Christmas Swirls

I wanted to come up with something a little different this Christmas for family and friends and decided to blend cinnamon swirls and mince pies to make the ultimate Christmas treat. These buns smell incredible right from the start and taste even better. Ideal as a home-made gift, they are surprisingly easy to make. I spiced both the dough and the filling for the perfect festive flavour.

Ingredients:
Dough:
800g strong white flour
7g fast action yeast
1/2 tsp salt
100g caster sugar
500ml milk - I use soy
150g butter - I use dairy-free
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp cinnamon

Filling:
4 tbsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground nutmeg
75g butter
75g caster sugar
10 tbsp mince meat

Method:
Place the milk and butter in a pan over a low heat and melt together until the milk is warm to the touch but not boiling. Place all the other ingredients dough ingredients into a large bowl keeping the salt and yeast apart. Pour over the melted butter and milk mixture and stir with a spatula until the dry and wet ingredients come together.

Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface and kneed for around 10 minutes until the dough is soft and pliable, feeling like the lobe of your ear! Place the dough to one side to rest.

Mash together remaining sugar, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in a small bowl.

Take a large piece of baking parchment and lightly flour. Roll out the dough to around 50cm long, 25cm wide and 1cm thick. Spread the butter and sugar mixture evenly over the dough taking it right to the edges. I use my hands as it warms the butter and helps prevent the dough from tearing. Spread a thin layer of the mincemeat over the top.

Carefully roll the dough from the long edge, taking care to tuck the rolls over for a firm and neat swirl. Once a neat roll has been formed, take a sharp knife and cut the roll into 20 evenly sized pieces. Place these on a couple of lightly floured baking sheets and pop in a warm place to prove for at least 20 minutes.

Once the swirls have proved, placed in a preheated oven at 200c for 15 minutes until golden brown and springy to the touch.

Place on cooling racks with kitchen roll underneath to catch any melting sugar drips and leave to set.

When you make these, please take a picture and tag me using #diaryofadefectivehousewife

Enjoy!

Mince Pies

One of my all time favourites for the festive season, I decided to make my own mince pies from scratch this year. This recipe uses a generous amount of brandy which gives a gorgeous warmth to the pies but it could be swapped out for orange juice for a more child friendly recipe. These aren't difficult to make although they do require some organisation as the mincemeat needs to be left for a few days to soak. Perfect as an after dinner treat or with a mug of hot chocolate, these mince pies are a real winter warmer.

Ingredients:

For the mincemeat:
250g currants
250g mixed fruit
250g sultanas
100ml brandy
zest and juice of 1 lemon
300g butter
250g dark brown sugar
1 medium bramley cooking apple
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp nutmeg

For the pastry:
225g plain flour
100g butter
3 tbsp water

Method 

Prepare the mincemeat at least 48 hours before you want to make the mince pies, if possible, the longer its left the better.

Place the currants, mixed fruit and sultanas in a bowl with the brandy, lemon juice and lemon zest and leave to soak for an hour. Melt the butter over a low heat. Grate the apple making sure to collect the juice. Add all the ingredients into the bowl and stir thoroughly making sure everything is well mixed together. Place the mince meat in air tight containers and leave to soak.

For the pastry, place the flour and butter in a large bowl and rub together between your thumb and fingers until it looks like bread crumbs. Add a water a little at a time until the dough comes together. Be careful at this point, if the dough is too wet it will stick to everything and leave a soggy bottom. Place the dough in a large freezer bag and kneed gently to ensure everything is brought together. I find this a great way to make sure it all sticks together without making a mess on the counter. Place in the fridge to chill for at least 15 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 180c. I used a muffin tin to make these as it makes a really nice size of mince pie. Add a little flour to the base of the muffin tray to prevent the pastry sticking. Take a two round cutters, one roughly the size of the muffin cups and one around 3cm larger.

Flour your work surface and rolling pin and roll out the pastry to roughly the 3mm in thickness. Turn the pastry while rolling to ensure an even roll and flip it over after the initial couple of rolls to prevent it sticking to the surface. Using the cutters, cut out an even number of each size to make the bases and lids. If you find the pastry sticks slightly, use a fish slice to lift it gently.

Place the larger circle of pastry into the muffin tray, pushing down gently with your finger to fit it into the tray. Take your mincemeat and give it a good mix. I used roughly 2 tsp of mincemeat per mince pie, I love them well filled. Place the smaller circle of dough over the top and use your fingers to gently bond the edges together. Repeat this process until you have used up the cut out dough, then ball up the scraps and repeat the rolling and cutting process until there is too little dough left to use.

Bake the mince pies for around 15-20 minutes until golden on top. Leave in the tins to cool for 10 minutes before turning out on to a wire rack. These will be incredibly hot inside so I would advise leaving them to cool a little, no matter how incredible they smell.

When you make these please take a picture and tag me using #diaryofadefectivehousewife