Christmas Special Weekend - Part Two: Mince Pies

My family and work colleague can confirm for you if you need a reference, that these mince pies are quite simply the best mince pies you will ever have in your life.

Ingredients:
140g Cold butter, diced
225g Plain flour
50g Ground almonds
50g Golden caster sugar
280g Mincemeat
1 x Clementine or Orange, zest only
1x Pinch of salt
1 x Egg yolk
5 x Tbsp cold water
1 x Egg, beaten
Icing sugar for dusting

Step 1.

You need to massage the butter into the flour so it goes quite flaky. I do this with my hands rather then allow a machine to do it. Once all the butter is smushed into the flour and everything is covered, pour in the almonds, caster sugar, orange or clementine rind and salt until the mixture is much more crumbly than before.

Step 2.

Separate your egg from the white and pour in the egg yolk and the water. Stop rubbing the mixture between your fingers now and start moulding it with your whole hand, making sure everything is covered in the egg and water until you can eventually mould it into a round soft sticky ball. You will then need to wrap it in some clingfilm and whack it in the fridge for 20 - 30 minutes. In the last 5 minutes of the chilling process, preheat the oven to 200 degrees C, grease the cupcake tins and clear a decent work station to roll out the dough.

Step 3. Start by pouring some plain flour onto the work top. Take your dough out and place it into the middle of that pile of flour and add some more on top of dough. You have to start kneading the dough and putting more flour onto to any really sticky bits. Eventually you will have a proper soft dough that is very easily roll out-able. Roll out the pastry to a thickness of about 2-3mm and cut out about 12-15 rounds with a pastry cutter.

Step 4.

Put the cut outs into the cupcake tray and teaspoon 1 and a half teaspoons of mincemeat into them. Be careful with the spoon not to rip the pastry and feel free to lick it in between pies.. just don't let anyone see you do that. Germs and what have you. I've never done that.... honest. Now roll the left over pastry out and with a smaller glass cut out some lids. Place them over the mincemeat and then with fingertips, squeeze the main pastry with the lid pastry together. Then gently poke a sharp knife through the centre of the lids.

Step 5.With some egg yolk that has been lightly whisked, brush the top of the pies and then simply put them in the oven. They take out 15-20 minutes maximum and take around 10 minutes to cool down properly enough to eat. Dust with some icing sugar if you fancy but I didn't seem to need to.

Christmas Special Weekend - Part One: Mulled Wine

Well people. It is Christmas! And nothing smells, tastes or induces decent alcohol poisoning like a good mulled wine.And here is how to do it.

Other ingredients for other Christmas things included

Ingredients:

2 x Clementines

1 x Peel of a lemon
1 x Peel of a lime 
250g Caster sugar
1 x Hand full of soft brown sugar
6 x Whole cloves
1 x Cinnamon stick
3 x Bay leaves
1tbsp Ground nutmeg
1 x Whole vanilla pod, halved
2 x Star anise 
2 x Bottles of red wine

Step 1.

Start by hand peeling large sections off the fruit over the an at least 2 litre pan, not on the hob at this point. Once done, pour in the caster sugar NOT THE BROWN, and then squeeze the juice out of the clementines. Put it on the hob at full temperature.

Step 2.

Add the cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaves and the nutmeg to the mixture. Throw in your halved vanilla pod and then top it all with just enough red wine to cover the ingredients. Let this simmer until the sugar has completely dissolved into the red wine and then bring to the boil. Keep on a rolling boil for about 4 minutes then you need to add the brown sugar. You should then turn down the heat really low to keep it warm but definitely not boiling.. boiling makes the alcohol disappear and you do NOT want that.

Step 3.

Once the brown sugar is in, the red wine should have become more of a thick syrup. You are more than welcome to add some more sugar if you want it very very sweet but I can confirm this recipe is already for a quite sweet mulled wine. Once the pan is no longer boiling and it just vapour making warm, add the star anise and the rest of the two bottles of wine. Keep heating for around 5 minutes.. taking sips to see if it is warm enough (at least that's your excuse) and when you are happy with the temperature, go to step four.

Step 4.

Drink it. Make sure you check out how to make mince pies in the Christmas Weekend Special blog Part Two.
Merry Christmas!!

Very nice

This is what happens after too much....