Mini Christmas Pudding Dried Fruit Balls

Awww - aren't these charming little Christmas Pudding sweeties! Chock full of dried fruity goodness, subtle, tart, almondy, tooth-achingly sweet in a good way balls of deliciousness!

This is a very simple but very sticky recipe - the original recipe which I gleaned from British Country Living's December issue said to work the dried fruit through the finest blade of a mincer - which you can do if you happen to have a mincer but as I didn't I first tried a coffee grinder and when that got quickly clogged I resorted to some serious chopping with a cleaver type knife in small batches by hand and it worked really well albeit somewhat time consuming - so let us begin!

ASSEMBLE YOUR INGREDIENTS:

You can use any combination of dried fruits that strike your fancy - you can see from the dark colours of mine that I chose organic, non-sulphured but whatever tastes good to you should work well - just follow your tastebuds!

This recipe makes 9 hearty Christmas Balls! Recipe multiplies no problem!

2oz/50g of toasted almonds

2oz/50g dried apricots

2oz/50g mixed raisins, white raisins/sultanas and currants

2oz/50g soft pitted prunes

2oz/50g crystallized ginger

1oz/25g dried cranberries - I chose really bright in flavour ones sweetened with apple juice so the end result had a nice tang!!

3 teaspoons honey

Finely grated zest of one unwaxed preferably organic lemon

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 heaped teaspoon of freshly grated ginger

goodly pinch of freshly ground nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon or any combination there of - also you could add a big pinch of ground ginger if you don't put in the grated fresh ginger.

Plate covered in granulated sugar to roll the balls in.

1. Toast the almonds until fragrant - about 5 minutes at 375 but it varies so check regularly they are not burning.

2. Let almonds cool completely.

3. Put almonds in a small plastic bag and bang with a heavy rolling pin until they are broken into small pieces.

4. Grind in a coffee grinder in 2 batches until fine - they may get a bit oily but that's actually OK in this recipe.

5. Chop, chop, chop all the dried fruit in small batches until they get nice and sticky, the pieces are small, there are no chunks and they hold together when pressed.

 6. Mix the fruits, ground almonds, honey, grated ginger, spices and lemon juice and zest with a fork until evenly blended.

7. Take about a small tablespoon of the sweetmeat and roll into a ball, if it doesn't stick together add more honey, then roll in the sugar on the plate and pop into a sweet little paper cup. Ta dah - that's pretty much it except for...

HONEY ICING to make it look like a little Christmas Pudding:

 This is the wing it part - 

2 heaped tablespoons of icing/confectioners sugar sifted so there are no lumps.

Honey and milk - just a tad of each.

Starting with a teeny tiny amount of the honey in a small bowl slowly slowly slowly add some honey and blend until smooth, add a little milk and blend until smooth and work the whole into a dense, thick paste that won't run when you put the tiniest bit on top of one of the Christmas Balls - work it a little to drip as above and then allow to dry. This is the hard part - hard to know how thick, hard to know how SMALL of an amount to pop on the top of a ball, hard to know how little honey and or milk, that can depend on the humidity, to add to the sugar but err on the side of less and least and you'll be fine.

I should have bought some Maraschino Cherries to put on the top - the flavour would have gone well with the almond in the sweets and you can buy non-artificial ones from The Silver Palate so instead I used some raspberry infused cranberries that were redder than the ones in the recipe.

Next time I make these I think I will add a ball of marzipan in the middle and maybe switch out the apricots for dates - I LOVE marzipan and think that would be a real treat!! The flavour does develop a little with time so you can make these a day ahead if you'd like.

Let me know if you make these and feel free to post your pics on my Facebook page HERE 

We are awaiting a big snowstorm here in Maine - Electra is her name! I love blizzards and hope to get some nice photographs - in the meantime here are some pictures from a snow earlier this week.

 A little red squirrel is getting a snack ready for later!

 My favourite apple tree has plenty of apples for the deer who love to come for a midnight snack - last year we didn't get a single apple because of an early springtime frost - you can see we got plenty this year!

This blogpost is part of the December Tea Time Treats over at Lavender and Lovage and The Hedgecombers - do bob over and have a look at all the yummy sparkly delights - click in the box below! Thanks!

Bara Brith - Fabulous Raisin TEAbread and an industrious squirrel.

Bara Brith atop one of my fabric designs at Spoonflower

Oh My Goodness this is such an excellent recipe from a copy of British Country Living (the BEST magazine in the known universe) from February 2008 - why have I not made it before - was I leery of it's easy peasiness - perhaps - but now I make this about every 5 days and it comes out dandy every time!! If you like fruit cake this is a winner especially so as it contains only 7 pretty much on hand ingredients - maybe you'll have to avail yourself of raisins but I bet you have the rest in the house - there's no creaming butter or anything fancy but you do need to start soaking the raisins about 6 hours ahead of baking the teabread - that's the only 'hard' part. Off we go!!

Plumping up my raisins in good strong tea - yum!!

First make some strong tea - I have used regular black tea, Earl Grey, regular black with a little Lapsang Souchong - they all tasted good -I think Earl Grey is my fave though but the type of tea is up to you - I bet you could also use either green tea or apple juice - mmm - maybe I'll try apple juice in the next one - you'll need 10 fluid ounces hot tea (300ml) - nice and hot! Now put 10 ounces (about 280g) of dried fruit - I use just raisins but you can use raisins, currants, mixed peel and or sultanas - in whatever combination takes your fancy - pop them into a narrow bowl and pour on the hot tea - leave for about 6 hours - more or less - I have found 6 to be the optimum time - less and they're not plump enough and there's too much liquid left and more and there's no liquid left and the teabread burns on the outside. I added the zest of one lemon and mixed it in with the tea and fruit for a little brightness in the finished delight.

Pre-heat oven to 325F

Avail yourself of the following ingredients (including the raisins soaked in hot tea see above):

9oz (250g) self raising flour OR 9oz regular flour combined with 2 teaspoons baking powder (you don't need the baking powder in the self raising flour as it already has raising agents added to it)

1 large egg beaten

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cardamom - goes well with the lemon zest zing

5oz (125g) preferably brown sugar but white is OK too - I use slightly off white organic

THAT'S IT!!

1. Once your raisins are soaked and nicely plumped sieve the flour and spices into them (don't drain - you want the tea in there) - stir in the sugar, stir in the egg and beat a little until well blended.

2. Butter either an 8" round or a 6" round cake pan (those of you who know me know I have a ridiculous fondness for the 6" round and tall cake pan because it makes cute cakes as seen below) and add batter - smooth the top and pop into your preheated 325 oven - the oven needs to be low to be able to cook a long, slow time.

3. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours until springy to the touch and a skewer comes out clean - check after one hour and if it is browning too much put an aluminium foil hat over to stop the top burning. This cake depends a lot on how long the raisins have soaked and therefore how much wetness there is to the batter.

The texture of the batter - wet but not sloppy!

Bara Brith "speckled bread"- a beautiful Welsh recipe - the recipe in the magazine said to keep it around for a few days before eating as it develops a nice elastic texture due to it's lack of shortening - yeh right - like I've been able to wait that long to find out - it's great as soon as it's cooled - it does get better by

the day and is faboo toasted with lashings of butter - also untoasted with butter is good!!

I made the yeasted Irish version, Barm Brack, of this a few weeks ago - it was lovely but it was much more of a bread with raisins in, harder and more time consuming to make and not as fruity - this recipe is a WINNER!!

HAPPY BAKING!!

It's another snow day here in Maine - as you can see there are still lots of apples on the tree out back and plenty on the ground for the wild turkey's and deer to nosh on.

And below - an enterprising squirrel found a place to stash his apple - in a hollow on top of the washing line pole - clever little devil - would LOVE to have seen him getting this up there - the apple is held nice and securely for him to nibble on safely away from his other wild neighbours!!

See you soon - my next post is about recycling my artwork - do drop by again. Patricia

Banana Raisin Tea BreadCake...so goood!!

Does my puppy really think she's getting a slice of this divine Banana Raisin BreadCake...I think not!! - especially so as raisins can be lethal to our furry dog friends...but that aside this is a really divine cross between a teabread (a sweet loafy thing with yeast) and a fruit cake...it's really just a light fruitcake with bananas in to be honest and it  is absolutely delicious.

The ingredients above and the cake pictured here don't have nuts in but the second one I made...and the third and now for sure the fourth had either walnuts or pecans in to round out the tooth and flavour...it's great without nuts but even better with and be sure to lightly toast the nuts first to elevate their flavour.
 
Adapted, ever so slightly, from "The Food for Thought" cookbook by the restaurant of the same name in Covent Garden, London....a wonderful vegetarian eatery.

Firstly soak your dried fruit in hot tea for a couple of hours to plump before using in this recipe.

I try to give measurements for cups and weights but I always do weights myself as it makes for a much more reliable recipe and for consistency when you make it again so I would recommend weighing if you can.

 Set your oven to 325F when you're ready to start the recipe

INGREDIENTS:

4oz/1 stick softened butter (I always use salted in desserts..I just like the flavour)
 

8oz/1 cup sugar
 

4 fl.ozs/1/2 cup strongly brewed tea - I used Earl Grey and it was excellent!!
 

4oz/ 5/8 cup raisins
 

4oz/1 cup walnuts or pecans lightly toasted first until they are fragrant...allow to cool and then crumble to smallish pieces.
 

4 fl.ozs/1/2 cup liquid combination of whole milk (I used Elderfower Farm unpasteurized in glass bottles from Lincolnville, Maine) and the tea

strained from the fruit
 

2 goodly sized bananas mashed smooth
 

1 teaspoon bicarb of soda/baking soda
 

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (I LOVE nutmeg but you can use ginger or cardamom or a combination)
 

8oz/2 cups unbleached white flour
 

1 teaspoon vanilla essence/extract

METHOD:

1. Soak raisins in hot tea for a couple of hours then drain and reserve the tea....add milk to tea to make 4 fluid ounces/1/2 cup.
 

2. Cream butter and sugar together until light in colour and fluffy.
 

3. Beat in the tea/milk, bananas and vanilla...it will be sloppy and kind of curdled looking like below but not to worry!! Then stir in the drained raisins...

4. Sift dry ingredients together.
 

5. Gently fold dry ingredients into banana/butter slush until well combined.
 

6. Pour into a lightly buttered and floured cake tin...mine is 6 x 3 and it is a perfect size for this recipe...which can be doubled and made in a 9" pan.

7. Bake in 325F oven for about 40-60 minutes. The cooking takes a long time and you may have to check a couple of times to make sure it is cooked in the centre...my first one you see here was a little undercooked in the middle...but then I cooked longer the next time...just make sure a skewer slipped into the centre of the cake comes out clean and your cake is done. If your cake is getting too brown put a little aluminium foil cap on it until it is done.

Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before unmolding and allowing to cool on a cake rack...if you leave in the pan to cool or cover before it is completely cold it will sweat and become soggy...we don't want that do we??

 I could happily eat a slice of this cake every day for the rest of my life...I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!!

Happy Baking...Patricia

This post is part of the Tea Time Treats at Lavender and Lovage and What Kate Baked

 

Mince pies with hairdo's or...Mince Pies Royale!

And here I am again sitting by the wood stove humming away with all the pups and kitten getting toasty by the fire, the wind howling and the snow flying writing up my Christmas treat! I have already eaten about 7 of these delights and am ready to eat more....and so goes the Holidays!!!

The recipe is a combination of 3 parts...instant mincemeat a la David Lebovitz , pastry a la Martha and hairdo a la "Christmas Feasts from History" by Lorna J Sass....and off we jolly well!!

INSTANT, VEGETARIAN, 'FRESH' MINCEMEAT...should be made at least one day in advance for flavours to meld. I am calling this ‘fresh’ mincemeat, meaning you don’t have to wait months for it to be ready as with your ordinary or garden variety mincemeat. This recipe is ready after one day and better after three…so make it today and Bob’s your uncle for Friday!! Also this is a vegetarian variety so no shredding of suet which can be a little off putting to say the very least!!

Ingredients:
1 cup (135g) coarsely chopped raisins, dark or golden

½ cup candied peel…orange or lemon or both

¼ cup brandy but I used whiskey as that is all I had in the house and it tasted just fine!!

2 teaspoons lemon juice
 
4 tablespoons sugar…again dark or light

1 teaspoon of cardomom
 
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
 
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
 
½ teaspoon of mace
(I differed my spices from David’s recipe which called for ½ teaspoon each ground cinnamon and nutmeg and ¼ teaspoon of cloves…I am not a fan of cloves as a flavouring and I think cardamom works really well with the lemon flavour)

1 grated crunchy apple…I use Pink Lady which is a big fave of mine.

This is really hard…mix everything together and put it in a jar. Allow to stand for one to three days, don‘t put in the fridge, the flavours marry better at room temp. This mincemeat is meant to be used quickly.
That’s it for the mincemeat!!!...now for the pastry, it's the same one I always use from Martha which works like a charm, stays crispy under duress and has a lovely meltiness.

PASTRY INGREDIENTS:

1 1/4 cups of white flour

 2 tablespoons sugar
1 stick (4ozs) butter I always use salted, VERY cold

1/8 to 1/4 cup ice cold water
METHOD:
1. Sift the flour

2. Grate the butter into the flour.

3. Gently work butter into flour until it resembles coarse meal.

4. Add some of the water and test to see if it comes together, if not keep adding water until the dough will squush into a non-sticky ball.

5. Put into the fridge to rest for at least one hour.

6. Take the pastry out of the fridge, allow to warm little, roll out nice and thin, then line 6 muffin tins with a round of pastry each, I had pastry left over so I just keep going 'til I ran out...made some cute smaller versions.

Next make the hairdo goo:
MERINGUE INGREDIENTS:
3 egg whites at room temperature

4 tablespoons sugar

MERINGUE METHOD:
1. Whisk egg whites until fluffy and stiff

2. Add sugar one tablespoon at a time until stiff and glossy

To ASSEMBLE the pies:
1lb (454g) of ‘fresh’ mincemeat, that should be the amount you made

¼ cup (2oz, 56g) of clarified butter (melt butter and skim off white solids that float to the top)

3 egg yolks

1. Preheat oven to 350F

2. In a bowl combine the mincemeat with the 3 egg yolks and clarified butter, mix well.

3. Spoon into the prepared pastry shells.

4. Bake for about 20 mins. until the pastry starts to golden slightly.

5. Remove from oven and pipe prepared meringue onto pies.

6. Bake again for another 20-25 minutes until meringues are nicely browned.

7. Allow to cool before eating, these pies taste best at room temperature. They are neither too sweet nor too tart, they are certainly nothing like as cloying or toothachingly sweet as mass produced ones and with the 'fresh' mincemeat they have a nice brightness that I really enjoy.

HAPPY BAKING!!!!!!!!!!!

Irish Christmas Cake - Ciste Nollag

And so the Christmas Cake odyssey begins...the ingredients are gathered in one place and now they must be strategically arranged and manipulated into a faboo Crimbly Cake the likes of which you have never seen, especially so if you have only ever encountered those doorstops with bright red dye #5 glace cherries, never mind the green ones...but we digress....

Lucie says "This is hard work, don't let anyone fool you, making a Christmas Cake is a feat of strength no one should underestimate!!

Christmas Cake - Ciste Nollag from “Irish Traditional Food” by Theodora FitzGibbon

This ideally should be made at least one month in advance in order for the flavours to marry and meld and let the cake mature in it’s little, actually not so little if you make the full recipe...I only made half the recipe for each cake you see pictured here!!... air tight tin. Many people in the UK use this also as their wedding cake...we are more inclined to fruit cakes in Blighty than our cousins in the US!!

This is a family recipe dating from 1860, it is a very rich and toothy fruitcake

Firstly assemble the following ingredients the night before you are baking the cake:
 
8oz raisins
 
8oz sultanas or white raisins
 
4oz currants
 
2oz dried tart cherries
 
3oz chopped candied peel (I made mine from scratch because the flavour is so much better...but you can purchase this if you want to skip that arduous step!!)

2oz chopped, dried apricots
 
2 oz chopped walnuts

Lucie and I proceeded with the dried fruit in two different ways. I mixed all the above ingredients together in a big glass bowl and then covered this mound of dried delights with a combination of strong brewed black tea and apple cider, you can use either or, or both together as I did, totaling about 3 cups (UK 24 fl ozs) of liquid and allow the fruit to soak up the liquids....you will be surprised at how much the fruit expands, I know I was. Lucie on the other hand mixed all her fruit together, put it in a baking tin, covered it with foil and placed it in a very low oven for a few hours until it expanded and was somewhat sticky. Leave the fruit to soak overnight or cool down after the warming according to which way you went.....of course the soaking makes the cake much moister and, we found out, MUCH larger!!!

BAKING DAY!!!
3oz soft brown sugar
 
3oz white sugar
 
6oz butter room temperature

3 large, room temp. eggs whisked together

8oz sifted all purpose white flour
 
2oz ground almonds
 
½ teaspoon mixed spice/allspice
 
½ rounded teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
 
½ teaspoon salt
 
grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
 
grated rind and juice of 1 orange
 
2 tablespoons whiskey, rum or brandy (optional)

Prepare the cake tin: Because I did half the recipe BUT soaked the fruit I used a 10" shallow cake pan and Lucie used a 6" tall cake pan, remember mine turned out a lot larger because of the fruit soaking episode!! Anyways...choose your tin, grease liberally with butter and then line the bottom and sides with cut-to-size parchment, then grease the parchment and reline with another set of cut-to-size parchment.....lining the tins really helps cut down on the possibility of the cakes burning on the outside...also cut a piece of parchment and grease to put on the top of the cake as it bakes. Those little dahlingks are in the oven for quite some time.

Heat the oven to 350F
1. Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy.

2. Add the whisked eggs bit by bit beating well between each addition...there’s a good likelihood the mix will curdle near the final additions...do not worry about this the flour and other ingredients will help rectify this situation!

3. FOLD in sifted flour, spices, ground almonds, fruit juices, zests and salt until well blended but don’t work it too hard, beat it or mix too long as it will, indeed, make the cake hard!!

4. Add the prepared fruits and walnuts gradually, and the alcohol if you choose to add it, of course I made mine with Irish whiskey!!...this starts to get to be hard work but it is good for you...and remember the harder you work, the more calories you burn, the more cake you can eat!!!

5. Put the cake mix into the prepared tin and smooth the top with a wet spatula then loosely cover with the greased parchment round.

6. Set cake on middle rack in the oven.

7. After half an hour reduce the heat to 275 and cook for 1 1/2 hours

8. Now start checking the cake about every 20 minutes for doneness...a skewer inserted should come out clean and the cake should smell great and look baked.....if you need the top to brown more take off the parchment on top, if you think the cake is browning too much lower the heat...this is a very undefinable process but if you are used to making cakes you’ll have the feel for when the cake is done...it should be browned nicely and the skewer should be clean, although if you pass through a wet raisin that may fool you into thinking it isn’t done so check in a couple of places.

My cake took a total of about 3 hours but yours could well be longer or shorter than that.

When the cake is ready remove from the oven, leave in the baking tin and pour over 2 more tablespoons of the assigned alcohol. Take out of the tin after about 30 minutes and then allow to cool on a rack until completely COLD!!!...you cannot put it into the tin unless it has no heat in it at all or the cake will get clammy and yucky.

9. Wrap in parchment paper before secreting it into it’s safe and happy airtight tin...this is a must to keep the cake from molding, also keep the tin in a cool, dark place.

About a week before Christmas we will be covering our Crimbly cakes with marzipan and Royal icing...so wait with bated breath for that post!!!

Off you pop now and bake your cake!!

My cake has already started to darken as it ages and smells just divine!!Here are the cakes before they enter the confines of the warm and toasty oven...

...and here they are after they have cooled and are ready to be loaded into their cozy tins.

James and I drove to Lewiston yesterday and here is a photo of the weather conditions on the way back...it's snowing, it's November...what is going on!!!...well it is Maine I suppose and it does seem appropriate that the ground should be covered with snow today as I post my Christmas Cake recipe.

I like snow!! I am sitting by the wood stove...Harry the kitten is on the chair behind me, Freddie the Bassett is on a big pillow by the fire, Bunny the Beagle is on her settle and Eleanor the Mutt (half Beagle/half French Bulldog!) is lounging blissfully by the fire after getting too hot being underneath the stove for a while!!
Above here is my new design for the Greetings Card Store and it will be up on the Cafe Press store hopefully later today!!

Pie Pumpkin Custard Pies for Hallowe'en!!

Yum, here is a well lighted close up of the finished creamy, deliciousness of a fruity, spice spiked, vanilla infused pumpkin bowl of divinity!!

...and here is the uncooked pumpkin custard 'pie' before she heads off into the oven for a nice, warm bake...nestled in her little padding of aluminium foil to keep her steady as she blows!!

THE RECIPE (again from an ancient copy of British Country Living)

Ingredients:

1 6" pie pumpkin, halved and cleaned

soft salted butter...a large pat (like me)

2 large eggs whisked together

10 fl oz US (½ pt UK) heavy/double cream

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon...more if you like I am not a big fan of cinnamon

½ teaspoon at least of freshly grated nutmeg...I do really like nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1 teaspoon vanilla essence/extract

1 teaspoon almond essence/extract

2 heaped tablespoons chopped crystalized ginger

2 heaped tablespoons candied orange peel...(I did my own and added lemon juice to the water and sugar when it was boiling down...tasted great)

2 heaped tablespoons currants

3 heaped tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons of rum if you like, then it's like baked eggnog with fruit added in!...I didn’t use it because I don’t have any rum!!

THE PROCESS:

1. Heat oven to 400F

2. Mix together in a jug, ready to pour, the cream, eggs, sugar, spices, ginger, candied peel, currants, extracts...in other words everything but the pumpkins and butter...let it sit a while to steep the flavours.

3. Slather the cut and cleaned pumpkins with the soft butter and sprinkle sugar over the rims...then slash the insides of the pumpkins criss-crossedy, sit them in crumpled up pieces of aluminium foil in a baking pan/on a cookie sheet so you can keep them level - basically make a 'nest' of foil for them to sit securely in.

4. Put the EMPTY pumpkin halves in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes.

5. Remove from the oven and place a on a level surface - pour in the custard and spoon in the solids from the bottom of the jug but do not overfill - the custard expands a little when baking, if you have extra put into a ramekin and bake in a bain marie/water bath.

6. If you like grate more fresh nutmeg over the custards.

7. Bake again for about another 20-25 minutes until the custard is almost completely set...I find the custard is so much smoother if you remove it from the oven when it still jiggles a tiny bit in the middle...it will continue to cook as it cools...if you catch it just right, which hooray I did, this custard is as smooth as the divine creme brulee I used to eat at Dean and Deluca in NY!!!

8. Allow to cool till just warm.

9. WOW...mine turned out really light, smooth and beautifully flavoured...bon chance with yours!!!

Awwww...my little pumpkin custard already made some new friends!!

Oh no!!! Who is that tapping on the window on this perfect Hallowe'en night in Maine??? Still blustery, balmy, full moon...doesn't get any better than this!!