Christmas Fare: Deluxe Mince Pies

My Laura and Eloise love mince pies and to be honest I am not a fan.   I buy them and occasionally I am gifted them but I had never made them until this year.   We are in lockdown, and despite many attempts, couldnt seem to get any online.

So I took some inspiration from Mary Berry, ordered the ingedients online  and changed her recipe to suit something I might eat.

The results? Totally edible!  I have had two, one on Christmas Eve and one on Boxing Day. For me, that is a lot.  Even Hubby tried and liked.  My girls have declared no more bought ones... maybe they can make these next year!?

Ingedients

Pastry

230g plain flour 

100g cold butter

1 egg

Filling

1cup fruit mince

1/2 cup chopped dried apricots

1/4 cup chopped almonds

Top with

1 log richter chocolate covered mazipan

Method

Process flour and butter together until breadcrumb-like.  Add egg, and process until it comes together. 

Place in glad-wrap and into the fridge for an hour.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees c

Grease a 12 slot tart tray

Then roll out your dough onto floured surface about 3-5mm thick and cut out with cutter to fit your tart tray.

Prick your casings with a fork.

In a bowl, add your fruitmince, apricots and almonds together

It’s starting to be a bit more ‘deluxe’ from this moment!

Fill your casings, no need to blind bake (bonus, who has time for that at Christmas?)

Grab your marzipan... this is optional but soooooooo worth it.  I promise.

 

Slice it thinkly - about 2mm

Place onto your pies

Then pop a bit of pastry on top of the marzipan.  This is usually a star, but I had a heart cutter easily at hand...

No need to egg-wash or anything - aren’t they cute?

Pop intobthe oven for 12 minutes qnd bring them out to cool for 15 minutes before dusting with icing sugar

Sunday Baking Project: Fudgy Brownies for days or hoardes

 

Second weekend in a row I've made these brownies, first time around was for an unofficial (we're in Covid times people) end of season netball get together where I offered to bring dessert... and this weekend which was to make again for my colleagues at work after listening to the wistful sighs when I described my last weeks' antics.

They are really fudgy and moist,

And it's easy to do and takes very little time, and it makes at least 18 good-sized brownies, 30 smaller ones.   You can start and finish these in an hour.

I got the recipe from the lovely Kim at All Consuming's blog, which she got from Food52.   I tweaked a little between what both these to arrive at these and I think that's what great about this recipe.  You can tweak it easily.  I will add dark chocolate chips and frozen raspberries I think next time.  This time I added peanut butter protein powder and a tsp of baking powder -  the original recipe calls for no baking powder, espresso powder, nuts and icing. Tweak as you feel fit - up to you!

Ingredients:

• 225gr butter, at room temperature
• 3 packed cups of brown sugar
• 1 tb vanilla extract
• 8 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2/3 cup cocoa
• 1/2 cup peanut protein powder (Omit if you like)
• 250g milk chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 170degrees c

Spray a rectangle baking pan (Mine is 23x33cm or 9x13inches) and cover with baking paper and spray again.

Mix your butter with brown sugar until smooth and well combined (about 2-3 mins on low-ish speed)

Then add the vanilla and then the eggs one-by-one and mix well

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking powder and in this case the PB2 powder).

While mixing on lowest speed gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet.  Do not add chocolate chips yet.

Try not to eat too much of the mix... it's hard I know.

Pour and spread the mixture into your pan and sprinkle your choc chips on top.

Put into the oven and bake between 23 - 28 minutes.  You basically don't want it jiggly in the middle.

Leave to cool for 30mins to an hour before lifting out of the pan and then cut into squares, triangles, whatever you like :)

Oozy, fudgy goodness.

Maurices fruit bread

Good ol Covid-19 and working from home has brought some unexpected and pleasant surprises.  In fact I'm probably one of the few who is actually quite happy with the situation of working from home and not going out too much.  I'm grateful for the dinners I get to spend at home with my frills and hubby, the ten-pace commute to my office and the fact that I can blog!

The other cool thing about it all is that I"m interacting with my colleagues in new and interesting ways.  I'm very lucky to work in an organisation that has a healthy and nurtured culture where caring for the employees is not just a catch-phrase - it is how it works.   As a leader in our business I'm fiercely protective of that... anyhoo we're pretty active on slack and we use Zoom like the rest of the world but we think nothing of people needing to 'duck out for a few hours to kid-wrangle' and at times we even get guest appearances by the kids too!   I love it.  We're all accepting we're human.

I started a cooking slack channel too and it's going gang-busters!  I love seeing what other people are cooking and with our diverse workforce there are some amazing curries, rice dishes and sweets... it's sometimes a bit distracting though if you're hungry...

This recipe is one such recipe - shared by my colleague Maurice - he shared a pic of his bread and I had to and I mean HAD TO have the recipe.. and he thankfully shared, and now I'm sharing it with you !

It takes some time but it's very little effort - no kneading and I popped it on in the morning and went about my day.   House smells amazing!

Ingredients:

3 cups plain flour

1 tsp salt

1.5 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp dry yeast

1.5 cups warm water

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

cup chopped mixed dry fruit - I've used dates, raisins, cranberries and figs

Method:

Start with your flour and add salt and cinnamon.   In a separate bowl or jug add yeast to warm water.

Add sunflower and pumpkin seeds

Chop up your fruit.

Add fruit to the flour and mix well ensuring your fruit isn't stuck together.

Add your yeasty water.

Mix it together with a spoon or your hands.   Don't be too concerned if it's wet, it's meant to be.  Put in a warm place for 3 hours it will roughly double in size.   At the two hour mark, heat your oven to 230 degrees c and pop your dutch oven or heavy lidded oven proof pot into the oven with the lid on.

It will be a bit fluffy after the three hours.

Pour out onto floured surface and shape into a ball.  Do not knead.

Pop the dough onto some baking paper and place into the hot dutch oven, then return to the oven and drop the heat to 200degrees c and bake for 30 minutes with the lid on.

After that 30 minutes, take the lid off and bake for an additional 30 minutes.

Lastly, take the bread out of the dutch oven, put onto flat tray and back into the oven for a last 15 minutes then place on bench to cool.

RECIPE: Large moist and light blueberry banana loaf

Everyone loves an easy cake, no more than me.  I'm not one for too many steps and fussing around.  I'd be a terrible patissier because I'd want to take shortcuts.  This one is just ingredients in two bowls, combine and bake.  Gotta love that.  The inclusion of sour cream makes it not only moist but really light, and I think I'll be using sour cream a bit more going forward with my cakes because even though I'm not a real cake person (I looove cheesecake) this is one I will admit, I had more than a few slices.....

The other good thing about this one is it makes 15 decent slices so if you were to make this for school lunches - you will get the 'return on investment' in your time... I'm going to make this again next time I cater morning tea at work or church.

Ingredients:

3 cups plain flour

2 1/2 tsp bicarb soda

3/4 cup frozen or fresh bluberries

1 tsp cinnamon powder

3 bananas, mashed

3/4 cup sour cream

2 eggs

250g butter, melted and cooled

Topping (optional)

Extra bluberries

1 banana, sliced

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees c

In a mixing bowl,  combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and frozen blueberries and mix to combine.

Mix your sour cream bananas, eggs, and butter in another bowl

Combine together either with a spoon, or in a mixer.  It's a stiff dough so might be better with a mixer if you have one.  Don't worry if your bluberries pop :)

Place into a square or round tin or 2 greased loaf pans.
Place some blueberries and sliced banana on top.

Bake for 1 hour, check if it's cooked by using the skewer method.
Cool in the tin for about 10 minutes before turning out on a cooling rack for another 30 minutes minimum before serving.

Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days or freeze in portions or whole for later.

Yum!

RECIPE: Traditional and Choc-chip hot cross buns!

Even though I buy Hot Cross buns during Easter time - I also like to make them.  Having fresh hot-cross buns straight out of the oven - there just isn't any substitute.  They aren't that hard to make and I generally make a few dozen at a time.... eat some, freeze some, sometimes give some away.

This won't be my last batch of Easter I can assure you!

I've made two variations, the traditional type - with currants and spices and the more modern version, with chocolate.  You may like to omit the fruit or add orange zest to the chocolate ones to make jaffa or even some pitted cherries and a splash of rum if you like.. as I always say - your only limit is your imagination!

Ingredients (per batch)

4 cups plain flour

1 tb dried yeast (15g)

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup cocoa (chocolate only)

1 tb cinnamon

1 tb allspice (traditional only)

1/2 tsp cardamom (traditional only)

250ml milk

2 eggs

2 tb orange marmalade (traditional only)

1/2 cup currants (traditional only)

1 cup dark chocolate chips (chocolate only)

Method:

In a bowl mix your flour, yeast, sugar, cinnamon (and cocoa if you doing chocolate, allspice and cardamom if you are doing traditional). Stir until well combined.

In a jug or small bowl, measure out your milk and pop into the microwave for about 30 seconds.  Add eggs (and marmalade if doing traditional) and give it a whisk with a fork to combine.

If you have a stand mixer with a dough hook, put on speed 2 (or low) and slowly mix in the wet ingredients.  If you don't have a stand mixer - make a well in the centre of your dry ingredients and pour gradually and mix with a large spoon until it comes together.

One all the dry ingredients are combined with the wet, knead by hands for about 10 minutes and on low in the mixer for about 3 minutes.

Lastly add your currants or chocolate chips and knead in gently until evenly distributing.

Place in a greased bowl and cover with cling film.

Place in a warm place for an hour or two until it doubles in size.

I will warn you, at this point the traditional mix makes you want to eat it! But resist....

Measure it out into equal portions (I make mine roughly 110g each, traditional makes 2 and chocolate makes 14) and place on a greased tray

Cover with clingfilm and leave to rise for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees c.

Make your crosses by mixing 3/4 cup plain flour (per batch) into a bowl and add water until it becomes a runny-ish paste.  Transfer to a ziplock bag and seal.  Snip a corner and pipe your crosses onto your buns.

They are looking like almost-real hot cross buns now!

If you prefer actual chocolate crosses (I haven't bothered) don't put them on at this point.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.   Whilst they are baking you can make a glaze with 1/2 cup caster sugar and 1/2 cup water in a saucepan and boil until the sugar has dissolved.

Once the buns are out of the oven, brush with glaze.  Be generous.

Leave to dry before serving.

If you prefer to have chocolate crosses, glaze buns first, allow to dry and then melt 100g dark chocolate in the microwave on 50% power for 1 minute intervals until melted.  Place in ziplock bag as per plain cross mix and apply.

So what's your favourite?  Traditional or chocolate?  Or both?  Why?