Mince Pie Christmas Fudge

Deliciously sweet melt in your mouth fudge laced with little moorish crumbled up pieces of mince pies. I've never tasted such Christmassy fudge before! Crumbly, perfectly spiced, with a dreamy texture (yes I said dreamy). These are perfect bagged up and given as gifts to any mince pie lover. Perhaps you bought too many mince pies, you're fed up of eating them already and you don't know what to do with them. This fudge recipe will transform them into a sweet tooth's delight.

Ingredients
4 deep fill mince pies
225g salted butter
450g golden caster sugar
1 tin condensed milk (397g)
1tsp vanilla bean paste (optional)
a sugar thermometer

Start by crumbling up the mince pies into small pieces. Grease a medium sized baking tray with butter.

In a medium sized heavy saucepan, melt the butter then stir in the sugar. Gently cook on a low heat until the sugar has completely dissolved.

Once the sugar has dissolved, add the condensed milk. Turn the heat up and bring the mixture to the boil whilst continuously stirring. Keep it bubbling for about 10 minutes or until your sugar thermometer reaches the "soft ball" stage at 115°C.

As soon as it reaches 115°C, turn off the heat and stop stirring. Do not stir the mixture until it has cooled down and starts to thicken around the edges of the pan, (if you stir too much at this stage it will become too crystallized). Once it has cooled down a little, mix in the vanilla and the mince pies, then pour the mixture into your baking tray to set. Once it is completely cool, cut into small squares.