CHOCOLATE AND DRIED FRUIT SWEET MINCE PIES WITH BRANDY

HI ALL, Merry Xmas and a very HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all. This festive season I enjoyed trying different recipes and yummy foods with my family and friends. One of the new things I made this year was "chocolate and fruit sweet mince pies". Personally I have not been so fond of jars of sweet mince mixture for making pies. I found them too sweet and also not so keen of suet that they add into it.

This year, I chopped up some dried apricots, figs, dates, prunes, sultanas and walnut together in a bowl with some cranberry sauce. Added splash of brandy and mixed it well. Instead of sugar I used some maple syrup and some spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Grated some %70 coco dark chocolate to the mixture( which i got the idea from a TV show for the chocolate ). It was a lovely mixture and the result was very good indeed. Didn't need to add any oil or fat to the mixture because of the coco butter in the chocolate. Using shortcrust pastry, I baked the pies with this filling and sprinkled icing sugar before serving. Everyone loved the pies and it was a change from the traditional sweet mince pies.

NOT: Can be served cold or warm with cream or custard.