Christmas Mince Pies

I love this pastry. Avoid if you are a Weight Watcher! This is another favourite from The Times Cookery Book (1972) by Katie Stewart.

Ingredients:

10 oz (275g) plain flour
1oz (25g) ground almonds
6oz (175g) butter
3 oz (75g)caster sugar
grated rind of half a lemon
1 egg yolk
3 tablespoons milk

450g jar Robertson's mincemeat
1 tablespoon brandy
icing sugar for dusting


Method:

Mix flour and ground almonds in a large mixing bowl and rub in butter. Add sugar and rind. Mix the milk with the egg yolk and then add to bowl and stir in to form firm dough, adding extra milk/flour as required to get correct consistency. Chill dough for 30 mins before rolling out. Grease patty pans. Cut out pastry circles and line tin. Mix brandy into jar of mincemeat. Add a teaspoon of mincemeat to each tart and top with smaller circle of pastry or try small star shapes for decoration. Bake for 15-20 mins at 220C (200C fan-forced). Dust with icing sugar and store in air-tight tin. Serve warm or cold with cream or brandy butter.

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Brandy Butter

This recipe is from my rather ancient and battered copy of  "The Times Cookery Book" by Katie Stewart 1972.

Very easy and delicious served with Christmas pudding or mince pies.

Ingredients:

6 oz (175g) unsalted butter
8 oz (225g) sieved icing sugar
2 tablespoons brandy



Method:

Cream the butter until soft and then gradually beat in the icing sugar followed by the brandy. Store in the fridge.

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Christmas Pudding

This is the Christmas pudding I have made every year since 1993. Once described by a visitor as "the best Christmas pudding I've ever tasted". My son Nat loves this. It is from the Women's Weekly Celebration Cookery book.

Ingredients:

500g (31/4 cups) mixed fruit
125g (3/4 cup) chopped dates
125g (3/4 cup) chopped raisins
1 cup water
1 cup brown sugar
125g butter

1tsp bicarb of soda
2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup plain flour
1 cup self raising flour
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons dark rum

Christmas Day 2015 leftovers, pudding in foreground, with chocolate birthday cake and Christmas cake, yum!

Method:
Combine fruit, water sugar and butter in saucepan. Stir constantly  over heat until butter is melted and sugar dissolved.. Bring to the boil and then simmer gently for 8 mins uncovered.  Then stir in the soda and transfer to a large bowl. Now stir in the eggs, sifted dry ingredients and rum.

Spray a 10 cup capacity pudding basin with oil. Spoon mixture into basin and smooth surface. Cover with a double sheet of foil (greased) and secure with string.

Place pudding in a large saucepan. Pour in enough boiling water to come halfway up the side of pudding basin. Place saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 hours. Add extra boiling water as required. Never allow saucepan to boil dry. Set aside to cool. Store pudding in refrigerator. I place a broken saucer under the pudding basin so that it is lifted off the bottom of the pan. (The saucer broke the first time I did this and I kept it to use every year!). Otherwise the pudding might burn on the bottom - I think this happened to me one year and I just chopped the burnt part off.

Remove the foil and allow to cool. Cover with cling film and store the pudding in refrigerator. (I make the pudding a couple of weeks before Christmas.)

To reheat: You could place pudding in large saucepan of simmering water and steam for 2 hours, but I actually reheat the pudding in the microwave, which is much quicker and convenient on a hot day (I live in Australia). Nice served with custard, whipped cream or brandy butter.

Based on 16 serves, this has a Weight Watchers ProPoints value of 9 per serve.

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