A traditional Christmas dessert!

Christmas won´t reach our hearts until December, but I think it would be a great idea to promote one of the most traditional desserts in England during Christmas days, the Mince pie!!

Also known as the Christmas pie, this dessert is basically a mixture of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and minced meat, and was first consumed in the 11th century in order to honor Christ child, when the Crusaders returned from the Holy land. Something curious was the fact that they used to put a small figure of Christ child on top of the pie, so that the children would take this small figure before tasting the pie and, after this custom, they ate the pie as a celebration. In those days, people used to be really superstitious, as it was thought that whoever didn´t eat mincemeat pie every single day from the Christmas day until Epiphany, would not be very lucky during that year.

During the time in which England was a republic, Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas and everything related to it (mincemeat pies for instance), as he thought that it was a pagan holiday. But this law was abolished by King Charles II once the republic had come to an end, and thanks to this abolition we can taste this dessert every Christmas without any problems, as this tradition went on even during the Victorian Age, although it´s recipe was slightly different, as it was much sweeter. There was also another remarkable change, as people started making them much smaller, so that they could serve individual portions, instead of a large one.