Now that we are well and truly into the festive season, I figured it was time to crack on with the Christmas baking! Today I am starting with the classic mince pie, a sweet treat that has been enjoyed as part of a traditional British Christmas since the 16th Century- a long time ago right?! Back then they actually contained a meat filling, hence the name, mincemeat. Makes sense I guess. However, I'm glad that we now make them with a sweet sticky filling of dried fruits, sugar, and spices (plus a little dash of brandy if you're lucky!). The mincemeat is usually encased in a shortcrust pastry crust, although some may prefer to use puff pastry, and top with frangipan, crumble or even marzipan and icing. My mum always bakes mini versions with a viennese shortbread topping and they are an absolute delight!

The recipe I am sharing with you today is very much a traditional one, but please do feel free to experiment with your own variations- I love to hear about your ideas!

I have included a recipe for homemade mincemeat, but if this is too much faff then a good quality shop bought version is absolutely fine. If I'm pushed for time, I buy a jar of mincemeat and add more of my favourite fruits and nuts (plus a dash of alcohol if I want them a little boozy!)


for the pastry:
240g plain flour
60g unsalted butter
60g lard
pinch of salt

for the mincemeat:
625g dried fruit (raisins, sultanas, currants work well but try adding apricots or cranberries to mix it up a little!)
100ml brandy
zest of one orange (plus the juice of half)
300g shredded suet
250g dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1 large Bramley apple, peeled, cored, and grated

Start by making the mincemeat. Soak the dried fruits in the brandy and orange juice for at least one hour (or overnight if you can wait that long!). Mix together the remaining ingredients in a separate bowl.
Once your fruits are nice and plump, add them to the remaining mincemeat mix and stir in the brandy. Transfer into sterilised jars, seal, and leave for a week or two before using.

For the pastry, rub the fat into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs, then stir in the salt (you can also add a tablespoon of caster sugar for a sweet pastry, although this is not necessary). Sprinkle in 2-3 tbsp of cold water and gradually bring the pastry together into a ball. Wrap your pastry in clingfilm and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Remove the pastry from the fridge, knead gently and roll out on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of around 3mm. Using a pastry cutter, stamp out 12 rounds and press these into your tart tin.
Dollop around a tablespoon of mincemeat into each tart shell, then cut out 12 more slightly smaller rounds of pastry (or stars/whatever other shape takes your fancy!) to place on top.
Carefully seal the edges of each tart, using a little beaten egg or milk if you need, and then snip the top of the pastry with a small pair of scissors (or make a small hole- I used a mini star cutter for mine!). Place the pies in the fridge whilst you pre-heat your oven to Gas mark 6 (200C).
Bake your pies for 15-20 minutes until they are golden brown. Leave for 5 minutes in the tin, then remove and sprinkle with a dusting of caster sugar.

I find that mince pies are particularly tasty when eaten whilst still warm from the oven, so go ahead and tuck in!

NB: If you have any left over mincemeat, it will keep in the fridge for up to six months and is versatile enough for use in many other sweet recipes. I love stirring it into my favourite vanilla ice cream!

For as long as I can remember, we have always had a shop-bought Christmas pudding on Christmas day. This year, two small 'extra special' (I'll let you guess the shop) Christmas puds were added to the shopping basket but I decided that I wanted to make a 'buche de noel' or chocolate log as it's known here in the UK. Now I don't have anything against Christmas pudding, infact, I love it (especially with a good helping of brandy butter) but I just fancied doing something different, for three main reasons:
1. I've never made a yule log or even a swiss roll before so I wanted to have a go at it,
2. My sister is the only one in my family who doesn't like Christmas pudding so has to silenty sit and watch us eat it while she has to put up with yet another mince pie,
3. I love chocolate, enough said.


Anyway, I found a recipe in the Delia Smith Christmas book and got to work. I used her recipe for the sponge- a simple mixture of beaten eggs whites, sugar and cocoa powder baked in a swiss roll tin. Now I'm not a huge fan of cream so I thought that I'd add some melted milk chocolate to the whipped cream filling to make it really chocolatey.


For the final outer icing, I actually made two types. The first was a bit like a rich chocolate sauce- dark chocolate, butter and syrup, and the second a simple chocolate butter icing. The butter icing was slightly lighter in colour so I was able to use a fork to create a two tone effect on the outside of the log so it looked more like real wood.


I felt that my chocolate log wouldn't be complete without some festive holly leaves, berries and ofcourse a little robin red breast so I made these out of icing and marzipan, then dusted the whole thing with a little icing sugar and grated white chocolate for that snowy look!


Unfortunately, everybody (except me) was far to full to manage any pudding after the huge turkey my mum bought from the butchers, but the log lasted a good few days in the fridge without drying out and was still rather tasty! However, as we missed out on Christmas pud this year, I am now really craving some, and so I am looking forward to new years day when we will probably pop that in the microwave after dinner- yum!

I am finally beginning to feel a little festive now- we have decorated our christmas tree, the fairy lights are up and my ipod is loaded with cheesy christmas music- brilliant! As usual, I like to bake a range of goodies in theme with the season, and so I started with some iced vanilla biscuits. You see, my mum bought me a new set of cookie cutters from Ikea and I just couldn't wait to use them!

I was a little worried that some of the biscuit shapes wouldn't hold up in the oven-particularly the reindeer (!) but luckily my dough didn't let me down and they came out perfectly. Once baked and cooled, I just had to ice them-always a little tricky but once you get going it does seem to get easier!

I packaged the biscuits up in threes, putting the elves, boots and snowflakes together, and the santas, sleighs and reindeer together- what do you think?

Something else that I always tend to make at christmas time are florentines. These are delicious crisp-on-the-outside, chewy-in-the-middle biscuits made with nuts, glace cherries and dried fruit, then half coated in chocolate. I think that they make a lovely gift if wrapped up nicely with some pretty ribbon, and they tend to last quite a while so you can make them in advance!

My next job is to decorate our christmas cake I made a few weeks ago, but I'm still trying to come up with ideas. If you have any suggestions, please do let me know!