Mince pies

This week's Christmas preparations included baking mince pies and apple pies (for he-who-does-not-like-
Christmas-pudding, namely Tevye). The less said about the apple pies the better, as I forgot to set the timer to remind me to turn the gas down part way through cooking them and they got frazzled. Tevye assures me he will still enjoy them, but I'm afraid they are only just the right side of the fine line between edible and inedible. Fortunately the mince pies came out well.

The recipe I use for mince pies comes from Cooking for Your Freezer by Mary Berry (one of a series of slim volumes sold by Marks and Spencer many years ago) ...

Ingredients
1 lb (4 cups) self-raising flour
4 oz (½ cup) butter
4 oz (½ cup) hard margarine
2 oz (¼ cup) lard
1 egg, separated
Milk
1½ lb mincemeat
A little castor sugar

Method
Sieve flour into a bowl (I don't bother with the sieving)
Add butter, margarine and lard cut in small pieces, then rub into the flour until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs
Add the egg yolk with enough milk to make a firm dough
Knead until blended then chill dough in refrigerator for 20 minutes
Roll out half the dough thinly. Cut out about 35 circles 2¾ inches in diameter and use to line pie tins. (I use slightly larger cutters and get about 30 pies)
Fill with mincemeat
Roll out remaining dough and cutout 35 circles 2¼ inches in diameter for lids
Wet edges of the dough circles in the tin and press the lids on gently to seal.
Brush tops of pies with beaten egg white, dust with a little sugar.
Bake at 400ºF / 200ºC / Gas Mk 6 for 20 minutes, or until pastry is crisp and golden brown.
Leave to cool in tins.

Pies can be frozen. To serve hot (from frozen) replace in tinsand reheat at same temperature for 25 minutes.

I have made my own mincemeat, but decided the ready-made version was just as nice and much easier. It is widely available here, including various luxury varieties. If you want to make your own, this recipe should do nicely. I haven't tried it myself, but it comes from a reliable book - 1000 Freezer Recipes ed. Carole Handslip and Jeni Wright. I bought this used for £1 years ago, and it has become my most used cookery book. Recipes are simple and they work. It also gives both British and American measures, making it a very useful source for kitchen-type translations.

Ingredients
1 lb (4 cups) seedless raisins, finely chopped or minced (ground)
½ lb cooking apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped or minced
4 oz (2/3 cup) candied peel, finely chopped or minced
3/4 lb (2 cups) currants
½ lb (1 1/3 cups) sultanas (seedless white raisins)
6 oz (1 cup, firmly packed) shredded suet
½ teaspoon ground mixed spice (or ¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg and ¼ teaspoon of a mixture of ground allspice and cloves)
finely grated rind and juice of 2 lemons
1 b (2 2/3 cups) light brown sugar
6 tablespoons dry cider (dry hard cider)

Method
Put all ingredients in a bowl and stir well to mix. Cover the bowl, leave to stand overnight, then spoon into small rigid containers or freezer-proof jars.

If frozen, thaw at room temperature for 3 hours, then store in the refrigerator. Makes about 5lbs. That would fill an lot of mince pies (about 100). I would only make half quantity.

My Naughty Little Sister makes Christmas puddings

Have you met My Naughty Little Sister? If not, then I recommend her for small girls, from around age four upwards. She gets up to lots of mischief, but of a gentle, old-fashioned kind. And "big sister" who tells the stories is always suitable shocked. In one book little sister actually manages to be good, and one of the things she does while being good is help her Grannie to make Christmas puddings to take her mind of the firework bangs on Bonfire Night (Guy Fawkes night, November 5th) ...

Grannie's big kitchen table looked just like a shop, there were so many things on it. There were jars and bottles and packets, full of currants and sultanas and raisins and ginger and candied eel and a big heap of suet on a board, and a big heap of brown sugar on a plate. There were apples and oranges and lemons, and even some big clean carrots!

There was a big brown bowl standing on a chair that had a big, big, wooden spoon in it. And on the draining board were lots of white basins.

Can you guess? My sister couldn't. She didn't know what all this stuff was for, so Grannie said, 'We are going to make the Family Christmas Puddings. I always make one for every one of my children every year. And I always make them on Bonfire night. It takes my mind of the bangs.'

My sister was very surprised to hear this, and to know that all these lovely things to eat were going to be made into Christmas Puddings.

Grannie said, 'You can help me, and it will take your mind off the bangs, too.' ...

... When all the things had been put into the brown bowl, Grannie began to mix and mix with the big spoon. She gave my sister a little wooden spoon so that she could mix too.

Then, Grannie said, 'Now you must shut your eyes and stir, and make wish. You always wish on a Christmas pudding mixture.'

And my sister did. She shut her eyes and turned her spoon round and round. Then Grannie shut her eyes and wished.

My sister said, 'I wished I could come and help you next Bonfire night, Grannie'

And Grannie said, 'Well, Missy, that was just what I wished too!'

Then my sister sat quietly by the fire while our grandmother put the pudding mixture into all the basins, and covered them with paper and tied them with cloth.

[From When My Naughty Little Sister Was Good by Dorothy Edwards]

Christmas Puddings - Errata!

If you are planning to use my Christmas pudding recipe, you need to know that they do not keep as long as I first wrote in the recipe post. Apparently, the reason they are still OK to eat at Easter is because my Mum keeps them in the freezer! She tells me that they will keep for about six weeks unfrozen.

Also, I forgot to add one vital piece of information ... when making Christmas puddings, tradition is that everyone gets to stir the pudding and make a wish. Can't miss that out!

The puddings are made!

Star and I made this "stir-up Monday" (a little license there!) and made our Christmas puddings.

Lots of ingredients ...


Measuring them out ...


A good stir (and don't forget to make a wish!) ...


Four puddings almost ready for the pot ...


Full steam ahead!

Christmas Pudding

Stir-up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Collect for the Sunday before the First Sunday of Advent, Book of Common Prayer)

Today is Stir-Up Sunday, the day for stirring up Christmas puddings, an essential part of dinner for Christmas Day here in England. We won't be making ours today, but Star and I will be preparing them next week. Until this year my mother has always made them, but standing for any length of time is too painful as she waits for her hip replacement operation (she now has a date for surgery ... December 18th!), so I have inherited the job along with the family recipe she has always used.

Christmas puddings are normally very rich affairs, laced with quantities of brandy or rum, but our recipe is a lighter, alcohol-free version. It came from Mum's adoptive aunt, who inherited it from her mother. They were Methodists, hence the teetotal pudding. I love Christmas pudding in any shape or form, but often people who dislike other Christmas puds enjoy ours. Here is the recipe ...

Ingredients
8 oz breadcrumbs
8 oz plain flour
8 oz suet (we use the vegetarian version)
8 oz currants
8 oz sultanas
4 oz raisins
a little mixed peel
2 tsp salt
8 oz castor sugar
2 tsp mixed spice
rind and juice of 2 lemons
6 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 grated apples
2 grated carrots
4 oz glace cherries, quartered
1 or 2 tbsp black treacle (dark molasses?)
a little milk if mixture is stiff

Method
Mix all ingredients together and beat well
Put in greased pudding moulds (should be about two-thirds full)
Cover with greaseproof paper
Steam for 3 to 4 hours.

After steaming remove the greaseproof paper and cover with foil. These puddings are not rich so will only keep for about 6 weeks, though they can be frozen if you want to keep them longer. Steam a second time for at least 3 hours, and serve with any combination of brandy sauce, brandy butter, custard or cream. I need to check just how many puddings this quantity of mixture will make, but I think it would probably be two 2 pound puddings and two 1 pound puddings, or thereabouts.

Note: If anyone in the US is interested in making these, let me know and I can post conversions into cups.