94 brandied apple recipes

Authentic mincemeat from my Grandmother's recipe. Yields about 4 quarts/litres, enough to make about 4 mincemeat pies.

Traditional mincemeat filling with beef, suet, green tomatoes, tart apples, raisins, and warm spices. Canned with brandy for holiday pies, makes 3 quarts.

Traditional British Christmas plum pudding: a dense steamed pudding rich with suet, dried fruit, candied orange, and brandy. Made weeks ahead to mellow, then reheated and flamed for the holiday table.

Chilled shrimp cocktail with brandy-spiked lemon cream sauce, studded with crisp apple and fresh herbs. Elegant Italian appetizer.

Kompot w spirytusie, a traditional Polish 12-fruit compote with dried fruits, fresh apples, cranberries, cherries, and brandy. A Christmas Eve dessert simmered with warm spices.

Whole Bartlett pears cored and filled with currant jelly, wrapped in golden puff pastry and baked, served pooled in Calvados caramel sauce. A bakery-window dessert that looks impossible but isn't.

A traditional mincemeat recipe that actually has meat in it!

Guilt-free pumpkin swirl cheesecake uses yogurt cheese and egg substitute to drop the fat without losing the creamy body. Marbled pumpkin filling, spiced cinnamon graham crust, holiday-worthy flavor.

A spiced chocolate apple bundt cake with diced green apples, currants, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, finished with a brandy-cinnamon glaze. Moist, warmly spiced, and perfect for fall baking.

Boiled lobster medallions and claw meat served in a rich curry sauce made from the lobster cooking liquid, Calvados, white wine, and curry powder, finished with a butter-flour thickener.

Elegant French apple pudding soufflé with Calvados, sautéed apples, and almond macaroon crumbs served with homemade vanilla sauce for special occasion dessert.

Buche de Marrons au Chocolat, a French chestnut and chocolate log (no-bake variation of buche de Noel) with Calvados, wrapped in whipped cream bark and garnished with candied violets. A show-stopping Christmas dessert.

Holiday mincemeat with chopped beef, suet, apples, sour cherries, dried fruit, and broken nuts simmered slowly with brandy and warming spices. A massive 48-serving batch for Christmas baking and gift-giving.

Mock mincemeat without any meat, made with raisins, molasses, brown sugar, brandy, cracker crumbs, and warm spices. A vegetarian filling for holiday pies.

Lobster with curry sauce from Bon Appetit: poached lobster medallions served over a silky reduction of tomato, Calvados, white wine, and warm curry spices. A dinner-party centerpiece with French technique.

Old-fashioned mince meat with calf tongue, suet, dried fruit, candied citrus, brandy and whiskey. The traditional pie filling, aged in a crock for at least 7 weeks for deep holiday flavor.