Saturday 8 December 2012

Christmas Baking and crafting

Today has been a lovely day. You will all be pleased to know that I very slowly got my car back into my driveway. I did wonder about the folly of this halfway up the hill as the wheels began to spin and then along the ridge where there were cars parked on both sides and my car was sliding a bit. But I went about 1 mile an hour and once it was in the driveway I was content to be snowed in for the weekend. Snow is still here, even though a mile down the road there is nothing.
So what did I do while I was snowed in? baked of course.

The star of the show had to be the simplest. My mincemeat ice cream!
To say that this is absolutely gorgeous is an understatement and I kid you not, it took 10 minutes to make (plus three hours in the freezer of course.)
Separate 4 eggs and whisk the whites, add 100g caster sugar. Whip 300ml of double cream and then fold together the cream, eggwhite and egg yolks. Add your flavour, which in this case was just 100ml of my home made mincemeat. It is a no-churn recipe so that really is it. In the freezer and it is beautiful. It will become a staple in my freezer now, I know and way cheaper to make than even a mid priced ice cream. I reckon less than £2 for a large tub in the end. I will experiment with all sorts of flavours.



Next was my mince pie marathon. I think I have got the knack of pastry a bit more thanks to all your helpful hints. It was good, rolled out fine, no tearing and tastes good with a good texture.


I made 35 mince pies, some with proper lids and some with stars. I actually prefer the stars because they are prettier and actually taste better.



3 batches later and they are all done.






I've popped the majority in the freezer for Christmas, tasted 2 (very very nice, great home made mincemeat) and kept 4 out.

My final bit of baking, as the oven was on, was 12 bread rolls.


A feast fit for a king, even if I do say so myself. Eat your heart out Enid Blyton.

I wanted to dry some orange slices to hang as Christmas decorations, but no way was I going to put the oven on for 3 hours to do it! So I spread them out on grease proof paper and tin foil on top of one of the radiators. Days later, they are nearly dry.


Now that they are nearly dry I have just popped them direct onto the radiator to finish them off. These will get some ribbon or rafia threaded through them and will be hung on the tree, or on a present or somewhere.


Happy days.

26 comments:

  1. OOh I will try the icecream sounds scrummy.My orange slices burnt in oven so will try again your way thanks!

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    Replies
    1. I admit that they take ages to dry this way, so leave yourself time. Mine have been on a week and almost there.

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  2. Mr Christmas, your are making my mouth water!

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  3. MMmmmmm you are making me want to go and bake- I have far too much else to do first though!

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  4. IRYPT - a feast fit for a king.
    Love from Mum
    xx

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  5. Proper Crimbo! I love the oranges, pity I've got no heating on to dry them!

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    Replies
    1. Could you not lay a tea towel over the top of one of your airers, like a hammock, and put orange slices on it to dry near the log burner?

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    2. Hang them over the log burner somewhere?

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  6. Oh my goodness, I can almost smell the wonderful smells way out here in the heartland of America! Everything looks so delicious!

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  7. Your visitors are in for a treat at Christmas. I like the starry pies, normal pies have too much pastry for me.

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    1. I actually agree, I will make starry pies from now on. They look prettier too.

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  8. Oh, wow that ice cream looks absolutely heavenly. Love the drying oranges on the radiator, we will have to give that a try.

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  9. That ice cream looks absolutely delicious. Those orange slices must be making the house smell fabulous already.

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  10. Oh my, between the baking and the oranges drying, the cottage must smell heavenly!

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  11. I like the mince pies with the stars. Might well make mine that way. We shall not have them yet. Mine will be made ready on the weekend before x-mas as I want to give a few as presents to a friend. The rest of them will then be ours to devour.

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  12. Do your rooms have a nice citrus fragrance ?

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  13. Your Christmas is going to be a good'n!!! I bet the house smells wonderful after all the baking and the oranges drying out! I'm doing my baking over in my parents this year as I live across the water from them and can't drag any creations with me in my suitcase (sad times) therefore a good ol' baking sesh will happen in England :) Hope you have a wonderful christmas! And i'm glad to hear the car is ok!

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  14. Busy, busy, busy. Well done :)

    Love the ice cream - would it work adding a bit of brandy to the mixture before freezing?

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    1. You may want to check it out, but I think I read that a good way to stop icecream going rock hard in the freezer is to add some booze, makes it more like soft scoop I think. Ali.

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  15. Icecream sounds delish and very simple to make!

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  16. Well done Dan, your mum must be so proud of you! All sounds wonderful and I'm glad you have got your pastry making sorted out. There will be no stopping you now.

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  17. Allthe baked goodies look yummy! And the oranges drying must smell wonderful! Good for you!

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  18. I hadn't even thought of mincemeat ice cream, sounds delish though! I'm making mince pies this week...there goes the diet!

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  19. I'm a 'star' mince pie maker too. I'm going to try that icecream in the next few days...is it really that easy?! Thanks for posting the recipe..

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