My mother makes the best Christmas mincemeat. Working from a mixture of recipes culled from her battered old Stork Christmas cookery booklets and Darina Allen's original (and now falling apart) Simply Delicious Christmas cookbook, she's made it her own. Over the years there have been a couple of deliberate omissions – no one on her side of the family liked candied peel so it fell out of favour, my Nana wasn't a fan of suet so we subbed in butter. There have also been many additions: fresh and dried cranberries are a welcome addition on the fruit side of things, orange and lemon zests are essential, and a decent slug of marzipan-in-a-glass Amaretto never goes amiss.

This year she went one better; misreading the recipe, she ended up doubling her already tripled recipe. We have buckets of mincemeat. And, much though I love mincemeat, I detest the palaver of making mince pies. So I've been playing around with something just a little bit different for the Christmas table – a make-ahead baked cheesecake that takes minutes to put together and just uses one bowl, that being on a food processor. Unlike many deserts this time of year, it’s not too heavy or cloying, yet has an unmistakable flavour of Christmas.

Serve with a dollop of whipped cream, laced with brandy, to amp up the festive factor and enjoy a very Merry Christmas!

Thankfully for those of us who have been holding our Simply Delicious Christmas, the one with the green cover and that Christmas pudding recipe, together with sticky tape and goodwill for the last few years, Darina Allen has just released a revised and expanded version and – great for cookbooks that will be well used – a hard cover. Well worth investing in for Christmas 2014 and all the Christmases to come. Also, if you're searching for fresh cranberries, keep an eye out for Irish ones that have been grown on cut-away bogs in Offaly (yes, really!) by Slieve Bloom Farmhouse Foods. They also make a Cranberry and Mulled Wine Sauce which would be great as a fruity contrast to this cheesecake.

***

Mincemeat and clementine Christmas cheesecake

If there's a random selection of biscuits in the tin, I've also successfully used combinations of shortbread/amaretti or gingernuts/shortbread for the base. You may not have a vat of mincemeat at home to use up. In that case, it's entirely acceptable to use the best bought one that you can afford. Taste and see – it might need grated apple, a handful of fresh cranberries, some citrus zest or a drop of alcohol to liven it up a little.

Serves 6-8

150g digestive biscuits

75g butter, melted

400g cream cheese (full fat, please! It's worth it.)

4 eggs

125g caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

125g good quality mincemeat

25g dried cranberries

Zest of 1 clementine

300ml sour cream

  • Heat oven to 180C (fan 160C) and line the base of a 25 cm springform tin with baking parchment.

  • Put the biscuits into a food processor and blitz until finely crushed. Add the butter, blitz to combine then press into the base of the lined tin. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Leave to cool.

  • Meanwhile, wipe out the bowl of the food processor and use it to mix the cream cheese, eggs, caster sugar and vanilla together. Remove the blade and stir in the mincemeat, dried cranberries and clementine zest.

  • Pour the filling over the crumb base, trying to avoid bubbles, then carefully place the tin back into the oven and cook for 25-30 minutes or until just barely set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Place the sour cream in a small bowl, stir until smooth then spread over the top of the cheesecake. Return to the oven for 10 more minutes.

  • Open the oven door a little and allow the cheesecake to cool gently in the oven to avoid cracking – this takes 3-4 hours. Remove the cooled cheesecake from the oven, cover the tin with foil or cling film and chill for at least 4 hours before serving. This is generally when I leave it overnight in the fridge.

  • Loosen the sides of the cheesecake with a palette knife, then remove the tin. Cut into thin slices with a sharp knife. Serve - if you really need to gild the lily! - with some brandy whipped cream.

    • Caroline Hennessy is a broadcaster, author and award-winning food blogger. Visit her website here