Mince pies (gluten and lactose free)

These are my gluten and lactose free mice pies. The pastry is lovely and short and the hazelnuts add a subtle flavour. You can use the mincemeat recipe in my previous post or buy a jar, just check that it meets any dietary requirements it may have. They keep really well in a tin, I liked to warm them for a couple of minutes beofre I tucked in, delicious!

Mince pies (gluten free, lactose free)

makes ~12

75g lactose free spread 
140g plain gluten free flour
1/4 tsp xantham gum
50g ground hazelnuts
1 tbsp golden caster sugar
Jar of mincemear (~400g)

Rub the spread into the flour until it ressembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the xantham gum, hazelnuts and sugar. Using a knife mix in 4 tbsps of cold water until the dough begins to come together. Knead briefly and shape into a disc, wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 30 minutes before using.

Preheat the oven to 190C/170 FAN/GAS 5 and grease a twelve hole cupcake tin with butter and line with a strip of parchment paper, this will make the pies simple to remove. 

Gently dust a work surface and rolling pin with gluten free flour and roll the pastry until it is 5mm thick. Cut out circles larger in diameter than the base of each hole and use them to gently line each hole. Fill each pie with mincemeat then using the remaining pastry cut out stars to top the mince pies.

Bake for 15-20 minutes in the preheated oven, when golden remove and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.  

   

Gluten free mincemeat

I can tell its nearly Christmas, and it is not just the cold weather and beautiful fairy lights everywhere. No I mean that busy feeling as you try to get your to do list done before the holidays! I have many blog posts to write and barely have time to sit down for 20 minutes at a time.

Today I share my gluten free mincemeat with you, hopefully tomorrow I will share gluten and lactose fee mince pies with you, I know, I know, promises promises.

I have a mincemeat recipe already on the blog. It is not however gluten free, and I have tweaked the recipe to make it a tiny little less sweet so that the spices shine through, it is now also nut free. Feel free to have a look at both and chose the one that best suits your requirements. If you do not wish to add the brandy just add an extra 50ml of orange juice.

I found gluten free suet in a health food shop but my mum found some in Morrisons so its worth having a look in your local supermarket.

Mincemeat 

1 bramley apple
150g raisins
150g sultanas
80g stoned dates, chopped
100g  GF vegetarian suet
200g brown sugar
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp cinnamon
fresh grating of nutmeg
Zest and juice of a small lemon
Zest and juice of half an orange
50ml brandy (or extra orange juice)

Put the raisins, sultanas, dates, suet, sugar and spices into a bowl and mix. Peel and grate the apple then add this to the bowl along with the citrus juice, zest and brandy, Give the whole thing a good mix.

Leave overnight, giving a good stir every now and then. By morning it will be slightly darker and lovely and sticky.

 Pack into sterile jars and leave to mature for as long as possible, saying that if you use it almost immediately it will still be delicious. 

 

Xmas village

First things first. I can spell. As a general rule I very much dislike the word xmas instead of Christmas. Having said that, this months letter for alpha bakes is 'X'. I cannot find a food that begins with X so am actually pretty relieved it has turned up in December.

I was having my weekly wander round lakeland when I spotted, amongst much Christmas bakeware, their mould for a fairytale village. I have always wanted to make a gingerbread house and thought that for my first one small would be better as they would be sturdy. The mould can be used for chocolate or gingerbread.

I followed the recipe on the packet as I thought that it may be important for the structural integrity of the houses. I did add an extra half teaspoon of ginger and 1/2 a teaspoon of mixed spice as I really like my gingerbread to have a deep warmth. I also used all treacle. You could use all golden syrup or or a mix but 1) I like the flavour of treacle and 2) It makes my houses nice and dark which contrast nicely with the snow.

I have never made royal icing before but it was very easy and holds my house together very very well indeed.

I got creative with all the remaining royal icing to create snow drifts by doors and in window panes. I also had a go at icicles and am very pleased for my first attempt. I finished the whole thing off with a dusting of icing sugar.

Its almost to pretty to eat but once I had brown the first roof panel off it got easier. The gingerbread is crunchy with a lovely deep flavour, I am glad I added the extra spicing.

Frangipane topped mince pies

I am in love. With the homemade mince pie. Last year I mentioned how I thought I did not like mince pies. Turns out what I do not like are over sweet mushy soft soggy shop mince pies. What I LOVE are homemade ones with short crumbly buttery pastry with a spiced fruit centre.

I have already made a batch of normal mince pies this year and they reignited my relatively new found love. You can find the recipes for the mincemeat, and the pies themselves here.

Although I love them as they are I wondered if there was any other ways that I could jazz them up. I love frangipane and decided that a moist almond sponge topping on a mince pie would probably be no bad thing. And I was 100% right. These are amazing. As someone had work said, 'they may upset absolute traditionalists but dare I say these are better than all pastry'.

I am not claiming this to be an original idea, I am sure if we looked there would be lots of recipes out there. But I did use my own mincemeat recipe, my own pastry and my own frangipane recipe. So I can at least the claim credit for this exact version.

Frangipane topped mince pies

makes 10-12

90g butter
110g plain flour
2 tablespoons caster sugar
egg yolk
1-3 tablespoons ice cold water

mincemeat

70g butter
50g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
1 egg
teaspoon almond extract
70g ground almonds
25g plain flour
Pulse the butter and flour in a food processor until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and egg yolk and pulse again. Add the water, a tablespoon at a time, and pulse until until the dough comes together, I have made this pastry a couple of times and always have needed 2 tablespoons of water, but it will depend on the butter you use and the size of the egg yolk.

Gather the dough and wrap in clingfilm, chill for 30 minutes.

While the pastry is chilling make the frangipane. Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla together until light and creamy. Beat in the egg and almond extract until combined. Gently fold in the almonds and flour until everything is evenly combined. 
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C FAN. Spray or butter cupcake tins and add a strip of greaseproof paper, this will make removing your mince pies a doddle.

Lightly flour a work surface and roll out your pastry to a few mm thick. Stamp out circles bigger than the bases in your cupcake tin.  Line the cases with the pastry, gently pushing it to the base and up the sides. Trimmings can be lightly re-rolled and to get the most from your pastry.

Fill each case with heaped teaspoons of mincemeat. then top with heaped teaspoons of frangipane. 

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until the frangipane topping is golden.

Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

I say cool completely but they are nice warm. I do  mean warm not hot, The hot pies are unstable and likely to collapse, not to mention the molten fruit within may do serious damage!

I am a little bit sad that I took these in to work as they are all gone already. Another batch will definitely be made on Friday.

Christmas chelsea buns

I know it is not just me who is in love with the great British bake off. The baked treats, Paul and Marry and of course the words of wisdom from Mel and Sue!

I was very excited to watch the Christmas special and whilst I wanted everything (and I do not even like Christmas pudding) I especially loved the idea of Paul's Christmas Chelsea bun. In case you missed the show this is a savoury Chelsea bun filled with your Christmas leftovers, turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce!

I did not change the recipe at all, who tweaks with a masterpiece? It can be found here.

It was easy to do, and assembly was fun!

It was very pretty to look at.

And most importantly it tasted absolutely delicious, I know for a fact I will not be able to wait till next Christmas and the leftovers it brings to make these again. I will have to engineer the leftovers specially!

Iced Christmas cake with home-made marzipan

A few weeks ago I told you about how I had made mini Christmas cakes in Kilner jars. Well the time had come to decorate them all ready for a hamper.

First I made home made marzipan, the recipe can be found here. I did substitute the vanilla for a drop of almond extract though.

I rolled my marzipan out to the thickness of a pound coin, and cut out a circle the same size as my cake. I glued it to my cake using warmed raspberry jam. I know traditionally it is meant to be apricot but raspberry is what I had in the fridge.

I then left the marzipan to dry out for two days, this is very important with fresh marzipan.

I then rolled out ready made white icing, again to the thickness of a pound coin and 'glued' it to the marzipan with a little sterile water.

For added decoration I cut out a star from the icing and dusted it in edible gold shimmer, I then glued this to the top of the cake and sealed the jar.

The cake should keep for one to two months.

Mince pies

So it turns out I do like mince pies! A while back I commented how I was confused that I did not like them as I like pastry and dried fruit. I made my own mincemeat and below is the pastry recipe I used. This pastry is lovely, short, crisp and buttery, not at all soft and mushy like some shop bought mice pies.

Mince pies

makes 6-9 depending on size

90g butter
110g plain flour
2 tablespoons caster sugar
egg yolk
1-3 tablespoons ice cold water

mincemeat

Pulse the butter and flour in a food processor until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and egg yolk and pulse again. Add the water, a tablespoon at a time, and pulse until until the dough comes together, I have made this pastry a couple of times and always have needed 2 tablespoons of water, but it will depend on the butter you use and the size of the egg yolk.

Gather the dough and wrap in clingfilm, chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200C/180C FAN. Spray or butter cupcake tins and add a strip of greaseproof paper, this will make removing your mince pies a doddle.

Lightly flour a work surface and roll out your pastry to a few mm thick. Stamp out circles bigger than the bases in your cupcake tin. Stamp out an equal number of stars for the tops. Line the cases with the pastry, gently pushing it to the base and up the sides.

Fill each case with heaped teaspoons of mincemeat and top with a star. Use the leftover egg white to glaze all exposed pastry. 

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes until golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly then devour whilst warm!

If you cannot eat them all in one sitting they are lovely up to two days later gently warmed through. They may last longer than 2 days but in our house that did not happen...

These were so good a second batch has already been made... don't judge me I have spent the last 20 or so years missing out, I have a lot of catching up to do!

Mincemeat

I am confused, I should like mince pies. I like pastry, I like dried fruit, I like spices.  And yet the mystery remains, I do not like them.

I have decided to investigate this. I suspect that it may be that I was given mediocre shop bought ones and this has put me off. I haven't tried one in years.

I am going to make my own home-made mincemeat and then make my own mince pies. I have to put some thought into what pastry to use but I shall cross that bridge when I come to it, I have time, my mincemeat will need a little while to mature.

I had a look round at various recipes and below is my interpretation using what I like.

Mincemeat

small bramley apple
130g raisins
130g sultanas
40g stoned dates, chopped
50g almonds, chopped
150g suet
250g brown sugar
tsp mixed spice
tsp cinnamon
fresh grating of nutmeg
Zest and juice of a small lemon
Zest and juice of half an orange
50ml brandy

Put the raisins, sultanas, dates, almonds, suet, sugar and spices into a bowl and mix. Peel and grate the apple then add this to the bowl along with the citrus juice and brandy, Give the whole thing a good mix.

Leave overnight, giving a good stir every now and then. By morning it will be slightly darker and lovely and sticky.

 Pack into sterile jars and leave to mature for two weeks and then its good to go!

Odds and sods jars collected through the year!

I know I say leave for two weeks but I will be making a trial run of mince pies next weekend!

Mini christmas cakes

I have to admit that I am not a huge Christmas cake lover, sometimes I will partake in a slice if I am in the mood, and I do quite like the Yorkshire way of an un-iced cake with a slice of Wensleydale cheese... yum.

Saying that I saw a recipe for mini Christmas cakes in jars in this months good food magazine. They looked so cute that I had to make them. I was already planning some homemade hampers as Christmas gifts and so decided that these would be perfect to go into them.

I have adapted the recipe from the magazine, is it just me or are raisins, currants and sultanas very similar once they have been soaked? So I took out the currants and substituted dried cranberries. Admittedly I had no currants in but did have cranberries so this helped the decision somewhat!

I also omitted dark chocolate chips, maybe I do not eat enough Christmas cake, but chocolate, in a Christmas cake, really?

Mini Christmas cakes in jars (adapted from good food magazine)

makes 2

65g raisins
65g sultanas
45g dried cranberries
35g stoned dates, chopped
15-20g glacé cherries, quartered
zest and juice of an orange
1 1/2 tablespoons brandy
75g butter
70g light brown sugar
1 large egg
75g plain flour
tsp cinnamon
tsp mixed spice
extra brandy to feed the cake (optional)

2x 500ml kilner jars, with clip lids

Place the raisins, sultans, cranberries, dates and glacé cherries into a bowl, add the zest and juice of the orange and the brandy. Cover with clingfilm and allow to soak overnight. By morning the fruit should have plumped up and absorbed all the liquid.  

Preheat the oven to 150C/130C FAN. 

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Add the egg and a tablespoon of the flour and mix to combine. Add the remaining flour, and spices and stir by hand until thoroughly incorporated. Stir through the soaked fruit until evenly dispersed.

Divide the mixture between the two kilner jars. Place onto baking trays with the lids open, remember to remove the rubber seal BEFORE baking.

Bake for 90-110 minutes until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. 

Allow the cakes to fully cool. Prick all over with a skewer and drizzle each cake with an extra 1/2 tsp of brandy.

I am now going to feed the cakes twice a week with a little extra splash of brandy.

There is still plenty of time to get your cake made, including some feeding time! I will be decorating my cakes in a few weeks time, I would love for you to pop back and see what I do.