Breaking with Tradition

I know that last week I advised that we need to embrace imperfection in a more relaxed approach to Christmas and entertaining, but I confess that this week I have been on a mission to find the perfect mince pie recipe. But do let me explain.

Mince pies have been a Yuletide treat for hundreds of years dating back as far as the 13^th century, although back then they were not the sweet little morsels we know and love today. They were savoury pies filled with mutton, fruits, suet and spices, larger than today’s versions and often rectangular in shape. A pie filled with meat and spice first appears in a written form in 1390 under the title ‘tartes of flesh’. Sounds appetising, no? Generously seasoned with spices from the Middle East such as cloves and mace, the ground up meat would be tightly encased in a crude flour and water pastry which acted to preserve the filling. Although there was always a connection to Christmas the pies are recorded as being eaten at other times of the year and Samuel Pepys writes in his diary of eating them in January. By the 18^th century there was a switch from savoury to sweet and in 1747, Hannah Glasse wrote in “Art of Cookery” that currants, raisins, apples, sugar and suet should be layered in a pastry crust. As sugar became cheaper and easier to obtain the sweet pies grew in popularity and by Victorian times mince pies were firmly established as a sweet treat at this time of year.

“There were more dances, and there were forfeits, and more dances, and there was cake, and there was negus*, and there was a great piece of Cold Roast, and there was a great piece of Cold Boiled, and there were mince pies and plenty of beer.”

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, 1843 – describing Mr Fezziwig’s party

But let’s get back to my own quest for the perfect pie. Many years ago, possibly as many as thirty, I attended a one day workshop at our local village college that was titled ‘Cooking for Christmas’. I have a vague memory of making some small chocolate truffles that were decorated to look like mini Christmas puddings, which were definitely not something anyone needs to be doing at this time of year. I think we also made a marbled chocolate cheesecake designed to go in the freezer and to be triumphantly whipped out when an extravagant dessert was required during the festive season, not an event I have ever really experienced. But we did learn to make some excellent almond topped mince pies, that were utterly delicious and something I have made every year since to much acclaim, so much so that they have become something of a tradition. More effort than your standard mince pie, but worth the time invested, they are crumbly, buttery little pies with a piped almond topping reminiscent of a Viennese whirl biscuit. I often shared the recipe on my blog at this time of year and several people would tell me they had made them and were converts to the almond topped mince pie. You can find an abbreviated recipe here if you would like to try them.

But sublime as they are the star of the show is definitely the pastry and not the mincemeat, so much so that I rarely bothered to make my own mincemeat and found a supermarket jar was perfectly adequate.

But of course this year I made my own ‘Quince meat’ so I felt that I needed a pastry, although delicious in its own right, that would allow the filling to shine. After way too much time down a Google rabbit hole I opted for a recipe by Jocelyne Dimbleby which involved an obscenely artery clogging buttery orange pastry and the surprise addition of a teaspoon of cream cheese in with the filling. They were good but in my opinion the pastry was way too sweet, and the cream cheese left a trace of saltiness that didn’t do much to enhance the filling. And Stewart’s opinion when I asked how they compared to usual… “Mmmm, okay but the mincemeat seems a bit tasteless” which was not the answer I wanted to hear. Obviously the pastry was distracting him from what was inside because I’m pretty certain my quince meat tasted vastly superior to Tesco Finest, but I admit I could be biased. Not to be beaten I made another batch but devised my own pastry. I kept the orange which I liked, reduced the sugar by over half and didn’t bother with the cream cheese in the filling and personally I think I have nailed it because they taste pretty good. So good in fact that I’m confident enough to share the recipe.

If you don’t have a food processor the butter can be rubbed into the flour and sugar by hand and then the egg and juice added to bring the mixture together before proceeding with the recipe. Do let me know if you try them.

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When I’ve not been making mince pies I have been making origami Christmas Trees, that are in fact little bookmarks.

It would appear that the algorithms have targeted me as someone who likes a little bit of paper folding as since I made mention of origami stars last weekend I have been inundated with origami videos every time I open my phone. Videos that are shown at about six times normal speed so that there is zero chance of following what is happening. I had to watch the origami trees video about ten times before I finally figured it out. The irritating thing is that I do actually like a bit of origami, but it still irks to be targeted by the algorithms. However let’s ignore that and get back to the little trees, which were actually very simple, effective and as it happens the perfect gift for members of our reading group. Which is how I ended up making fourteen of them on Wednesday afternoon ready for our reading group party on Wednesday evening instead of the 101 other things I ‘should’ be doing, because that is how I rock n roll. Why clean the house or wrap presents when you can be folding trees? Exactly, I’m glad you understand!

And as if that wasn’t enough I also made a video, recorded in real time so that you can fold along should you desire, the perfect Christmas gift for all the readers and book lovers in your life. You’re welcome!

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I finished knitting my charity Christmas jumper which has turned out to be enormous. It would easily fit a six foot tall gorilla which is a lesson to me to do a tension swatch for all future knits. I can’t even begin to tell you how long the arms are. However I do rather like it, and it is perfect outerwear. I wore it during the week when I took my beautiful granddaughter (who is two today… Happy birthday Eliza!) into Cambridge, without any need for a coat. And it attracted two compliments from total strangers which is a win in my book so I’ve now knitted a hat to go with it.

I’m totally blown away by the generosity of everyone who has sponsored me in this slightly crazy endeavour, a huge thank you to you all and I’ll keep my sponsorship page open until Christmas should you wish to add to this worthwhile cause – Cancer Research UK. My Dad died from lung cancer thirteen years ago and I have lost too many friends to this cruel disease, so every penny helps in the research to understand and fight cancer in all its forms. You just need to click on the button below to be taken to my fund raising page. Thank you.

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And that’s about it for this week. I’m not likely to do a post next weekend as we’re hosting seventeen members of our family here for lunch. I thought it would be a good idea to do a traditional roast Christmas dinner (I’ve still not made the pudding I said I would do last Sunday) although currently I’m not sure how that will manifest in terms of where we will all sit. But one way or another we will have food, we will have drink and we will have fun… and possibly origami trees. However you celebrate, whether that is in a huge noisy family gathering, or quietly your own, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas. Sending you much love and I hope to pop back before the New Year.

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*A type of mulled wine made from port, lemon juice, sugar and spices served warm