Still making them...

Hello everyone, I do hope you have all had a happy and peaceful Christmas.

Hmm, well posting shorter blogs has still not happened as often as I would like, but  it does tend to get rather busy around December, and time seems to speed as it gets nearer and nearer to Christmas Day.  Anyway, having just finished baking another 3 dozen mince pies I was reminded that I was going to let you know how the tally is going.

As you know I had opened the last jar of mincemeat so next job was to make some more.  The Mincemeat with Port was very tasty but alas the recipe was proving rather elusive to find so I went back to an old favourite.  This is from Nigella's 'Domestic Godess' book, and has no suet in so you could say that it is healthy!  Slightly healthier anyway!  

More mincemeat meant more baking could be done.  I didn't get around to taking photos of all of them, and actually one batch of mince pies usually looks very much like the next.  However, just before Christmas I did use up a packet of puff pastry in the fridge and thought we would try a variation on eccles cakes.

Circles stamped out and a spoonful of mincemeat in the middle.

Gather the edges in, a little at a time, overlapping as you go.

The very last turn in pulled across the rest of the pleats, and then turned over and a cross cut into the top.  I normally would just score three slices across the top of eccles cakes having first rolled them again, but was a little concerned that the mincemeat was a little runnier and did not fancy scrubbing baking trays clean.

 I forgot to photograph these when cooked - I did tell you that they don't last long in my house!  However, I did also use up half a packet of filo pastry, cut into small squares, each layer brushed with melted butter and 4 layers put together so they form a star shape then pushed into a tartlet tin before filling with mincemeat. 

Now, for the tally.  We went from 4 and a half dozen, to 6 and a half dozen, then the puff pastry and filo pies took us up to 10 dozen.  More pastry was made last Thursday, although I only baked 2 dozen that day, so the tally went to 12 dozen, and I have just used the rest of the pastry so the count is now 15 dozen!  170 mince pies.  

Although I haven't actually had any assistants helping with mince pie making, my son did make gingerbread men, ladies and trees.  He used the Baker Brothers gingerbread recipe from their television special and it is delicious.  He did halve the quantities though as a kilo and a half of flour did sound rather an excessive amount.  My daughter was extremely pleased about this as she sat and iced them until her hand was aching!  She doesn't like her photo being taken but I managed to sneak one!  They looked very professional when she had finished and quite a number have been given as presents.