MESSY BAKER

My mother in law makes the best mince pies, they are these tiny buttery shells filled with juicy, boozy fruit always topped with a small pasty star. The pastry is wonderful and short, but it’s the mincemeat that really makes it.  I don’t think I will ever be able to replicate her recipe, so the best I can do it to go to good old favorites – Delia and Mary Berry and create my own recipe, my own special recipe that I can pass onto my children.  Christmas Mince  Makes 3x0.3l jars  200g (1 large) bramley apple  225g raising  225g currants  225g sultanas  130g mixed candied peel, chopped  225g brown sugar  50g toasted almond flakes  3 heaped tsp mixed spice  ½ tsp nutmeg  1 lemon, juice only  1 orange, juice only  150g shredded suet  50g butter  2 bay leaves  250ml brandy  Core the apple (don’t worry about peeling) and chop into small, fingernail size pieces. Place the appl...

Did you know its only 38 days before Christmas? Its definitely beginning to feel colder and wintery and we might even get snow this Christmas! To be fair, I am hoping for snow every year, and so far I have only seen a white Christmas once in all my years of living in London.  I love Christmas, I really do, and I love all the traditions and foods that come with it, and no Christmas is complete in our house without a Christmas cake. Now, this is a rather new tradition in our house, I’ve only been making a Christmas cake for the last five years or so. I am not a big fan Christmas cakes (or any fruit cake to be honest) that you buy in the shops. They are too sweet, too sticky, too artificial for my taste, I can taste the sugar grains and preservatives on my teeth. Which is why I decided to try making Christmas cakes at the first place – to see if the real deal is going to be any better, or maybe I am just not a Christmas cake person.  Well, turns out I am a Christmas cake ...

I have a confession – I don’t like Christmas cakes and Christmas pudding, don’t like any heavy fruit cakes for that matter. As any good baker, I decided the only way to change it is to make my own Christmas cake, which I have done for the last couple of years. Some of them turned out better than others, but I am more pleased with them than shop-bought ones. This year my mother in law, Mrs Ranty Senior is making us a Christmas pudding and bringing it over all the way from NZ. She is a very good baker, and I am sure her pudding is going to be amazing, and it removes any fruit cake baking responsibilities from me this year. I am still going to be doing Christmas baking this year – Gingerbread house and Christmas Panetonne, but more on that in later posts. If I WAS baking my own cake, I would be buying a lot of booze – brandy and port – to “feed” my cake. But seeing as I am skipping on the baking, I shall STILL be buying the alcohol but for my personal consumption :) With all that ...

Last weekend I made a “Canadian” Pumpkin pie, and if you think that is weird, wait till you hear the reason for the pie. It was to take to a farewell dinner with our lovely neighbours – socialising with neighbours, in London – UNHEARD OF!!! J Anyway, our neighbours is a lovely Canadian couple and they are going back home, they have invited us for dinner to their house and cooked New Zealand lamb in our honour and I have decided to make a “Canadian” pumpkin pie for them. Now, I know a few people have a bit of a thing about pumpkin pies - its too sweet, too soft, too bland, too American, whatever. The first time I’ve made it, I followed Humming Bird Bakery cookbook recipe – it turned out looking just like it did in the book, but Mr Ranty wasn’t too impressed, and I was determined to make a pumpkin pie that will woe him. So, here it is, a Maple, Bourbon, Pecan Pumpkin pie – aka “Canadian” Pumpkin Pie. The recipe mainly follows “ Maple-Bourbon Pie ” recipe from MyRecipe...