A good way to re-invent a surfeit of mince pies. If you don’t want to make meringue, just top with whipped cream or a thick, cooled custard.

Make this in individual dishes for neater presentation.

Serves 6-8.

Ingredients

Mince Pies	5
Oranges	5
Ginger Ale	250	millilitres
Leaf Gelatin	6	sheets
Egg Whites	3
Caster Sugar	150	grams
White Wine Vinegar	1	capful
Salt	1	pinch
Lemon Curd	1	dessert spoon
Ginger Biscuits	2

Main Equipment

1. (Preferably) Glass dish approx 20x15cm and 8-10cm high, or 6-8 individual glasses. Heatproof if you are planning to do meringue.
2. Electric whisk
3. Blowtorch if you have one

Method

Begin by making the jelly. Having the oranges and ginger ale cold will help the jelly set faster.

1. Juice the oranges. Reserve one if you like the idea of having some fruit segments in the trifle.
2. Add the ginger ale to the orange juice to get 500ml of liquid in total or alternatively, just use more orange juice. Keep the liquid cold.
3. Check the gelatin instructions and use enough to set the 500ml of liquid. For me this was 6 sheets which required soaking in cold water for 5 minutes before use.
4. Squeeze the excess water from the gelatin sheets.
5. The gelatin now needs to be heated to dissolved into the juice mixture. If you are pressed for time, put the bare minimum of juice into a saucepan with the gelatin and keep the remaining juice cold.
6. Gently heat the gelatin & juice mixture and stir until dissolved, should only take a few minutes. I’m told you shouldn’t let it boil.
7. Stir the dissolved gelatin mixture into the remainder of the juice.
8. Cut the mince pies into bite-size pieces.
9. Arrange in a single layer on the base of the dish, distributing evenly between the individual dishes if serving this way.
10. (Optionally) strain the jelly onto the mince pies. Mine had a few bits of pith floating in it but to be honest, by the time it hit the pastry of the mince pies it would have been impossible to discern the difference between pith and pastry.
11. Place in the fridge to chill. Depending on the depth of the jelly & temperature of the mixture this could be as little as an hour but may be two or three.
12. When the jelly is ready, make the meringue. Lots of people shy away from meringue but in my view, you needn’t worry too much. This is a good place to practice as the meringue doesn’t need to be perfect – the dish will make it keep its shape if the consistency isn’t right and sugary egg whites taste good whatever the texture.
    1. Make sure your bowl is SCRUPULOUSLY clean. Any traces of fat in the bowl will prevent the egg whites from increasing in volume.
    2. Whisk the whites on a slow setting until they form soft peaks. To check this, stop whisking and lift the whisk out of the mixture. The mix should have shape but fall gently back towards the bowl. You can whisk them on a fast setting but a lesson I went to a few years back advised that lots of little bubbles made a better meringue than fewer big bubbles and hence if you can be patient you should get a better result.
    3. Begin adding the sugar; with the whisk running and the sugar one slowly sprinkled spoonful at a time so as not to knock the air from the egg whites.
    4. Once all incorporated add a pinch of salt and capful of white wine vinegar. The latter sounds crazy but it reacts with the egg whites to help them set to a chewy texture.
13. If you like lemon curd, carefully stir about a dessert spoonful through the meringue. Do this by dotting it into the meringue and swirling through with a metal spoon so as not to knock the air out, no need to completely combine. If you over mix the meringue will lose its volume and become runnier – not the end of the world for this recipe thanks the the aforementioned benefit of the dish keeping the meringue in place but piping would be off the agenda.
14. Remove the jelly from the fridge. Scatter with bite-size fresh orange segments if desired (or tangerines).
15. Spread the meringue mixture over the jelly & fruit. You need a thick layer that is completely sealed at the edges – heat is going to be applied to the meringue to crisp up the top. If any jelly is exposed or only thinly covered it will quickly melt; the millions of tiny air bubbles provide the perfect insulation.
16. If your meringue is good (by which I mean has a stiff texture) and you can be bothered, you could pipe it onto the dessert. This will look more impressive and should give you a better crust when you grill it.
17. Optionally, crush a couple of ginger-nut biscuits and scatter over the top. Don’t use too many as you want the majority of the meringue exposed to the heat to get a crunchy top layer.
18. Either place the dish under a piping hot grill or blow-torch briefly to colour the meringue. If grilling, watch it eagerly as it will suddenly turn. Don’t be tempted to use a low heat for longer as this will mean that the jelly heats up and starts to melt.
19. Chill until ready to serve.

(If you didn’t go for the meringue option, top at step 15 with whipped cream or cooled custard. To avoid disturbing the jelly too much, either pipe or dot your chosen topping in spoonfuls evenly across the top. That way you’ll need just the minimum of spreading.)