The Feast before the Famine
Christmas food is always so rich that we try to restrict it to just a couple of days consumption. However, this year I have been trialing recipes and testing the results over two or three weeks. Mince pies have come and gone in their dozens. My Husband has been demanding 'Mr Kipling' pastry which has caused me to experiment with varying proportions of ingredients in order to replicate that undercooked texture.
I experimented with at least four different variations of which I'll share my thoughts with you before I give you my chosen recipe.
Shortcrust Pastry Recipe
I experimented with using self-raising and plain flour combinations following the basic rules of making both plain and sweet shortcrust pastry. My first observation was that self-raising flour produced the softer texture I was looking for. The rest of my attempts to produce a subsitute 'Mr Kipling' pastry, was based on using a good quality self-raising flour. Allinson proved the best.
My Husband has a 'sweet tooth' so two versions using icing sugar against castor sugar to sweeten the pastry were made. I prefered the castor sugar result.
Next, the decision about which fats to use and in what combination and proportion. Again, several batches were made. More then half fat to flour worked the best. At the same time, I used different liquids to bind the ingredients together. Whole egg, egg yolk, milk & cold water being used either mixed in combinations or separately.
I still haven't developed a pastry which my Husband says is as good as 'Mr Kipling' but I did produce a pastry which earned many compliments. My preference is for my homemade pastry. However, I will continue its development next Christmas. For now, I am satisfied that the following recipe compares well with the 'Mr Kipling' pastry. In fact, I prefered mine everytime we did a taste test. My Husband didn't. His verdict - "Close, but not close enough".
Mince Pies using Homemade Sweet Pastry & Mincemeat
Sweet Pastry Ingredients
350g/12oz self-raising
flour
¼ tsp salt
75g/3oz TREX
125g/5oz butter
2 level tbsp castor
sugar
3-4 tbsp cold
water (1 small egg beaten with 1 tbsp cold water also worked well)
Filling
Homemade mincemeat
To serve
Icing sugar
Method
- Sieve the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl.
- Add the sugar and fats. Rub in the TREX & butter with your fingertips until the mixture looks like moist crumbs. Avoid forming big clumps. Hand mixing, rather than machine, allows more control.
- Add 3 tbsp cold water or water & egg mix. Mix together with a round-bladed knife until the pastry clings together. Add a further tablespoon of liquid if required, (I needed to) to form a pliable dough, wrap in cling film and chill for 15 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 200°C/fan oven 180°C/Gas Mark 6.
- Cut the pastry in half to make it easier to roll out. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface until 3mm thick (thickness of a pound coin). You should be able to cut out approximately 18 rounds with a 7.5mm (3in) cutter and 18 rounds with a 6mm (2 ½in) cutter. Re-roll excess pastry and cut out further rounds to use up the pastry.
- Place the larger rounds of pastry into patty tins and add 2 heaped teaspoons of mincemeat to give a good depth of filling.
- Brush the rims of the smaller pastry rounds with water or beaten egg, then place on top of the filled pastry bases, waterside down & seal the edges together.
- For a pale crust like Mr Kipling, place in the oven without glazing.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes until lightly coloured.
- Sieve icing sugar over the tops when cold.
Next year, I will be experimenting with vegetable shortening in my quest to produce a 'Mr Kipling' pastry that my Husband says is "exactly right!"
My Mincemeat Recipe
Ingredients for approx 1.3kg/3lbs
125g/4oz glace
cherries – cut in half
225g/8oz sultanas
25g/8oz raisins
25g/8oz currants
1 orange, zest &
juice
1 lemon, zest
& juice
60ml/2fl oz brandy
2 Bramley apples,
peeled, cored, chopped, cooked to a pulp & cooled
25g flaked almonds
– chop (I prefer this to buying chopped almonds)
50g/2oz candied
peel
175g/6oz soft
brown sugar
100g/4oz
beef suet
2 tsp mixed
spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
Method
- Place the cherries, sultanas, raisins, currants, orange & lemon juice & zest plus the brandy into a large mixing bowl and allow to soak for about 12 hours.
- Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.
- Pack into sterilised jars placing a waxed disc on top of the mincemeat and seal.
- Store in a fridge/cool dark place and use within one month.
In 2011, I didn't have time to make our Christmas
Puddings so after paying a fortune to buy two really quite small puddings from
Lakeland, I was determined to make my own for 2012. I have used my recipe since
I was at school, just adapting it each time I make it to include different
fruits and nuts. I decided to follow my basic recipe this time and as the
quantity makes two puddings, I will just have to add extra brandy or sherry
next Christmas before reheating. Served with custard made from mainly single
cream and extra vanilla extract, the pudding proved a hit.
Christmas Pudding cooked in a Tefal Vitacuisine Steamer
Ingredients
Place the following ingredients in a bowl & soak for approximately 12
hours:
1 orange, zest
and juice
4 tbsp
brandy
100g/4oz
glace cherries cut in half
225g/8oz currants
225g/8oz raisins
225g/8oz sultanas
50g/2oz
mixed peel
1 tsp mixed
spice
1 tsp
cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
After soaking,
add the following ingredients & mix well:
225g/8oz fresh white
breadcrumbs
50g/2oz plain
flour
50g/2oz flaked
almonds
225g/8oz soft
brown sugar
225g/8oz beef suet
1 peeled &
grated apple
1 peeled &
grated carrot
4 whisked eggs
Completion
- Divide the mixture between two buttered 1 litre/2 pint heatproof pudding bowls, filling almost to the rim, then level the top.
- Cover each bowl with a large piece of greaseproof paper, folded in the middle and secured with either an elastic band or string. Cover that with a large piece of aluminium foil and tightly fold foil edges under rim to secure.
- To cook, stand both puddings in the body of the steamer which has been prepared following the steamer instructions. Place the lid on the steamer and steam for six hours, topping up the water as needed.
- After six hours, remove the bowls from the steamer and leave to cool.
- Remove covers & add 4tbsps brandy. Cover with new greaseproof paper and foil.
- Store in a cool, dry place.
To reheat, steam for two hours in the Vitacuisine Steamer, checking the water
levels every 30 minutes.
I developed my
chocolate torte dessert after four enjoyable attempts changing ingredients and
proportions. We settled on the following torte to offer as an alternative to
the Christmas Pudding. It is incredibly rich but wonderful. I used frozen
raspberries as I couldn’t find good fresh ones. I was delighted with the
Waitrose raspberries, even when defrosted, they held their shape well, were of
a good colour and it was obvious that they had been handled well in production.
I almost served them whole rather than making them into a sauce. They had a
good flavour as well.
Ingredients
Biscuit Base
75g /3oz
butter
40g /1½oz
castor sugar
100g/4oz
Amaretti biscuits finely crushed
50g/2oz
plain digestive biscuits finely crushed
Torte
450g
plain/milk chocolate mix
75ml/5 level
tbsps glucose syrup
600ml/1 pint
double cream
2 rounded
tbsps castor sugar
1 tsp
vanilla extract
To Serve
- Biscuit Base - Melt the butter and sugar in a saucepan over a gentle heat and stir in the biscuit crumbs. Press evenly over the bottom of a buttered loose-bottomed 20 cm/8” round cake tin or fluted flan dish. Chill.
- Place chocolate & glucose in a large bowl and melt over a pan of hot water.
- Cool.
- Whip cream, vanilla extract & sugar together. Use a balloon type whisk to mix the cream into the chocolate. Pour over biscuit base.
- Set in fridge.
- Remove torte from tin - upturn a bowl, place the torte tin on the top and carefully slide the tin side down. Place onto a flat plate.
- Serve cut into wedges with whipped cream and raspberry couli.
Raspberry Couli
300g/ 10ozs Waitrose
frozen British raspberries
2 tbsps
Splenda
2 tsp lemon
juice
Method
- Place the raspberries, Splenda and lemon juice in a saucepan and cook on a medium heat until the Splenda has dissolved and the fruit becomes soft and juicy.
- Press the mixture through a fine sieve to remove the seeds.
- Cool.
My Husband loves ice-cream so he bought me a Kenwood Ice Chef in May 1986 just in time for summer use. My Husband says it has not been used enough. Every Christmas, I make ice-cream. Every new year, we diet. This year, I am aiming to make more use of this great piece of machinery by experimenting with producing low calorie sorbets in the Ice Chef to aid our 2013 campaign.
I made vanilla ice-cream as another alternative to the
Christmas Pudding. I adapted my usual recipe to make it less rich, by substituting
milk for some of the double cream. It
worked well.
Vanilla Ice-Cream using my Kenwood Ice Chef
Ingredients
300ml/½ pint full-fat milk
2 rounded tsps custard powder
600ml/1 pint single cream
50g/75g caster sugar
2 tbsps Vanilla extract
6 egg yolks
300ml/½ pint double cream
Method
- Whisk sugar, vanilla extract & egg yolks together until thick.
- Blend custard powder into the milk and bring to the boil, simmer for a few minutes to allow the custard powder to cook out.
- Add the single cream to the cooked milk and bring back to the boil. Stir all the time.
- Strain hot cream & milk into the egg mixture and whisk in well.
- Strain into a clean, cool pan and heat until custard is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Do not boil.
- For a few minutes, put the pan into cold water to stop the mixture cooking.
- Strain into a mixing bowl, cover with wet greaseproof/baking paper and allow to go cold.
- Whisk occasionally to prevent skin forming and to add texture.
- Whisk double cream to floppy stage and mix into the egg custard mix.
- Place in churner and freeze until set.
For all sorts of reasons,
I haven’t made a Christmas Cake for many years. Nostalgia got the better of me
as I was restocking the kitchen cupboards when we returned from Greece. I came
across the Christmas cake decorations I used when I made my very first Christmas
cake whilst I was in Y11 at school. It made me search out my old recipes and I
decided to replicate it for 2012. Knowing that my Husband doesn’t need any
encouragement to eat sweet things, the cake was to be small and shared with my
family, to the delight of my brother-in-law.
My Husband loves marzipan
and when I have made a cake in the past, I have always bought, or made, more
marzipan than the cake required. As a real nostalgia treat for him, I decided
to do the same again and use the excess to make sweets for him.
18cm/7” Round Christmas Cake
Ingredients
300g/10ozs currants125g/5ozs sultanas
125g/5ozs raisins
25g/1oz mixed peel
50g/2oz glace cherries, halved
½ lemon – zest & juice
4 tbsps brandy
125g/5oz plain flour
½ tsp mixed spice½ tsp ground cinnamon
125g/5oz butter
125g/5oz dark soft brown sugar
2 eggs
25g/1oz flaked almonds
Method
- Marinade the fruit, citrus zest, cherries & mixed peel in the brandy and citrus juice overnight.
- Grease an 18cm/7”round cake tin and double line the bottom and sides with baking parchment.
- Heat the oven to 170⁰C/Gas 3.
- Sieve the flour, mixed spice and cinnamon onto a plate.
- Cream the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy.
- Whisk the eggs and mix the eggs into the creamed mixture 1 tablespoon at a time. Add a tablespoon of the flour mixture with the last amount to avoid curdling.
- Mix in the dried fruit, mixed peel, glace cherries and the almonds.
- Fold in the remaining flour mixture.
- Turn the mixture into the prepared tin and make a slight hollow in the centre of the mixture. Wrap the tin in brown paper and place on a baking tray.
Baking
170⁰C/Gas 3 and bake for 1 hour
Turn oven down to 150⁰C/Gas 2 and bake for 1
hourTurn oven down to 130⁰C/Gas 1 and bake for 1 hour
After 3 hours, test with a skewer. If not ready
bake for up to another hour testing every 20 minutes until the skewer comes out
clean. Cover with brown paper if cake is sufficiently brown.
Storage
Pour and skewer 4 tbsps brandy into the cake before
wrapping in greaseproof paper & tin foil. Store in an airtight tin until
ready to complete with marzipan & icing.
To Decorate
500g/1lb Tesco Natural Almond Marzipan
2 tbsp Tesco Finest Apricot ConserveIcing sugar for rolling marzipan
Royal Icing
3 egg whites
600g/1lb 5oz icing
sugar1 tbsp lemon juice