A Christmas Round up

Nearly every day now I'm being asked several times, "Are you ready?" If it weren't for the fact it's Christmas in 10 days and that's all anyone talks about at this time of year (that and the threat of snow!), I'd  be wondering what on earth I was meant to be ready for! The answer right now is no, I'm not. Having written out a list of what I need to sort before Christmas (presents, food, work, people to see, places to go etc etc) I am feeling the pressure, but whatever will be will be and if things aren't done, things will go on anyway. So with that in mind I'm happy to chill out a bit by making some Christmas goodies in the kitchen.

I've been busy working on my Creole Christmas Cake, and feeding it over the past few weeks with brandy. I've also made a couple of batches of Christmas Fruit Punch (Non-Alcoholic Mulled Wine) and even some of Jamie's Mince Pies.

Here's links to my other Christmas recipes, I hope they help and inspire you this Christmas season!

Christmas Mince Pies

Ginger Glazed Gammon

Maple glazed ham

My sage, sausage and apricot stuffing

Christmas roast potatoes, carrots and parsnip

Mum's Christmas Cake

Daring Bakers 21: Gingerbread House

My Christmassy Terrine - a great way to use up those Christmas leftovers!

And here are some other recipes which people find useful over Christmastime.

Honey Roast Parsnips

Great British Pudding Challenge: Canary Pudding

Garlic roast potatoes

Baby spuds in Blankets?

English toffee

Vanilla Fudge

Malteser Cheesecake

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Soy Honey Cocktail Sausages

Lemon Cake with Passionfruit Syrup

Christmas Fruit Punch (Non-Alcoholic Mulled Wine)

Each Christmas I try to make something new to add to my list of Christmas recipes, this year I have a few things in mind and this is the first.

I love a good mulled wine so I mustered up the courage to give this recipe a go and decided to go for a non-alcoholic version seeing as it would be being served to people of various ages.. This recipe is adapted from a recipe I was given by a friend, you have to love recipes shared by friends! One problem I had, which isn't even a problem is that the punch looked rather brown when all done, so I added in a few drops of red food colouring to correct.

There is also two ways to prepare this punch - on the hob or in the slow cooker (aka crock pot).

Christmas Fruit Punch (Non-Alcoholic Mulled Wine) 
Makes around 25 servings


Ingredients
2 litres orange juice
1.5 litres apple juice
1 litre cranberry juice
1.5 litres water
500g caster sugar
4 sachets of mulled wine spice
1 large orange studded with around 30-40 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
(Few drops of red food colouring - optional)
1 orange cubed
1 apple cubed


Recipe
ON THE HOB
1. Mix all ingredients (except food colouring, cubed orange and cubed apple) in a large stock pot, bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes.
2. Leave overnight for flavours to infuse.
3. Remove spice sachets, orange and cinnamon sticks (may need to pass through a sieve to filter out cloves and cinnamon stick shards). Can be stored in the fridge for up to one week. Add the food colouring if desired.
4. Add apple and orange cubes and reheat gently, then serve.

IN THE SLOW COOKER/CROCK POT

1. Mix all ingredients (except food colouring, cubed orange and cubed apple) in the slow cooker, set on high and leave for 3 hours.

2. Turn off and leave overnight for flavours to infuse.

3. Remove spice sachets, orange and cinnamon sticks (may need to pass through a sieve to filter out cloves and cinnamon stick shards). Can be stored in the fridge for up to one week. Add the food colouring if desired.

4. Add apple and orange cubes and reheat on low for 2 hours or high for 1 hour, then serve.

Christmas Pudding

It's hard to ignore that Christmas is on it's way now with shops having had Christmassy things in stock since September, and while I do think it's crazy to be thinking about Christmas THAT soon, it is important to get a move on with preparing some Christmas goodies ahead of time.

Last Christmas I watched Delia's Christmas Special in which she made a lot of the traditional Christmas food, one being Christmas Pudding. I've never really liked Christmas Pudding (despite absolutely loving Christmas cake. In the show Delia said most people say they don't like it because they've only ever tried store bought, but that this recipe is the "proper" way to do it and much nicer. How could I resist? The Queen has spoken! And apparently she's been using this recipe every year for over 30 years herself, how could it be bad? So I gave it a go last year and was so glad I did, I'm excited to give this a go again this year, I may just be a pudding fan after all!

The reason I'm posting this so early? Because it's good for this pudding to mature for about a month before eating. So ignore that it's still November cos it ain't too early to get cooking and baking for Christmas.



Christmas Pudding

Serves 8-10

Ingredients
4 oz (110 g) shredded suet (beef or vegetarian)
2 oz (50 g) self-raising flour, sifted
4 oz (110 g) white breadcrumbs (made from a loaf left out overnight - the best way to make breadcrumbs is in a blender, if you have one)
1 level teaspoon ground mixed spice
¼ level teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
good pinch ground cinnamon
8 oz (225 g) soft dark brown sugar
4 oz (110 g) sultanas
4 oz (110 g) raisins
10 oz (275 g) currants
1 oz (25 g) mixed candied peel, finely chopped (buy whole peel if possible, then chop it yourself)
1 oz (25 g) almonds, skinned and chopped (I left these out, not a bit fan of almonds)
1 small Bramley cooking apple (7 oz/200 g), peeled, cored and finely chopped
grated zest ½ large orange
grated zest ½ large lemon
2 tablespoons rum
2½ fl oz (75 ml) stout, plus a bit extra if needed
2½ fl oz (75 ml) barley wine I added in 2½ fl oz more of Stout instead
2 large eggs

Equipment
You will also need a 2 pint (1.2 litre) pudding basin, lightly greased.

Recipe
1. Get our your largest bowl, and I mean your most massivest bowl, and pour in the suet, flour, breadcrumbs, spices and sugar and mix well.
2. Gradually add in the dried fruit, mixed peel, almonds, apple, orange zest and lemon zest



3. In a separate smaller bowl measure out all the alcohol, add the eggs and beat together well
4. Pour the eggy alcohol over the other ingredients and mix thoroughly. It should be quite sloppy and fall off the spoon when tapped at the side of the bowl. (If you think it's too dry mix in a little more stout.
5. cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and leave for a couple of hours or overnight
6. Fill a saucepan with boiling water, place a steamer on top and bring the water to a simmer on the stove.
7. Pack the pudding mix into a greased basin, cover with 2 layers of baking paper then a sheet of tin foil, then tie with string to secure.
8. Steam your pudding for 8 hours, making sure to keep an eye on the water level, topping up with boiling water when needed.
9. When done, remove from the steamer and leave until it gets cold. Remove the baking paper and foil and wrap it all up with fresh paper, foil and string.
10. Store your pudding in a cool dry place, away from light for about a month
11. Come Christmas, start up the steamer again and get the pudding steaming for 2 hours.... delish!


Something else to consider getting ready now is Christmas Cake because it's better after a month maturing. I have two recipes for Christmas Cake here and here.

A few other Christmas recipes include:
Jamie's Mince Pies
Traditional Mince Pies
Ginger Glazed Gammon/Ham
Maple Glazed Gammon/Ham
Sage, Sausage and Apricot Stuffing
Christmas Roast veggies

My Christmassy Terrine

Are you tired of Christmas dinner by now? If not you should give this a go, Even if you are what the heck, try it anyways.

I spotted a recipe in a magazine before Christmas (I think it was Sainsbury's own mag but not entirely sure) which I read and kept the idea in mind for during the Christmas period. The original recipe looked beautiful with dried apricots, nuts and cranberries all mixed in but I had to leave these out of my version of this recipe for husband to be able to enjoy it too.

This was rather tasty and really very easy to make but looks a bit more complicated and impressive - I love things like that!



Ruth's Christmassy Terrine

Serves 4

Ingredients
1 white onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 tsbp olive oil
18 rashers of unsmoked streaky bacon
8 skinned and boned chicken thighs, diced into a mix of small and large pieces
150g pork mince
2 slices of bread, blended into breadcrumbs
1 tbsp brandy
1 tsp sage
2 tsp thyme
2 tsp lemon juice
salt
pepper

Recipe
1. Fry the onion and garlic in the olive oil until soft. Leave to cool for a bit.
2. Line a loaf tin with the streaky bacon, leaving a few to the side
3. Mix together the rest of the ingredients in a bowl then pour into the bacon lined tin.
4. Cover the top with the overhanging bacon and layering extra bacon over the top.
5. Cover over with tin foil and place in an oven dish. Part fill the dish with hot water and place into the oven at 180˚C for 1 hour.
6. Remove from the oven and carefully drain off any fat. Leave to cool.



This can be served hot or cold, if you want it hot place a few slices in the oven at 180˚C for 5-10 minutes
Great served with some roast root veggies, potatoes and cranberry sauce.

Creole Christmas Cake

I know I'm in a minority these days but I am a big fan of Christmas cake. When I was younger Mum would have bought slabs of "iced fruit cake" through the year for me, not just at Christmas. Last year I made my first ever Christmas Cake using Mum's Christmas Cake recipe. I watched Delia's Christmas Special a few weeks ago and loved the look of her Creole Christmas Cake and decided I just had to try it. It takes a good bit of time seeing as the dried fruits are to steep in the alcohol for a week! Then the baking takes 3 hours and after that there's the extra "feeding" but that's only if you want more alcohol in it!



It's a truly delicious cake - I was excited to try it from the moment it came out of the oven but I was good and waited to steal a few crumbs when it was taken out of the tin!

Creole Christmas Cake

Ingredients

For the pre-soaking
3 tbsp dark rum
3 tbsp brandy
3 tbsp port
3 tbsp cherry brandy I added an extra tbsp of rum, brandy and port instead
1½ tsp Angostura bitters Left this out - couldn't find it!
½ level tsp ground cinnamon
½ level tsp ground nutmeg
½ level tsp ground cloves
½ level tsp salt
1½ tsp vanilla extract
1 level tbsp molasses sugar
2 oz (50 g) glacé cherries, chopped
1 lb (450 g) raisins
4 oz (110 g) pitted no-soak prunes, chopped I used sultanas instead
8 oz (225 g) currants
4 oz (110 g) mixed candied peel
2 oz (50 g) mixed chopped nuts

For the cake:
9 oz (250 g) self-raising flour
9 oz (250 g) demerara sugar
9 oz (250 g) butter, at room temperature
5 large eggs

Recipe
1. Mix together the fruits, spices, salt, vanilla, molasses and alcohol and store in a container for a week. Give the container a shake every now and again during this time.



2. Preheat the oven to 275˚F (140˚C) when you're ready to bake.
3. Measure out the flour, sugar and butter into a very large bowl and mix together.
4. Add and mix in the eggs one at a time.
5. Gradually stir in the dried fruit mixture until all is combined.
6. Pour into a greased and lined 9" round tin, then bake in the oven for 3 hours.
7. Leave to cool for 45mins in the tin then once cool wrap in greaseproof paper and foil and in an airtight container.
8. If you're wanting to "feed" the cake pierce a few holes in the cake and pour a little brandy into each one, repeat once a week for 4 weeks.


If you're decorating the traditional way, spread apricot glaze over the cake then cover with marzipan, dampen the marzipan a little and cover with white icing.



For more Christmas recipes see
Jamie's Mince Pies
Traditional Mince Pies
Ginger Glazed Gammon/Ham
Sage, Sausage and Apricot Stuffing
Christmas Roast veggies

Daring Bakers 21: Gingerbread House

I'm late..... again.... with my Daring Bakers post for this month, but I only just got it finished. This month the challenge was a Christmassy one in that we had to make a Gingerbread House!

I have to admit I had a few problems with this one. There were two different recipes to work from for this, I thought I'd save reading any further and just do the first one, but ended in disaster for me because the dough ended up way too dry and I still had more flour to add! I asked my fellow DBers for advice and was told to add a little milk or water until it comes together so I gave it a go but it just didn't want to mix, I ended up with firm clumps swimming in milk, so that was off to the bin. I read on and tried out the second recipe which worked much better this time, but did need extra water to bring it together too, but not much and I think it turned out well in the end.....



... I'm rather proud of my little piece of architecture, but to be honest not sure a Wicked Witch would feel safe living in it.

PS I halved this recipe to make a smaller house, I also only used half the dough on the house and made gingerbread "cookies" with the rest.

Scandinavian Gingerbread (Pepparkakstuga)

Recipe

from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas

1 cup butter, room temperature [226g]
1 cup brown sugar, well packed [220g]
2 tablespoons cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ cup boiling water
5 cups all-purpose flour [875g]

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until blended. Add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix the baking soda with the boiling water and add to the dough along with the flour. Mix to make a stiff dough. If necessary add more water, a tablespoon at a time. Chill 2 hours or overnight.

2. Cut patterns for the house, making patterns for the roof, front walls, gabled walls, chimney and door out of cardboard.

3. Roll the dough out on a large, ungreased baking sheet and place the patterns on the dough. Mark off the various pieces with a knife, but leave the pieces in place.

4. [I rolled out the dough on a floured bench, roughly 1/8 inch thick (which allows for fact that the dough puffs a little when baked), cut required shapes and transferred these to the baking sheet. Any scraps I saved and rerolled at the end.]

5. Preheat the oven to 375'F (190'C). Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookie dough feels firm. After baking, again place the pattern on top of the gingerbread and trim the shapes, cutting the edges with a straight-edged knife. Leave to cool on the baking sheet.

Simple Syrup: I skipped this part and glued it all together using the icing
2 cups (400g) sugar

Place in a small saucepan and heat until just boiling and the sugar dissolves. Dredge or brush the edges of the pieces to glue them together. If the syrup crystallizes, remake it.

Royal Icing:

1 large egg white
3 cups (330g) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon almond extract

Beat all ingredients until smooth, adding the powdered sugar gradually to get the desired consistency. Pipe on pieces and allow to dry before assembling. If you aren't using it all at once you can keep it in a small bowl, loosely covered with a damp towel for a few hours until ready to use. You may have to beat it slightly to get it an even consistency if the top sets up a bit. Piped on the house, this will set up hard over time.





The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

Mum's Christmas Cake

I'm a big fan of Christmas cake and every year Mum would have bought me my own cake to nibble away at. This year I decided to make it myself and used the recipe from Mum's cook book. I had a load of fun making this, and half way through realised I didn't have a big enough bowl to mix the cake batter and fruit mix together so rushed out to Tesco and bought an 8 litre bowl for £2!!!! Bargain. I'm excited to use it for making big batches of rice krispie buns and things! I know I'm like a child.

Anyways on with the recipe....



Mum's Christmas Cake

Ingredients
1/2 lb sultanas
1/2 lb currants
1/2 lb raisins
1/4 lb candied peel or green glacé cherries
1/4 lb red glacé cherries
2 oz shredded almonds
2 oz ground almonds
grated rind of 1 orange or lemon

1/2lb butter
1/2 lb soft brown sugar
5 eggs
1/2 lb plain flour
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
pinch salt
Splash of spirits (or if you're like me some orange juice)

Recipe
1. Line and grease an 8" round tin (or 7" square tin).
2. Mix the sultanas, currants, raisins, candied peel, cherries, almonds and orange/lemon rind in one bowl and set aside.
3. Cream the butter and sugar together but not so much because the fruit may sink if there's a lot of air)
4. In a separate bowl mix the flour, mixed spice, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
5. Mix an egg into the creamed butter, then some flour, then an egg, then some flour - keep alternating until all the eggs and flour have been mixed in.
6. Mix the batter and fruit mix together well, stir in the spirits (/orange juice) and pour into your cake tin.
7. Just before baking sprinkle a little water on top.
8. Bake in the oven at 325˚F for 1 hour
9. Bake for a further hour at 300˚F
10 Bake for one more hour at 275˚F. (During the baking try not to open the oven)
11. Leave to cool in the tin before removing it.

I covered mine with marzipan and white icing but it's fine without and can be stored in a cool place, wrapped in greaseproof paper and foil.



For some other Christmas recipes check out my posts from last year:
Jamie's Mince Pies - which I've made this year again
Traditional Mince Pies
Ginger Glazed Gammon/Ham
Sage, Sausage and Apricot Stuffing
Christmas Roast veggies

Maple glazed ham

I recently read about the Root Source Challenge where that challenge was to come up with a recipe including Maple Syrup. As soon as I read it I started having dreams of crepes with bacon smothered with maple syrup, then thought of a gammon I had sitting in the fridge that I was planning to boil in coke (I know Nigella has a ham cooked in coke recipe but I didn't know about this until after I'd been doing it myself.... great minds think alike and all that!), so decided to twist and develop this idea a little more and came up with my entry for the challenge.


Maple glazed Ham

Serves 2-3

Ingredients
750g gammon
1 litre coke
Whole cloves
1 tbsp whole grain mustard
2.5 tbsp maple syrup

Recipe
1. Place the gammon joint into a pot that it fits into with not too much extra room. Pour in the coke until the meat is covered and boil on a medium heat for 1 hour.
2. Mix the whole grain mustard and maple syrup together to make the glaze
3. Remove the gammon from the coke and leave to cool for 5 minutes.

4. Remove any skin that is on the meat and slice a criss cross pattern across the top. Push a whole clove into each "x" made by the criss cross pattern.

5. Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Place the gammon in an oven proof dish or a foil lined baking tray. Pour the glaze on top of the joint, making sure it is covered. Cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the glaze is golden.

6. When done, leave to cool for 5 minutes before slicing and serving.



A much tastier dinner for my palate after last night's salmon!

Jamie's Mince Pies

Jamie Oliver did a great Christmas special a few days before Christmas and made some mince pies with a difference. Despite having already made some mince pies I was tempted to try these. They are so incredibly easy they get a 1/5 Difficulty rating and are so incredibly delicious.

Jamie Oliver's Mince Pies with a Twist


Makes 12

Ingredients
A packet of pre made filo pastry
A packet of pre made puff pastry (about 500g)
1 jar of mincemeat
Chopped Chestnuts (roasted or boiled) (I omitted)
Zest of 1/2 an orange
Dried Cranberries(I omitted)
5 or 6 dried apricots, finely chopped (I added)
Some mixed spice (I added)
Icing sugar (I omitted)
Melted Butter

Recipe
1. Roll out the puff pastry on a floured surface until it is about 3 mm thick and about 12" by 12"
2. Paste a thin-to-medium layer of mincemeat on the puff pastry sheet. Add the (cranberries, chopped up chestnuts,) dried apricots and orange zest.

3. Roll up the pastry into a roll, slice a cm off each end of the roll and cut the rest into slices about 2 cm wide. Place your sliced puff pastry mincemeat slices to one side.

4. Take 4-6 sheets of filo pastry and brush them with melted butter. Lie the pastry over your bun tray, butter side down, covering the whole tray.
5. With any left over puff pastry, mould the filo pastry into the shape of the bun tray.
6. Into each bun case place one of the puff pastry roll slices. Butter around the edges of the filo pastry.

7. Add to an oven at 180˚C for 20-25 minutes.
8. Remove and allow to cool. Dust with icing sugar and a little mixed spice.

9. To separate the pies, you just snap them off.

Absolutely delicious! Thanks Jamie.

Christmas dinner

This year, Rob and I celebrated our first Christmas as a married couple and had fun cooking our own Christmas dinner.


For starters we had crispy duck with chinese pancakes, hoi sin sauce and spring onions.


And for our main course we made Turkey, Ginger Glazed Gammon, Stuffing and roast potatoes, carrots and parsnips and had cocktail sausages and yorkshire pudding along with it all.



I even made doggie treats for Stewie
What a fantastic feed! We had a great day!

Christmas roast potatoes, carrots and parsnip

There's something special about roast potatoes at Christmas, I just love them! And I've grown very fond of roast parsnips as I've grown up too.

Christmas roast potatoes, carrots and parsnips

Ingredients
Potatoes, peeled and chopped up into quarters
Carrots, peeled and chopped into chunks
Parsnips, peeled and chopped into chunks
Goose fat
Garlic cloves, just crushed whole with a knife, no need to peel
Rosemary

Recipe
1. Preheat the oven to 190C
2. Parboil your veg for 10 minutes. Drain off water and shake the veg about in the pot to roughen the edges (we didn't peel ours so the edges didn't roughen/fluff up too well).
3. Place the goose fat (as much as you'll need to coat the amount of veg you are cooking) in your roasting tin/tray along with your garlic cloves that (about half a clove for each full vegetable you're cooking e.g. 2 potatoes = 1 garlic clove) and the rosemary (a tsp for each full vegetable). Place the tin/tray in the oven for 1-2 minutes.
4. Remove the tray, add the veg and lightly turn the veg in the tray so they are coated in the fat.
5. Replace the tray in the oven to roast for 35-40 minutes, checking occasionally and basting with the fat.

Delicious! But not to be done too often or I'll end up being the size of an elephant!

My sage, sausage and apricot stuffing

It's only in the last couple of years that I've started to like stuffing and thought I'd give it a go making some and here's my recipe, that was pulled together from various recipes.

My Sage, Sausage and Apricot Stuffing

Serves 3-4

Ingredients
250g sausage meat (I used pork)
25g (about 1 slice of bread worth) of breadcrumbs
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed/chopped
2 tbsp dried chopped sage
4-5 dried apricots
Salt and pepper to season

Recipe
1. Fry the onions and garlic for 2 minutes, and allow to cool.
2. Add all the other ingredients to the onion and garlic and mix well (best done the messy way with your hands). (This can all be done the night before)

3. You can either put it inside the turkey (or bird of your choice) or make balls in an oven proof dish or spread out into an oven proof dish.

4. Cook in the oven at 190C for 25-30mins

Ginger Glazed Gammon

I had watched Nigella Lawson's Christmas show, "Season's Eatings", and was drooling as I watched her making this ham. However I was worried about this recipe slightly as she had used a 5.4kg ham and I was planning to only cook a 0.75kg gammon, so fixing the times and scaling down the ingredients took some calculation and guesstimation and creativity. And it all turned out beautifully!

Ginger glazed gammon


Serves 2-3

Ingredients
750g gammon
1 litre ginger ale (I used light ginger ale, can never be too careful with the calories at Christmas!)
Marinade
1/4 cup marmalade (65ml)
1 tsp ground ginger
3 tsp whole grain mustard
2 tbsp soft dark brown sugar
a pinch of ground cloves

Recipe
1. Place the gammon in a pot and pour in the ginger ale (you can top up with water to cover the gammon). Bring to the boil, then reduce heat so it will bubble gently for 1-1.5 hrs.
2. In a bowl mix all the ingredients for the marinade (this can be done the day before).
3. Remove the gammon from the ginger ale and place in a foil lined baking tray or in an oven dish. Cover in the marinade and place in the oven at 190C for about 20-25 minutes.
4. Serve hot or cold.

I've had some in a sandwich already, just gorgeous!

PS if you're looking for the difference between ham and gammon, check here

Rob's Christmas turkey

My hubby isn't that keen on cooking, unless it's BBQ or steak, however he decided to take charge of the turkey for Christmas, and I'm hoping it's a tradition that continues!

I thought I'd tell what all he did to the turkey and show the results.

The night before (but it can be done just before putting the turkey in the oven) he mixed herbs (sage and parsley) into some butter and softened it. Separated the skin from the meat on the breast and spread the butter underneath. Rubbed some oil all over the skin of the bird then a little more of the butter mix. Covered the breast in strips of bacon and wrapped the legs and wings in foil.


We peeled and quartered some white and red onions, smashed some root ginger with a knife and placed it all in the bottom of the cooking tray (along with the giblets). Set the turkey on top and roasted for 3.5 hrs (it was a 10lb turkey), rested for half hour, then carved. Delicious and simple!

Our first ever turkey!

Christmas Mince Pies

Thanks Jeena for your mince pie recipe. I had some fun making them and will get them all packaged to give to people as gifts before Christmas.

Jeena's Nanna's mince pies (slightly edited)

Makes 12 pies

Ingredients
8 oz Self Raising Flour
3 oz butter (softened)
1 Tbsp White Sugar
Small Jar Mincemeat
5.5 Level Tbsp Cold Water
1/4 cup orange zest
Plain flour

NB you will need a large and medium sized cookie cutter, as well as a jam tart oven tray

Recipe
1. Place flour, butter, sugar and orange zest in a mixing bowl and rob the ingredients together until it becomes like breadcrumbs in consistency

2. Add the cold water and mix the crumbs into a ball of pastry using a blunt knife or spoon.

3. Using your plain flour, flour a surface and roll out the dough very thinly. Then using your large cookie cutter, cut out 12 shapes and place in your jam tart tray.


4. Add a teaspoon of mice to the middle of each pie

5. Dip your finger in a little water and gently dab the edges of your mince pies to help the lid stick.
6. Roll the leftover pastry out thin again and cut out 12 shapes with the medium cookie cutter. Place the lids on top of the pies and gently press around the edges.

7. Mark a star shape on the lid using the edge of a blunt knife.

8. Place in the middle of an oven preheated to 205˚C and cook for 17 minutes or until slightly golden.


Delicious!!! Thanks Jeena.