If you still aren’t ready for Christmas, don’t stress, it’s not too late! Make good use of late-night shopping hours at centres or go as soon as they’re open to avoid the crowds. I would suggest you buy your Christmas meats (gammon, turkey, lamb, beef) as soon as possible, as well as fresh vegetables and fruit, and fresh cream.
Still gifts to buy?
If you haven’t time to bake Christmas mince pies, you’ll find them at all food stores, but homemade are still best and very easy to make. I shared my Christmas mince pie recipe with you a few years ago but in case you’ve misplaced it, here it is again.
Christmas sweet mince pies
Pastry
500g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
50g caster sugar
350g shortening (I use 150g lard and 200g butter or margarine)
175ml of liquid (150ml iced water and 25ml lemon juice)
Method
Sift the flour and baking powder together in a large bowl. Rub in the lard and butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the liquid slowly, binding together with a knife. Bring together into a ball, wrap in grease-proof paper and refrigerate while you prepare the other ingredients
Fruit mincemeat
1 jar fruit mincemeat
4 apples, grated (Granny Smith)
30g glace cherries
30g slivered almonds
2 tablespoons brandy
Method
Mix all the above ingredients together. You should get two jars from the mixture.
Remove the pastry from the fridge, sprinkle flour on the work surface and roll out the pastry. Use cutters, making the bottoms bigger than the tops.
Grease muffin or tart tins with margarine and place the bottoms in the tin. Add a spoonful of mincemeat mixture (dessert spoon) and place the tops above. Crimp down around the edges and brush with water. At this stage you can sprinkle caster sugar lightly on top or wait until the pies are baked and when cool, dust with icing sugar.
Bake until lightly golden, about 20 minutes on 200c. Serve warm or cold with fresh cream, custard or ice cream.
To all the people out there who have made my year a great one, thank you, you know who you are. My wish for you all is to enjoy precious time with family and friends and if you know of someone who is alone, extend an invitation for lunch or dinner, or even for them to pop in for a Christmas mince pie and glass of sherry. Christmas is really a time of sharing.
Have a wonderful Christmas and an amazing New Year, filled with lots of love, happiness, health and wealth. If you still have money and energy, shop till you drop! Until next year…….
Julie
