Home-made food for the festive season

[vournikas]

singlecoil said:

sherman said:

You need enough water that it binds everything in the bowl together. You shouldnt have any crumbs in the bottom of your bowl after you have formed your dough. It shouldnt be sticky though. Maybe very slightly tacky.

My wife will add that he should not have used butter, and that having made the dough he needs to let it rest 30 minutes minimum, in the fridge, wrapped in cling film.

So lard only for shortcrust?

I did chill the dough in the fridge for half an hour wrapped in clingfilm.

Maybe it was because I was following a Delia recipe, and I have historically taken the piss out of my mum's cooking. Whenever she uses a Delia Smith recipe, it usually falls to pieces :

"What are you cooking?"

"Delia's apple pie"



"So it's mutton pie for dessert, then!"

[muppetdave]

Not a pre-made festive jobbie, but my b-I-l boned and stuffed some turkey legs last year (we rear turkeys for Xmas on our farm) as we had a few left over and made crowns. I'm never normally a fan of the darker meat but they were stunning, and each leg gave about 2lbs in weight, so it lasted a couple of days for Dinner and sandwiches for two of us.

[Bill]

I always do that, boned and stuffed with chestnut stuffing it's the bit that gets fought over. It also means the rest of the bird cooks much quicker so is less likely to dry out. This year as an accompaniment I will be doing sprouts like this: http://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/home/r...

SC: Care to share your mincemeat recipe?

[singlecoil]

Bill said:

SC: Care to share your mincemeat recipe?

I'll ask Mrs Sc for that when she gets back this afternoon.

[Bill]

Cheers.

[singlecoil]

Bill said:

SC: Care to share your mincemeat recipe?

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/main-ingredient/cranberries/home-made-christmas-mincemeat-with-cranberries.html

Like a good many of Delia Smith's recipes, it's rather good.

[Martin4x4]

Bill said:

SC: Care to share your mincemeat recipe?

Currents, Raisins, Sultanas in equal quantities.

Soak the dry fruit in your favourite alcohol for 24 hours, tradition says Brandy but Cognac and Whiskey will work, I prefer port.

The rest of the ingredients assume 1 cup of each dried fruit.

Add 1 large cooking apple skinned and finely chopped.
Add the juice and zest of 1 lemon and 2 oranges.
Add 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar.
Half and full cup of Beef, Mutton or veg suet to taste.
Nutmeg, Cinnamon and/or mixed spice between a large pinch and half teaspoon to taste.

mix thoroughly

Optional
Tablespoon of honey
Juice and zest of one lime
Quarter cup of sweet mixed peel
Quarter cup of crushed nuts, almonds, hazel or mixed

warm in a low oven 100C for 2-3 hours, vigorously stir each hour.

The thing about sweet mince is it is intended as a way to preserve food embrace experimentation, with regard to other dried fruits etc.

Edited by Martin4x4 on Sunday 23 November 16:46

[BigJonMcQuimm]

Just made my first batch of the year.



Recipe :- http://www.cookbakesmile.com/RecipeBlog/files/Minc...

[rehab71]

vournikas said:

singlecoil said:

vournikas said:

singlecoil said:

They are meant to be like that, it improves the mince/pastry ratio

May I ask what recipe you use for the case?

Shortcrust pastry

110gm plain flour
25 gms hard margarine (Stork is good)
25 gms hard fat (Trex is good)
ice cold water
small pinch of salt if wished

brush with beaten egg

That's enough for 12 mince pies

The mincemeat was also home made, I can get the recipe for that if anyone wants it. It's less sweet than the stuff that you buy in jars.

Cheers for that.

One more question : how much water? I tried shortcrust for the first time last weekend, and added 1.5 tablespoons of water to a mix of 400g of flour and 200g of fat (half and half lard / butter). It was impossible to roll, and just broke apart.

TIA!

For mince pies I use sweet short crust pastry with only butter, I find it much richer and the sweetness just improves the pies/tarts.

In terms of how much water, just add a splash at a time until in binds together, if you add to much you can always add a little more flour.

ETA: Did you chill it first?

Edited by rehab71 on Sunday 30th November 19:23

[rehab71]

Here's a good sweet shortcrust recipe, good as it uses icing sugar.

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/3081/sweet-shortcru...

[rehab71]

Mince meat, done!

[Defcon5]

Il going to make some eggnog for Xmas day

[vournikas]

rehab71 said:

Here's a good sweet shortcrust recipe, good as it uses icing sugar.

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/3081/sweet-shortcru...

That's very similar to a Jamie Oliver short crust recipe I used to make an apple pie last week. Turned out just perfect it did. Rolled nicely, tasted great, not too short, and held together.