I cannot stand the palate-cloyingly sugary shit with which they fill mince pies these days so I have started making my own mincemeat to a recipe used by Auguste Escoffier; chef de cuisine at the Savoy at the turn of the 19th/20th century. His recipe contains no added sugar at all, but a fair bit of alcohol as indeed it should (to preserve it).
If anyone is interested, the recipe can be found here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/s3sgk0j9gms7ass/mincemeat.pdf?dl=0
@Paulos_the_fog agree entirely. I do think the pastry is actually more cloying in shop bought mince pies.
@Paulos_the_fog I use the pastry recipe my brother uses for apple pie. I'm not sure it's melt in the mouth, but is very easy.
Unfortunately my copy is about 400km away
@ParkinJim
I must look up the recipe Escoffier recommends for short sweet crust pastry. I have never really mastered melt-in-the-mouth short pastry!