 tsp salt to recipe)

1.5 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 jar (about 29 oz) mincemeat

3.75 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp brandy (optional - to add to mince meat))

1 cup chopped, toasted nuts (walnuts or pecans)


In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs. Add mincemeat; mix well. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon; add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in pecans. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 in. apart on to greased or parchment lined baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 14-16 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Almond Madeleines

 I found this recipe at the Odense page, and pretty much followed it exactly - well except for slathering them with melted dark chocolate. I had tried another recipe using ground almonds, but it just wasn't right

1-7 oz box almond paste or 8 oz can. grated
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, melted
2/3 cup sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
Powdered sugar or dark chocolate chips

Madeleine pan

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease and flour a madeleine pan or just spray with that spray stuff.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat Almond Paste, butter and sugar until smooth.
3. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each.  Beat on high for 5 minutes or until mixture is thick and pale colored.  Beat in extract. 
4. Sift flour, baking powder and salt (if you use salted butter, don't add more salt) together.  Pour flour mixture into almond mixture a third at a time, folding gently until incorporated.
5. Spoon one tablespoon batter into each mold. Bake 11-13 minutes until light golden and top springs back when pressed. 
6. Cool pan on wire rack for a few minutes and gently unmold.  Cool cookies on wire rack and dust with powdered sugar.  Repeat steps 5-6 until all batter has been used.

What I did differently was to freeze them plain, then when they were defrosted, melt some dark chocolate chips and coat the wide ends with the chocolate.

Made a batch with chocolate almond paste!

2020 - baked at 350f for 12 minutes