Freezing mince pies

 Here is what to do if you want to freeze your mince pies, ready for unexpected guests at Christmas!

Freeze mince pies uncooked – just pop your tin of filled mince pies in the freezer until solid, then transfer to a freezer bag or plastic container. When ready to cook just place as many as you want back into the tins and cook at 180°C/fan160°C/gas 4 for 20-25 minutes, until golden and piping hot.

                   Here is a nice Christmas recipe! 
I am going to enter these mince pies with boozy homemade mincemeat in Cake of the week's Baking with Spirit competition!  

Mini mince pies and homemade mincemeat 

Makes18 mini mince pies
 Pastry

 150g of plan flour (sieved) 
50g ground almonds 
35g icing sugar (sieved)
 75g of chilled unsalted butter, chopped into cubes
 Zest of a lemon 
1 egg yolk 
Approx 3 tablespoons of cold water 
Mincemeat 
This mix will do for two batches of mince pies, as there is no suet in the mix it can be stored in a jar in the fridge of about a week.
 100g mix of dried fruit,( this could be sultanas currants, raisins, mixed peel, apricots) 
25g dried cranberries or cherries
 Zest and juice of one orange Zest and juice of ½ waxed lemon 
25g golden caster sugar (add a bit more if you have a sweet tooth!) 
25ml brandy 
Dash of orange liquer if you have any 
1tsp mixed spice 
1 tsp cinnamon
 1 small bramley apple (about 50g) peeled and cored 
1. To make the mincemeat, mix all the dried fruit together add zest, orange and lemon juice, sugar brandy and spices. Mix together . Grate the apple and add to the mix. Cover the bowl and leave for a few hours or even better overnight. Stirring occasionally.
 To make the pastry.  
1. Sieve the flour, ground almonds and icing sugar into a bowl and add the lemon zest.
 2. Add the cubed butter and with your fingers rub in the butter until the mix is like fine breadcrumbs. 
3. Add the egg yolk and enough cold water that the mix is covered and then gather into a soft dough. 
4. Put the dough into the fridge for 30 minutes.
 5. Roll our the chilled pastry on a floured board until is it 3-4 mm thick. Use a 7cm fluted pastry cutter or star shape to cut out 18 shapes. Then roll out the bits that are left and with a small star shape cutter cut out 18 tops. 
6. Grease mini pie tin or individual cases and carefully add the large shapes. 
7. Put about a teaspoonful of mincemeat into each pastry case then add the star lids. Brush the lids with the leftover white of the egg.
 Cook in a preheated oven to 190c fan oven/170c / gas 5 for 15-20mins until the pastry is a light golden colour. Take the pies out of the oven then leave to cool for a few mintues in the tin. Remove to a wire rack and dust with icing sugar. Leave them to cool completely then store in an airtight container.

Well we went to our local craft fair yesterday and it was very busy. Unfortunately there were already five stalls selling bangles, so have hit on a trend perhaps but I am not sure it is going to be a money spinner. There didn't seem to be many soap sellers, but have since done a bit more research and discovered you need to have a license to sell soap. Maybe I will aim to have a stall at next Christmas's craft fair that should give me time to decide which crafts to make and sell. What is it to be?

Soap or

Bangles?

Welcome to my blog. I am a middle aged woman in Scotland who has decided to take a mid life gap year. I started my gap year in April and I have had lots of extra time to potter about and enjoy my garden.

Now that it is winter I need to find other things to do to occupy my time! So far I have taught myself how to make bangles.

I tried to make candles, but that seems to be too dangerous, don't want to start a fire! Now I am learning how to make soap. At the moment these are just hobbies but maybe as I make more and at some point in the future I may sell stuff at craft fairs. I am also enjoying having time to add to my recipe collection and do a bit more baking.