A really delicious way to use up the Christmas mince pie mountain over the festive period, even the stale ones. This is my own invention and it elevates the mince pie to a whole new level, turning it from a Skoda into a Ferrari. The tartness of the apple counterbalances the sweetness of the mince pies, which caramelise on top of the apples and it really works as they are a marriage made in heaven. It has all the Christmassy flavours of orange zest and mixed spice then the mix of crunchy top with the creamy apples combo, which for me is pretty perfect. My friends think this recipe is a work of genius.

Recipe

Serves 4-6.

Ingredients:
700g cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped
25g soft brown sugar
Zest of an orange and two tablespoons of its juice
2 teaspoons mixed spice (or cinnamon if you can’t get mixed spice)
(sometimes I double up the filling because I love a lot of apple, this will mean another 15 minutes approx of baking time)

Crumble topping
Several mince pies or more if you are a big mince pie fan
75g butter
175g plain flour (I use wholemeal spelt)
50g soft brown sugar

How:

Preheat the oven to 170°C. (By the way I always have an oven thermometer in my oven, just to check)
Place chopped apples in a largeish baking dish and sprinkle over the zest, brown sugar, mixed spice and orange juice. Crumble the mince  pies over the top.
Put the crumble ingredients in a food processor and whizz till the consistency of fine breadcrumbs. Tip this evenly over the crumbled mince pies.
Bake for about 60 minutes or until the apples are soft and the top is darkish golden, but test with a knife in the centre to make sure the apples are cooked. I tend to put tin foil over the top half way through to stop it getting too brown.
Serve hot with cream, custard, vanilla ice cream or whatever you fancy. I like it with Cornish clotted cream.

Lastly…you can make this in advance and freeze it, to serve at a later date.