recipe for Christmas Mince Pies

My recipe comes from Jane Lambert who was a neighbour in Cairns. Her ambition was to set up a home-based cooking school. I wonder if she did, she would have been fabulous.


Anyway, she says these freeze well unbaked. What I did for the mincemeat filling was to buy some from the supermarket, and put it in a saucepan with extra stuff - grated nutmeg, a grated green apple, grated lemon zest, chopped almonds, some gin (I didn't have brandy), and a few more sultanas. I also went on a seek and destroy mission for large pieces of bitter peel. These I either cut into wee bits or chucked out, because I personally don't like coming across them in my mince pies. Result was definitely a superior quality of mincemeat, so it well worth this step.

Pastry:
275g plain flour  (I confess to adding a bit of cornflour at this stage, which is not in Jane's recipe)
25g ground almonds
 175g unsalted butter
finely grated rind of half a lemon
1 egg yolk (thinks to Madge who is back laying regularly again)
3 tbsp milk

Sift flours and use short burst of the food processor to cut in the butter. Add sugar and lemon rind and blitz again. Lighty mix in the egg yolk and milk. Turn out onto flour-dusted baord and knead lightly until smooth. Shape into disc and cover with gladwrap, chill for 30 min before using.

Lightly grease patty tins, stamp out circles with fluted pastry cutter. Put a heaped teaspoon of mincemeat in each.

You can make wee pies by cutting slightly smaller circles and dampening the edges, or bake as they are and when cool, drop a little icing made with pure lemon juice into the centre and decorate with a bit of sliced red and green glace cherries (this looks great!). Or, as I did, cut a pastry star, and sprinkle it with caster sugar before baking.

Bake in a mod hot oven - 180 to 200 depending on your oven, for 10 - 15 min - but watch they don't burn as they can brown really quickly.

Happy Christmas!

Feijoa glut

Feijoas were a treat from the supermarket when I lived in Dunedin. So it is bliss to have a tree in the front garden. High winds this week and they have all fallen to the ground - what to do? Well, feijoa sauce for a start. Next I'm going to try this recipe for Gorgeous feijoa almond cake. The neigbours have just dropped off a bag of limes, so watch this space.

Back in Rotorua

style="">I'm in the stinky place (love that smell) again, on a brief house-sitting assignment that comes with two dogs. I have just been out early, crunching across a frosty paddock with socks on my paws, so the dogs could have a run. Hopefully the puppy is not going to be successful in his mission to dig to Africa from the suburban backyard.

I made an apple pie using this recipe from Helen's Spanish cookbook.

BASQUE APPLE PIE

SERVES SIX

INGREDIENTS

215g / scant 2 cups plain (allpurpose) flour, plus extra for rolling

5ml /1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

75gm /4oz / half cup cold unsalted (sweet) butter, cubed

finely grated rind of 1/2 lemon

scant half cup caster (superfine) sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

2 small eggs

3 eating apples, peeled, cored and cubed

ground cinnamon, for sprinkling

whipped cream, to serve

1 Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a food processor. Add the butter and grated lemon rind and process briefly to combine, then add the sugar, 1 whole egg and the yolk of the second egg to the flour mixture and process to make a soft dough.

2 Divide the dough into two pieces, one portion nearly double the size of the other. Pat the dough into two flat cakes. Wrap tightly in clear film (plastic wrap) and chill for at least 2 hours until firm.

3 Preheat the oven to 180"C/350"F/ Gas 4. Place a baking sheet in the oven and grease a 20cml8tn loose-based flan tin.

Place the larger piece of dough on lightly floured piece of plastic wrap and cover with another piece of film. Roll out to a 25cm round. Remove the top layer of film and lift up the dough on the second film. Place the dough face down in the tin and peel off the film. Press into the tin so that it stands just clear of the top.

5 Pack the tin with the apples and sprinkle with cinnamon. Roll out the second piece of dough in the same way, to exactly the same size as the tin. Lay the dough on top of the apples and fold the overlapping edges of the bottom piece of dough inward. Gently press the edges together with a fork, to seal.

6 Prick the dough a few times, brush with egg white and sprinkle with sugar. Place on the hot baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 160"C/325"F/Gas 3 for a further 25-30 minutes until golden.

Leave the tart to cool in the tin for 30 minutes, and serve with cream/ice cream. Or, as we did last night, with custard made from the good old Edmonds custard powder.

Impossible pie

I made a citrus impossible pie to take to Marilyn's for lunch. It is called impossible pie because it's impossible to muck it up - so the recipe says. I'm using up things from the pantry, in readiness for moving.

You put the following ingredients into a food processor

4 eggs 100g slivered almonds grated rind one lemon
1 c sugar 1 c dessicated coconut grated rind one orange
Half c melted butter, half c each lemon and orange juice
Half c sifted flour (who sifts flour?) 1 c milk

then you whizz the lot for 1 minute, place this mixture into a well-greased 28 cm pie tin and bake it in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for about an hour or until brown on top. Allow to cool and set. Serve at room temperature with fresh berries and thickened cream. Serves eight.