There's something really wonderful about dessert that is made completely from scratch. This is a variation on an old theme of mincemeat shortcrust tarts and ice cream: using ginger shortbread cookies and mincemeat made with butter rather than suet (only because we didn't happen to have any suet when we suddenly decided we neeeeeeded mincemeat and didn't have time to go to the store to get some).
Usually I make all tiny star or bird ginger shortbread cookies. But this year, I got tired of the game as I was punching out tiny star after tiny star. I decided to use the larger star cutter and cut out the centers to make some large cookies that were still "small". I had no idea at the time that the decision was serendipitous.
Heat the mincemeat. Spoon it into the center of the star.
Capping the mincemeat with a small star and adding "sweet cream" ice cream makes for a wonderful dessert. Ginger icecream is excellent with this as well. And some people even claim that candycane chocolate chip icecream works....
