2 sleeps to go now my lovelies, I can't believe it we are nearly there. It's so nice both me and my Mum have finished work now and we have 12 days together now which we are calling our 12 days of Christmas - very fitting indeed. I'm so excited, it's been so hectic and go,go,go recently I can't wait to stop over Christmas and have a whole lot of indulgence.
I have had a very festive day today. I went round to my friend's house to exchange presents and we made some mince pies together. I won't lie but I don't actually like mince pies but I love the smell of them baking in the oven. I also really enjoy making them, I used to bake them with my Mum for my Dad when I was little so it's always a special and festive occasion in our household. I find it very therapeutic making pastry. Even though I don't usually like mince pies I did try one of these once they were freshly baked from the oven as I couldn't resist the smell and I actually enjoyed it - I know shocking I was surprised as well. It's always traditional to make mince pies every year. I felt so festive these baking these with Christmas music playing. I thought I would share the recipe with you all my lovelies incase any of you fancy giving these ago to get you in the festive spirit. They would make a great family bake to do on Christmas Eve and they are so quick and easy to do, even making your own pastry. Even those of you who like me passionately say every year that they don't like mince pies as like me you may be pleasantly surprised.
Ingredients - makes 12
250g plain flour
75g icing sugar
150g cold unsalted butter
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp water
350g mincemeat
50g dried cranberries
50g dried cherries
1 egg
Method
1) To make the pastry add the flour, icing sugar, butter and egg yolk to a bowl and make breadcrumbs. This is the most therapeutic thing to do in the whole wide world. Simply rub the butter lightly in-between your fingertips incorporating the butter with the remaining ingredients. Be patient, the lighter you are the better your pastry will be
2) Once you have your breadcrumbs add the water and combine the mixture all together using your hands to form a pastry ball
3) Once you have a pastry ball, kneed it between your hands and then wrap in cling film to chill in the fridge for half an hour
4) Pre-heat your oven to 200°C/ 180°Fan and very lightly grease a cupcake tin
5) Add the mincemeat, cranberries and cherries into a bowl and mix together
6) Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll to about the size of a £1 coin on a lightly floured surface using a rolling pin. Using a cutter, cut out 12 discs to form the cups of the pies and add one to each cupcake holder
7) Fill each case to 3/4 full with the mincemeat mixture, I think I used about a heaped teaspoon for each pie
8) I then used a smaller cutter to make the pie lids. I used one from lakeland where you can cut out different festive shapes such as snowflakes, gingerbread men, christmas trees and candy canes. I looked on the Lakeland website but unfortunately they seem to be sold out now. You could instead cut stars for lids or stick to tradition with a simple smaller lid
9) Top each pie with a lid and lightly brush your pies with a beaten egg for a golden finish
10) Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Once golden and crisp remove the pies from the oven and allow to cool on a wire wrack and indulge on the festive scent wafting throughout the house
I used an alternative recipe for mince pies last year which you could see by clicking here.
I indulged on coffee and mince pies for the rest of the morning before meeting my Mum in Starbucks for lunch. She had picked up the Duck, sausages and bacon from the local farm shop ready for Christmas day as well as picking holly, ivy, berries and greenery ready to finish decorating the house with tomorrow which I'm really excited to do as that is a little family tradition of ours. We had butternut squash, mushroom and chestnut stuffing flatbreads for lunch and ginger loaf cake both of which are from their Christmas range and something else we can tick of our coffee shop list. After lunch we went for a gorgeous winter walk on the downs and were lucky enough to miss the rain. I was going to have a bath and use one of my Lush products but the water hadn't heated up fully which I only realised after I had run the bath. So I gave up as I physically have no patience. Intensely irritating. So I'm currently curled up on the sofa typing away with the candle, fairy lights and Christmas tree lights all lit watching Hairspray - bliss. It's little things like this I cannot wait to do over Christmas that you don't usually have time to appreciate or enjoy when you're working. I might even do my Christmas nails tonight who knows.
I hope you enjoy you're evening's my lovelies and I shall see you tomorrow for Christmas Eve.
XXX
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