Nana Brid's Mincemeat

So for my second post of the day I present to you my grandmothers mincemeat recipe. Now I may not eat Christmas cake or pudding but I love mince pies, hot, cold, on their own or smothered in brandy butter or cream. Divine. Last year I made mincemeat that was lovely but I can't remember what recipe I used. I don't really need a recipe to make this and it's easy to take ideas for flavourings etc from books etc but they all seem to contain apples and dried fruit.

So here's what you'll need, Igot 3 standard size jam jars out of the recipe and a 1 litre Le Parfait preserving jar which is a lot, you could easily halve the recipe either if you didn't want so much and it'll make a lovely edible gift too. The measurements are a bit all over the place with pounds and ounces but work with me................


2 lbs cooking apples
1 lb raisins
1/2 lb sultanas/currants
4oz butter
1/2 lb brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mace (I couldn't find ground mace anywhere so ground my own)
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves
3 dessertspoons golden syrup, you could use honey here either I'm sure
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/4 pint cider, I used an organic cider from our local shop but you could use any brand you like
1 tbsp sherry/brandy or whiskey

Peel and core the apples and chop into cubes. Add apples and all other ingredients to a large pot and mix well.. Bring to the boil and simmer for 40 mins. Allow to cool slightly and put into jars.

I sterilise my jars in the dishwasher taking them out when they're hot, you could also do this in the oven I'm sure but the dishwasher is nearliest the easiest option.

I'll be making mince pies closer to Christmas and brandy butter to go with them!!!

Christmas is a comin'

and with 53 days to go (WOOHOO) it's time to be making puddings and cakes and mincemeat so they have time to mature and the flavours to develop!

This is my first post of the weekend, I can almost hear the shock as I've been so neglectful of my blog for the last few months, I even missed my 1 year blogiversary!!! But now I am back on the blogging wagon and rearing to go.

Christmas pudding is one the things I remember from growing up that meant Christmas was coming, the dark evenings and my mother mixing everything in her mixing bowl and the can or bottle of Guinness which reminds me so much of my paternal grandfather who used to drink it. This year we're not bothering with cake just pudding as I don't eat either and the husbag loves pudding, so much in fact he'd eat all 3 that this recipe makes!!!!

My recipe is inspired by the Avoca recipe but I've made some changes with the spices and the fruit using dried cranberries instead of currants cos I don't like them and also some dates and figs in place of half the raisins. I've added 1/2 tsp ground ginger aswell as mixed spice, cinnamon and nutmeg. And basically stuck to everything else.


So here goes, Christmas pudding inspired by Avoca

The recipe should make 3 2 pint puddings plus a little bit over which filled 2 3'inch individual pudding moulds.

450g sultanas
450g dried cranberries
110g dates, chopped
110g figs, chopped
230g raisins
110g glace cherries, I used yellow ones from my local fruit shop but you can use any colour
110g mixed peel (revolting suff I know but who am I to mess with tradition?)
225g chopped almonds
450g brown sugar, I used a mix of demerera and muscovado
275g breadcrumbs, I used brown bread
275g self-raising flour
350g butter, melted
6 medium eggs, beaten
zest and juice of 2 oranges
1 small can of Guinness, 330ml
2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger

Add the fruit to the bowl, mix well and then add the sugarm breadcrumbs, lour, spices and almonds. Mix well and make a well in the centre. Add the melted butter, eggs, orange juice and zest and the Guinness. Mix well so there are no dry ingredients in the bottom of the bowl. If the mixture is a little dry add a couple of tablespoons of milk or more orange juice. Spoon into the pudding bowls and cover with the lid. Steam for 4-5 hours. When cold you can drizzle whickey or brandy over the pudding. On christmas day, steam the pudding for another hour and serve with brandy/rum butter or cream.

YUM!!!

I didn't think I'd have pics of this until Christmas but himself was making the "are you not letting me have pudding til christmas??" face and the puppydog eves I couldn't refuse and managed to snap a quick shot before the pudding was snatched away from me, being a non pudding eater it's very nice aswell, there's a slight bite from the almonds and it's lovely a moist.

Christmas mixed spice Cookies

Well here I am sick again!!! Only a cold this time thank god but I'm in bits. I'm starting to come out the other side of it though, can't be sick for christmas and all that................

So anyway enough rambling I have decided to enter Baking Bites Holiday Gingerbread cookie contest. Baking Bites for those of you who don't know is a baking blog written by the wonderful Nicole. There are so many links in my del.icio.us folder from Baking Bites and anything I have tried before has always been gorgeous. I am also envious of Nicole as she gets to bake way more than I do along with ride horses and salsa dance!! So Nicole if you want to swap and come and live in cold Ireland give me a call ;-)

So from my recovering sick bed I dragged myself to the kitchen as I had read all books and magazines in my ever expanding pile and Liverpool were on the tv so the sympathy from my husband had dried up strangely enough.

These aren't exactly gingerbread cookies, they're more of a sugar cookie but there is some ground ginger in them along with cinnamon and mixed spice and they do smell very christmassy. The recipe is a basic cookie recipe that I use all the time and here's what you need

• 100g caster sugar (I use golden caster sugar)
• 90g soft unsalted butter
• 200g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I have a organic one from Kitchen Compliments at the moment)
• 1/4 tsp mixed spice
• 1/4 cinnamon
• 1/4 ginger
• 1 medium and an extra yolk or 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp finely ground salt

The vanilla extract I am using is a lovely one and it should be in your local tesco as they seem to have it in mine. DO NOT pay any more than about €8 for this as I have seen it being sold for €13 locally which is a scandalous mark up!!! Healthfood shops also have this and tesco sell vanilla extract if you can't get this one, essence is really a much nicer flavour than the artificial flavour essence gives in my opinion so if you get it well and good and if not then the essence will be just fine.

• Cream the butter and sugar together (I used my Kenwood but you could use a food processor or do it by hand)
  
• Add the vanilla essence and the egg.
  
• Sieve the dry ingredients in and mix until it becomes a chunky breadcrumb consistency.
• Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and shape into a disk.
  
• Wrap in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for an hour.

When the hour is up preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180 , roll out your dough on a floured surface and cut into the desired shapes and bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden on the edges.
I used stars in keeping with the christmas theme and star shapes are a particular favourite of mine.

Decorate as desired, I've left mine plain as you can see and am pleading illness for not icing them as planned. Check out some of the other entries here

Ho ho ho!!!

A tale of 2 christmas puddings continued...........

So the second pudding I made was from Nigella Lawsons How to be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the art of Comfort Cooking. It uses suet which I know some people don't like but I got Atora Light which has 25% less fat and is vegetable suet to boot, the thoughts of beef suet would put me off eating something I think.

So here's what you need for a 1 1/2 litre pudding bowl

• 100g currants
• 100g mixed raisins and sultanas
• 50g natural coloured glace cherries
• 50g dried blueberries (I couldn't find these anywhere so used dated instead)
• 50g prunes (I don't really like prunes so used fried apricots)
  
• 50g marron glace pieces (candied chestnuts for those of you who don't know and once again I couldn't find these so I used finely chopped almonds)
• 60g candied peel
• 150ml rum
• 90g self raising flour
• 125g white breadcrumbs (I actually used wholemeal bread as I don't like white)
• 150 shredded suet (Atora)
• 1 medium cooking apple, 120g grated
• 150g dark brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice (once again I played around with the spices and used 1/2 tsp cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger)
• pinch of salt
• 3 lrg eggs (I only has 2 eggs left at this stage so used the juice of half an orange)
• zest of 1 orange

This mixture is way darker than my first pudding and smelled lovely, more christmassy overall I think.

I find puddings very easy to makem throw everything together and off you go. Nigella added cleaned £1 coins but I didn't bother, and you never know euros might melt if they're heated too much ;-)

You'll need to soak the fruit in the rum overnight and the next day

• Mix all the dry ingredients together and then add to the fruit.
  
• Butter the pudding basin and put the mixture into it
• Cover the basin with a layer of buttered greaseproof paper and then 2 layers of tin foil and tie with string around the edge.
• Boil or steam the pudding for 3 hours making sure the water doesn't boil dry.

To reheat at Christmas boil/steam again for 3 hours.

A tale of 2 christmas puddings

So this year I ended up making 2 Christmas puddings, 1 because my mother won't eat anything with suet in it and 2 because my husband would be very upset if my mam got one made for her and none made for him.

I have used a recipe I got from the forums on jamieoliver.com and is supposed to be Jamie's nans recipe, it was also in delicious magazine a few years back but I don't have that copy so this is from the Jamie site.

So you'll need

• 1 teaspoon softened butter, for greasing
• 1 large egg (I used 1 medium and an extra yolk)
  
• 150ml of milk
• 400g dried sultanas and raisins
• 100g dried cherries and cranberries (I couldn't find cranberries so I used dried apricots)
• 125 dates,chopped up
• 125g butter
  
• 125g plain flour
• 125g golden caster sugar
• 125g breadcrumbs
• 2 tablespoons of brandy
• a pinch of salt
• zest of 1 orange
• 3 pieces stem ginger, finely chopped (I couldn't find this anywhere so I left it out)
  
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

Now I thought that just ginger wasn't really enough spice (and as I couldn't find the stem ginger) to add to a pudding I improvised slightly and after the 1 tsp of ginger added 1/2 tsps of nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice.

Rub 1.5 litre pudding bowl with butter.
In a separate bowl beat the egg and milk together and put to one side.
In another bowl mix all the other ingredients together.
Pour the egg and milk mixture into this bowl and stir or mix with your hands until everything is combined.
Spoon this mixture into the greased pudding bowl and cover with a layer of buttered grease proof paper followed by a double layer of aluminium foil.
Tie these layers in place around the rim of the bowl using a piece of string.
Place the pudding bowl in a large saucespon and put cold water in the pan until it comes half way up the side of the bowl.
Bring the water to the boil then cover with a lid and simmer for 3 hours.

I haven't tried this pudding yet, but it's lighted than your normal christmas pudding, I hope to god it's nice but if not plenty of brandy butter or cream and we'll be set. As with the cake I'll update as soon as I know how it goes.

Christmas Cake, Nigella Style

As I neglected the blog last week while participating in social occasions (the ballet, a bag party and also a tummy bug) there's a good few posts coming in the next week, mostly around the christmas baking I've done thus far so ho ho ho and all that.

This cake is from one of my all time favourite baking books, How to be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking by Nigella Lawson, I have made so many things out of this book and they never fail to turn out looking and tasting amazing.

I have never made a Christmas cake before this one and it's my baby, I am SO SO happy with it, it looks good, it didn't burn and smells drinkalicious!!!

So here's what you need for a 23cm round (20cm square) cake tin

• 700g sultanas
• 225g raisins
• 110g currants
• 110g glace cherries
• 110g mixed peel
• 120ml brandy or sherry
• 225g butter
• 195g brown sugar
  
• 1 tsp grated orange zest
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest
• 4 medium eggs and 1 extra yolk (the original recipe uses 4 lrg eggs)
  
• 2 tsp honey (the original recipe uses marmalade but I forgot to buy this so honey seemed a better option than blackcurrant jam!)
  
• 350g plain flour
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp almond essence
• pinch of salt

I used dried fruit from out local fruit shop, I have never seen it in there before and was very happy I didn't have to use anything from bags but if you're making this the end result will be just the same I'm sure as my mammy (Domestic Goddess extraordinaire) never used anything but bagged fruit when I was growing up and the cake was always gorgeous.

Put the fruit into a large bowl and soak in the brandy or sherry overnight.

The next day, heat the oven to Gas mark 2 or 150C. Line the tin with a double thickness of buttered baking parchment and then outside the tin a double thickness of brown paper, this should come up above the tin about the same depth as the tin itself. Nigella's recipe uses brown paper and then baking parchment inside the tin but I grew up doing it with the parchment on the inside and the brown paper outside the tin and it worked out just fine.

• Cream the butter and the sugar and then beat in the lemon and orange zest.
• Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after you add each one, then add the honey or marmalade. I added my salt in at this stage and the almond essence aswell.
  
• Sift the flour and spices together and add to the fruit. Mix really well so everything is combined and there's no pockets of flour left or uncoated fruit

Pour your mixture into the prepared, buttered cake tin and bake for 3-3 1/2 hours or until a skewer (read butter knife here as I had no skewers) comes out clean.

When the cake comes out, brush a couple of spoons of extra brandy over the top of the cake and wrap in it's tin immediately - this will trap heat and form steam and keep the top of the cake soft on the top. When the cake is completely cold, remove it from the tin and rewrap in greaseproof paper and foil and store.

Now, I haven't made any move to ice the cake yet but am going to top the cake following a different recipe for Certosino from the same book. This involves putting aprocot jam all over the top of the cake, then covereing it completely with dried fruits and nuts and glazing it with the remainder of the apricot jam so it looks all shiny and pretty, I will update the post at that stage