“If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens.” Robert Browning
Savoury Braided Bread with garlic, rosemary and sundried tomatoes. In my little corner of the world, home baked bread doesn’t get tastier than this. It’s been a while since I baked bread. Getting onto the KitchenAid Culinary Council got me back to doing something I enjoy loads, baking bread. Just the ease of a dough hook of the KitchenAid stand mixer that works magic inside one big bowl, leaving you hands free to add things at will is a liberating feeling.
I had a field day adding my favourite flavours to the bread. The base dough was deep deep garlic and olive oil of course, two of my most favourite flavours in the world. Then I added more flavours to the bread after the first rise, which happened in the bowl of the KA itself. It’s this very convenience that won me over. Threw in some cheese and sun dried bread, another quick knead with the dough hook to mix in the new additions, and voila! Silky smooth dough ready to braid.
Of course you can just shape the loaf if you like, but for me the eternal charm lies in adding some drama to the bread. A twist to the visual effect. A loaf is pretty enough, but a braid is more fun and prettier. It’s also easier to tear apart and devour.
Recipe: Savoury Braided Bread
Summary: Delicious part whole wheat Savoury Braided Bread where the mixer does all the hard work, literally all in the same bowl. It leaves you all the time in the world to gently braid the silky smooth dough to offer a show stopper loaf. With Christmas holiday colours of red, green and white, this vegetarian bread is bursting with flavour and goodness. Fresh bread will never be the same again! Makes 1 X 12″ loaf. Serves 4-6
Prep Time: 10 minutes Total Time: 1 hour plus rising time Ingredients:
Dough
250g plain flour
100g whole-wheat flour
1/2 tbsp dried instant yeast
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp dried rosemary
1 tsp salt
Pinch sugar
200-250ml buttermilk
40g extra virgin olive oil
50g cheddar
Filling/Topping
Few sprigs of rosemary
3 cloves garlic, sliced
25g sundried tomatoes in olive oil, chopped {reserve a few bits of tomato for the topping if you like}
Himalayan sea salt for topping
Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling over
Method:
Place flours, yeast, salt, sugar, minced garlic and dried herbs in bowl of Kitchen Aid. With the dough hook attachment on, run KA on speed 4 for 30 seconds to mix.
Add 200ml buttermilk and olive oil and work dough hook until the mixture comes together and a sticky dough forms. Place the shield, and pour in more buttermilk if required.
Continue to knead to dough for a further 5-6 minutes on speed 5 until you get smooth silky dough that pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
Drizzle the ball with olive oil, turn over, cover the bowl with cling wrap and leave in a warm place for the dough to double. It should take a couple of hours.
Preheat the oven to 250C.
Once the dough has risen, grate the cheddar into the bowl and add the sundried tomatoes. With the dough hook, mix in the cheese and sundried tomatoes on speed 4 for 30 seconds to incorporate.
Turn dough onto lightly floured work surface. Knead for 30 seconds to being together. Divide into 3 parts, and roll into 10-12″ long ropes.
Braid the ropes into a neat little loaf, tucking the ends in to hold the braid. Spray a KA jelly roll pan with olive oil {or lightly brush} and gently transfer the braided dough onto the baking pan. Sprinkle over with Himalayan sea salt, sliced garlic, reserved sundried tomato and sprigs of rosemary.
Bake at 250C for 10 minutes, then reduce to 200C and continue to bake for approximately 30-40 minutes until golden brown, and hollow when tapped underneath. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil as soon as it comes out.
Serve warm with extra virgin olive oil to dip into.
“Eat clean. Think straight. Work consistently. Speak positively. Motivate others. Believe in yourself.” Toni Sorenson
Wholegrain Holiday Biscotti. It’s strange that I post biscotti every so often. Each time Mr PAB travels I brace myself for the request. “Do you think you’ll have time to make me some biscotti?” Yes he is that predictable. And me? Equally unpredictable. Even if I am torn for time, I know I will definitely bake a batch. The unpredictable bit is that I cannot make the same recipe over and over again.
That the biscotti was going to be healthy and wholegrain was a given. The beginning of the holiday season means a lot of additional flavours begin to dance in the head. Crystallised ginger, dried cranberries, orange, and walnuts of course… fun fun fun! Baking the batch gave me a chance to play around with this beautiful Acacia Wooden Cutting Board from Engrave that I recently received. Chopped the walnuts, ginger and cranberries on it, flipped it over and shot some more…
Meat or mushrooms, this rugged chopping board can handle it all. Hand crafted from a single block of Acacia wood, this rustic looking board is as comfortable in the lap as it on the kitchen counter. If you find one side is worn out from months if frantic chopping, flip it around for a second stint.
Engrave have got a whole lot of fun, innovative and interesting products online. I especially love the Acacia range, but there’s plenty more in the lifestyle range. Their engraving and personalized products really stand out. There is loads of creativity on offer that includes plaques, canvas, name plates, ipad engraving …
…. back to baking and the queen of substitutions kicked in. It was going to be a chocolate base. Most whole grains work really well with chocolate, so no question of messing around there. I like that this recipe worked out well. Plenty of wholegrain – buckwheat flour, wholewheat flour and oats, it’s packed with nuts, ginger, cranberries too … all good for the winters. The recipe is a healthier take on the chocolate almond biscotti I made several years ago…. and that brings me to the Fit Foodie meter.
As you might know, I was part of the Saffola Oats campaign led by Michelin Star Chef Vikas Khanna last year to develop healthy and tasty recipes.Using wholegrain and healthy ingredients like oats, buckwheat flour, amaranth flour, whole sugars etc., I discovered a whole new world! There’s been no looking back…I developed bunch of fun and interesting recipes. You can now find these on the FIT FOODIE website. There were a couple of videos shot for Food Food Channel as well. They are on the Saffola Fit Foodie site and on you tube too.This year around, I have been invited to hop on board and join their ‘Fit Foodie Panel‘.
Our panel of experts is the one that creates, carefully scrutinizes and approves every recipe that is available on the site. Headed by Michelin starred chef, Vikas Khanna, it includes die hard foodies, eminent chefs, popular food bloggers and renowned nutritionists who ensure that the scale is perfectly balanced on both health and taste. They cook, they taste and yes, they share exactly what works to spin that delightfully healthy meal on the table!
The site offers another interesting concept that’s been developed by the efficient and creative team behind brand Saffola… the Fit Foodie Meter. It works hard to improve normally used recipes and give them a healthier makeover of sorts, yet keeps the tasty factor in place.
The Fit Foodie Meter score is in a comparative format. The meter always shows the score for two recipes: 1) The ‘Regular Recipe’ or the most commonly prepared form of the dish and 2) The ‘Fit Foodie Recipe’ or the recipe presented in this website, which is an improved/modified version of the original dish. For example, if one were to take pizza as the dish, the Fit Foodie Meter would show the score for a regular veg pizza (Regular Recipe) and that for the Green Pizza (Fit Foodie Recipe) whose recipe is presented on this website. The greater the difference between the two scores, the higher the nutritive value of the Fit Foodie recipe in comparison to the Regular Recipe.
Summary: Crisp, chocolaty, and healthy, this Wholegrain Holiday Biscotti is a nice addition to the holiday cookie platter. With cranberries, walnuts, crystallised ginger and orange, it’s time to ring in the holiday season with this twice baked Italian cookie! Makes 25-30
Place wholewheat flour, buckwheat flour, oats, coco powder, baking powder, pinch salt and dark chocolate in bowl of food processor and pulse to fine mix.
Add the butter and pulse at high speed again. Reserve.
In a large bowl, beat together eggs, brown sugar, almond extract and orange rind till fluffy, one minute.
Fold in the dry mix with the walnuts, ginger and cranberries. Form into 2 logs and bake for 30 minute
Leave to cool for 10-15 minutes. Slice with a sharp knife.
Lay flat on sides on the baking tray, and bake again at 150C for 30 minutes.
“Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.”
Robert Fulghum
Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies with Smoked Sea Salt and Fluted Pistachio & Craisin Cookies … Cookies Cookies Cookies. The events of the past week asked for something comforting … the call was for cookies! Last months Daring Bakers challenge was meant to awaken the cookie monster in us, which it did. Sadly, I never did get down to posting them.
Excuses? Plenty and thankfully not too lame. Exams! Then the internet has played truant. The service provider refused to acknowledge the basic problem. A month later, after trying every solution under the sun, they finally agreed to redo the wiring {which is what we asked for in the first place}. Frustrating but true, like so many other things in life. I am happy to be back to blogging with less stress.
Of late, I’ve been bitten by the brownie monster and it was just a matter of time before I hit cookie mode. Daring Bakers in November set me off. Made two lots {downgraded from an ambitious 5-6}. Then the posting date passed by with intermittent internet and these poor cookies went into drafts. With the net now up and racing, I thought I’d better get them out before the bells begin to jingle louder. When the kidlets were younger, December always woke up the cookie monster in me. The jar was never empty. I was always elbow deep in dough {well almost}. My days {and often nights} would go in backbreaking baking, frosting cookies, doing stain glass cookies, hanging dozens onto the tree, making dozens more for the kids, their friends, for orders etc.
Then the ‘forever hungry for pretty Christmas cookies’ kids grew up. I fell to easier and more practical cookies to make. I hardly ever do cookies that need dressing up and fussing over. Wholewheat Gingerbread Men Cookies are an exception though; I really enjoy doing these. {Ceramics courtesy Urban Dazzle}
Now I consider myself lucky if freshly baked cookies even get a chance to ‘cool completely‘! Before I know it, dirty grubby teen ‘lad’ fingers hesitatingly come forward to grab a few, while the older sister bites gently into them. The two are ALWAYS game for cookies.
I started off pretty early in November. First out of the oven were FlutedPistachio & Craisin Cookies. Simple, crisp and delicious with craisins and pistachios adding beautiful flavour. The craisins were orange flavoured, so slight hints of orange teased the palette! Good beginning!
Then I happened to see these chippers on a beautiful blog Reclaiming Provincial. I instantly knew they were about to happen in the near future, pretty near future. I mentally ticked off everything I loved about them …
They are from a book I long to own {read yet another book}Good to the Grain, Kim Boyce. Wholewheat flour only. Brown sugar too. Seemed like a good deal! They certainly were! Watch them as they bake though … they can go from brown to dark brown in a heartbeat.
My cookies didn’t flatten like the ones I saw. Maybe because our Indian wholewheat is heaps different from the American whole wheat pastry flour {I presume the original recipe uses wholewheat pastry flour}. Maybe the egg I used was a tad small. Whatever, but these are darned delicious cookies!
I did add a drizzle of honey; maybe I could have added another. There’s plenty of time for experimenting because these are good cookies and are going to show up more often! Sorry for the delay in this Daring Bakers post Peta.
Holiday season is the time for sharing and Peta of Peta Eats is sharing a dozen cookies, some classics and some of her own, from all over the world with us.
[print_this]Recipe: Fluted Pistachio & Craisin Cookies
Summary: Simple cookies to enjoy holiday baking this season! Enjoy these crisp, light and delicious cookies with a cup of tea or coffee! Makes 2 dozen
Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 40 minutes Ingredients:
100g unsalted butter
75g raw sugar
1 egg yolk {reserve the white}
Zest of 1 lime
25g almond meal
175g plain flour
25g pistachios, chopped
25g craisins, chopped
Method:
Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment. Preheat the oven to 180C.
Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the yolk and zest and beat again.
Add all the remaining ingredients and mix well and bring together into a smooth dough. {In case the dough doesn’t come together well, add a little egg white to bind it}
Roll out to 1/8″ 4mm thick and stamp out with fluted cookie cutters. The cutters need to be sharp to cut through the craisins and pistachios.
Place on the prepared sheet and bake at 180C for 13-15 minutes until light golden brown.
Cool for 5 minutes on the tray, and then remove to cooling rack to cool completely.
Recipe: Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies with Smoked Sea Salt
Summary: Rustic, earthy and delicious wholegrain chocolate chip cookies … worth every bite! {Minimally adapted from Good to the Grain, via Reclaiming Provincial}. Makes 2 dozen
Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 40 minutes Ingredients:
225g whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
100g unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tbsp honey
60g dark brown sugar
60g raw sugar {bura}
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 tsp smoked sea salt
Method:
Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment. Preheat the oven to 180C.
Sift flour, baking powder and baking soda into a medium bowl. Reserve.
Beat the butter with both sugars in another bowl on low speed. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat again for a minute.
Add the sifted flour mix and incorporate on low speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl.
Fold in the chocolate chips {on low speed, with a wooden spoon, or your hand}.
Drop walnut size scoops of dough about 1.5″ apart onto the baking sheet. {I rolled mine into balls and flattened them slightly}.
Sprinkle over with sea salt if desired.
Bake for 15-18 minutes until the cookies are evenly dark brown.
Cool for 5 minutes on the tray, and then remove to cooling rack to cool completely.
“Foodie friends – Rosa, Helene, Alessio, Deeba, Vidya, Jamie. Love learning new stuff from you now and then! Whether it be your blogs,inspiring tweets or delicious FB posts. Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate and thank you! :-)” Fahad Khan via FB
How beautifully can sentiments be conveyed. The lines above are a reflection of everything the inspiring food blogging community and foodies share with large hearts. It’s a humbling feeling. Two small words like Thank You that can make the day shine! ‘Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate’. Thank you for being here. It’s Pumpkin Pie Tartlets in a Walnut Shell with Spiced Ginger Cream to celebrate the day!
Thanksgiving? There are some days which hold great significance in the Western world yet go largely unnoticed here. Every culture and every country however has a day they hold dear to say thank you for good deeds. For the baker in me, today is incomplete without baking a pie with a pumpkin, an opportunity to use this humble vegetable in a more fun way!
As aromas of pumpkin pie spice waft through the house, the lad will come sniffing the air hungrily. Pumpkin pie? YUM! I think I make this just because of him and his love for pumpkin {in dessert form}.This is also the only way both kids will eat the yellow veggie, rather hungrily devour it! This time of the year drives me to grab some pumpkin and roast it for puree.
It’s a humbling feeling to know that such a simple vegetable can give you such stunning end results. Since we are not a ‘pumpkin in the can’ country, the prep is always from scratch Pumpkin or kaddu is extensively used in cooking on the subcontinent as it is cheap, grows abundantly and is nutritious. It sometimes sneaks into Indian desserts as well like halwa and barfi too.
Adding pumpkin pie spice to puree energises the taste buds into reaching for higher ground, into appreciating how much more worth this humble yellow gourd can be! It’s simple to roast and make your own pumpkin puree, yet I find myself only ‘walking the roast the pumpkin plank‘ every Thanksgiving!
I wonder why? The Pumpkin Pie Tartlets in a Walnut Shell with Spiced Ginger Cream were really enjoyed by the family. The son gobbled his tartlet in a matter of seconds. Mmmm, these are GOOD!!They are simple to put together. I enjoy doing a walnut tart shell, inspired by the Whipped Strawberry Curd Cream Tartlets with Walnut Shortbread Crust.
Back to the TG moment. I have to say a big Thank You to Finla for these very charming and ‘so me’ ceramic ramekins she sent me {with ALL the other stuff} when her rockstar hub visited Delhi last month. I’ve been impatient to use them, and this seemed a good time to do so.
I love them; the colours and the feel full of rustic appeal. I wasn’t sure they would work well with tartlets. As you can see, luck was my friend {So was parchment paper. For that, gratitude to a sweet reader, now friend, Komal in Mumbai who continues to feed the ‘parchment monster‘ in me}.Big thank you!
On the topic of ramekins and parchment paper, a word about pumpkin pie spice. The spice is simple to make at home. It’s a mix of powdered cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. A good blend can be made in the 2:1:1 proportion i.e. 2tsp cinnamon powder, 1 tsp ground ginger and 1 tsp ground nutmeg.
And if you are making homemade pumpkin puree, make sure your puree is not too watery. You will not get a nice well set pie. The puree should be thick and can be cooked down if it’s too liquidy. If you add the pie spice to it while cooking down, the flavours will mature well. I added some freshly grated ginger juice to my filling. Nice!
To tie up all the warm flavours in the Pumpkin Pie Tartlets, I spiced the whipped cream gently with some powdered ginger. I did attempt to make some walnut caramel shards but the raw sugar did not oblige! Pumpkin, walnuts, ginger, cinnamon …warm, comforting, filling, delicious!
Happy Thanksgiving you beautiful readers. Thank you as always for stopping by! I leave you with a collage of random things that make me happy.
Don’t forget to tell me if you have something special you make with pumpkin!
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Recipe: Pumpkin Pie Tartlets in a Walnut Shell with Spiced Ginger Cream
Summary: Walnuts pair beautifully with warm pumpkin, pie spice and ginger to make these simple little tartlets. A touch of gently spiced ginger cream and we have a winner! Serves 8
Prep Time: 30 minutes {extra if you are making the puree from scratch} Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes {plus cooling & chilling time} Ingredients:
Pumpkin Puree
600-700g slice of pumpkin
Walnut tart shell
85g / 2/3 cup walnuts, chopped
50g / 1/4 cup raw sugar
100g / 1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled, cubed
150g / 1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
Pumpkin Pie Filling {recipe adapted minimally from here}
400g pumpkin puree
2 eggs
400ml {1tin} condensed milk
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1.5″ piece fresh ginger, grated, juice squeezed out through a strainer
Spiced Ginger Cream
100ml low fat cream, chilled
30g / 2tbsp powdered sugar
5g / 1/2 to 1 tsp ginger powder {as per taste}
Method:
Pumpkin Puree
Remove seeds etc of pumpkin {I used one long slice}, wrap in foil and bake at 180C for about 45 minutes.
Once warm enough to handle, peel and chop the roasted pumpkin, and puree. Yields about 425-440gms of pumpkin puree {approximately 1 15oz can}
Walnut Tart Shell
Preheat oven to 180C.
Place walnuts and sugar in food processor; process to grind to fine meal in short pulses. {Thermomix: Speed 9, 10 seconds}
Add the chilled butter and process until you get a breadcrumb like mix, 30 seconds. {Thermomix: Speed 8, 10 seconds}
Add the flour and salt. Process again until it begins to come together. Bring together gently until smooth and pliable. {Thermomix: Speed 8, 10 seconds, repeat if required}.
Divide the dough into 8 equal portions. {if dough is too soft, chill for 20 minutes in refrigerator}.
Gently press dough to line the base and sides of eight 3-inch loose bottomed tart pans or parchment lined shallow ceramic ramekins {as pictured}
Bake for 15 minutes until light golden and firm to touch. Cool completely before filling.
Pumpkin Pie Filling
Place all ingredients in a large bowl and whisk well until smooth.
Assembling Tartlets
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Divide the filling equally between the cooled tart shells. Bake for 45 minutes approximately until a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean, and the filling is firm to touch and glossy.
Cool completely on a wire rack and chill if you like. Chilling heightens the flavours of the ginger and pumpkin spice.
Note: The warm walnut shell might be a tad crumbly so be careful if you are trying to demold it while warm. Suggest chill the tart before demolding.
Spiced Ginger Cream
Whip the chilled cream with sugar and ginger powder until medium peaks. Place in pastry bag with a 1/2″ round nozzle and pie over pie once the pie is completely cool, preferably chilled.
“This is my advice to people: Learn how to cook, try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun”
Julia Child
It’s Diwali, the festival of lights, India’s biggest festival and one that literally lights up the length and breath of this beautiful country. That this time of the year is hectic seems an understatement; I race to keep up with holiday baking. For today, I went a little sweet and some savoury – Almond Digestive Chocolate Squares & Roasted Garam Masala Chickpeas
Oh, I bought some lamps. Actually got these lamps for myself after buying some for Finla {bottom of this post}. Her better half was visiting India for a music fest and I asked her what I could send. Her wishlist had Diwali lamps if possible! I ordered some for her, then got really tempted and got some for ourselves too. I loved the rustic metallic look!
This is the best time of the year in North India. The nips in the air, winter is beginning to make itself felt. It’s time for soup, for breads, for baking; generally time to tuck into food without feeling too guilty. I was short on time as always yet wanted to bake something. These little squares hit the sweet spot without being too sweet or too buttery. Nice balance of flavours and quick, convenient holiday baking.
These got made FAST! They’re an adaptation of a simple recipe I’ve had scribbled for ages, passed down by a friend. Of course I added my little twist adding whole almonds to the digestive biscuit base. I love the texture that nuts add. Maybe hazelnuts would work nicely too.
Lack of time and I had to fast track. Instead of waiting for the bake to cool completely and then pour melted chocolate over the top, I sprinkled the chocolate chips over the warm bake. Worked well. I do this quite often when I bake Oat Energy Bars. It’s always a happy feeling to see how beautifully dark chocolate melts gently on warm bakes!
Nothing like a quick fine slicing of almonds and pistachios over the melted chocolate to dress up the bites. A slicer comes quite handy at times like this unless of course you have the luxury of sliced nuts on hands. I don’t!!It’s nice to think up something savoury to meet the sweet. Savoury is my weakness! The Philips AirFryercontinues to call my name and fuel my imagination with creative ideas. I’ve done roasted chickpeas in the oven before, so thought that they might come out well in the AirFryer too. Why ever not?Good idea!Great idea! I do chickpeas from scratch here {we are not a canned chickpea country}. It isn’t cumbersome though does require a little planning like an overnight soak. {At this time I would LOVE to be a chickpea … I’d give an arm and a leg for an overnight soak! Oh my weary bones…} Once you have cooked chickpeas, toss them in EVOO, then spice them as you like. I did one batch with garam masala, salt and a dash of lime juice. YUM! The second batch was with a mix of garam masala, dried mint, cinnamon, red chili powder and roasted cumin. I’d love to do a garlic or chipotle, or maybe a honey garlic. How about smoked paprika?These came out CRISPY good from the AirFryer in about 20-25 minutes, a few shakes in between. An oven would do the same job at 200C for about 45 minutes, with some shaking up too. Both teens had a go at tossing them high in the air and playing catch with the mouth. The dog was obviously HAPPY as she got all the missed catches. She LOVES chickpeas – soaked, boiled and now crispy garam masala too! Hope you enjoy these recipes. Both are relatively fuss free and very quick, great additions to the holiday table! Do you have quick fun filled holiday baking recipes that light up your lives? I would LOVE to hear about them! Have a wonderful holiday baking season!
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Recipe: Biscuit, Almond & Chocolate Squares
Summary: These little Almond Digestive Chocolate Squares hit the sweet spot without being too sweet or too buttery. A quick holiday bake using staples from the pantry.
Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 40 minutes Ingredients:
250g digestive biscuits
85g whole almonds
75g butter, melted
400g condensed milk {1 tin}
Topping
100g dark chocolate, chips or chopped up
slivered nuts to garnish
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200C. Butter the sides of a 8 X 8″ square baking tin, and line the bottom with parchment.
Place the biscuits and whole almonds in the jar of a food processor and process until you get a sand-like crumb meal. {Thermomix: Speed 7, 20 seconds}
With the processor running on slow, pour in the melted butter, followed by the condensed milk. It should all come together in a sticky glob … something like flubber. Don’t be tempted to taste it now, as the danger is that you might not stop eating. {Thermomix: Reverse Speed 2, 20 seconds}
Transfer to prepared tin, level out with an offset spatula or butter knife, and bake for about 20 minutes / until slightly firm to touch. It will set as it cools.
Leave for about 15 minutes, then sprinkle the chocolate evenly over the top. It should melt in 5-7 minutes. Smoother it uniformly over the top, scatter slivered nuts, cocoa nibs, sprinkles etc over the top and let it cool completely.
You might need to refrigerate it for the chocolate to set.
Cut into squares and serve.
Recipe: Roasted Chickpeas
Summary: Crisp, healthy and addictive, these are a great addition to holiday snacking!
Prep Time: 5 minutes Total Time: 30 minutes Ingredients:
“Marge, it’s 3 AM. Shouldn’t you be baking?”
Homer Simpson
Did you make your own fruit mincemeat this year? I just about did, and far too late in the month IMHO. I procrastinated forever; then noticed it was the 18th of December and hit the panic button. It was now or never since it needs a few days to soak the fruit. I eventually got it done, also getting distracted along the way … and suddenly, it was time for a batch of Christmas Fruit Mince Pies!Day 3 yesterday and the soaked fruit was looking plump, good and shiny. I should have waited to turn the whole batch into my Garam Masala Christmas Cake, but I couldn’t resist making some little mince pies! {I write this post as my fruit cakes finally bake in the oven!}My sister sent me a load of baking goodies with the BIL who flew in from the US, much like Santa who got here before time. Petit tins of all sizes, something that I love, vanilla beans, sprinkles, a dessert cookie baking tray, a Lindzer cookie cutter, a ‘sack‘ of baking chocolate chips … loads more!Despite telling her that I hardly bake ‘fancy‘ {read tedious} cookies any more, I pulled out the Lindzer set to make a batch of Toasted Walnut Linzer Cookies with Strawberry Filling. Typically, my mind wandered in the opposite direction, and I whizzed some pâte sucrée in the Thermomix. Soon the dough was being rolled and the Lindzer cookie cutters were being used to make toppings for petit fruitmince pies!Its dangerous to have a big bowl of fruit soaking on the counter. Hungry mouths on the prowl get attracted to it, so I hid it … but couldn’t get it it out of my head! Yesterday I figured I could nick some for a before Christmas cake treat. These little pies are fun to make; quick too. I love using the snowflake cutters sweet Nic @ Cherrapeno gave me … so festive! Use your favourite pâte sucrée / sweet pastry dough or use the one below. This works a classic 2:1 ratio of flour and butter. As with pie/pastry dough, keep handling/kneading to an absolute minimum. That way you’ll have a nice light, crisp pastry once baked. If you like, you can add some apple to the filling, like Alli did in her Christmas Chocolate & Fruit Mince Pies. Nice!!
