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Wondercat Christmas: Mo Farah Mince Pies
Hello! It’s totally Christmas time!
Here at Wondercat we’ve been fabulizing the tree and decking the halls…the season has us in its tinselly grasp!
This weekend called for a bit of festive munchables, but, to be honest, we were more about the eating than the baking…time to whip up some lightening fast mincemeat and turn it into pies…so bloody scrumptious they’ll make you throw your arms wide and pull the “Farah face”!
Yes Mo, they’re that good.
Mo Farah Mince Pies
Pretty shot huh? We were simultaneously holding the plate in front of the tree and photographing…life behind the curtain ain’t so glamorous!
Mincemeat
equal weights of:
- Dried fruits of various kinds-Plump raisins? A sour cherry perhaps? Christmas craisins? How about some candied peel? Throw caution to the wind, live on the edge, do it for Baby Jesus!
- Cooking apples-peeled and chopped into little bits…not the cores, dumbass!
quarter weight of:
- Brown sugar
- Ginger beer
- Butter
- Almonds, toasted and chopped
- 2 tsp mixed spice
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- Brandy, or some other delightful booze
- Lemon zest
- Orange zest
So, the equation for mincemeat is as follows (food algebra, brain food):
(4x(fruit+apple)+x(sugar+beer+butter+almonds)+spice+zest+booze)-bakers scoffing privileges
Just call me (P)Einstein! *We know, we know, total cracker joke right? Speaking of cracker jokes we heard THE BEST today…ready for this??! “How does King Wenceslas’ like his pizza?” We’ll pop the answer at the bottom of the post…worth every second of scrolling, we promise you!*
Back to the mince meat…
- Just throw everything in a big ol’ pan (except the brandy and nuts) and boil away until the apples have turned mushy.
- Let it cool for a while then stir in the almonds and as much booze as you can without making it a big sloppy mess…we got a good few glugs in let me tell you! *we had also been drinking the booze so were dancing around in just our pants singing Nicky Minaj…sometimes life calls for a semi-nekkid Minaj moment*.
- Throw it into sterilised jars or as we did, a big lock ‘n’ lock tub and store it in the fridge.
Pastry
- 200g plain flour
- 100g butter-cut into cubes
- couple of tbsp of lemon juice
- pinch o’ salt
- tsp vanilla extract
- Rub butter into flour and salt until breadcrumby
- Cut in lemon juice and vanilla extract with a butter knife until it starts to come together…and a bit of water if needed but not too much…if it’s a big wet mess then you have fooked it up.
- Bring it together into a ball, squish it flat, wrap in cling-film and whack in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. *We used this time to go at the mincemeat with a spoon*
Roll out pastry to 2mm…get a Joseph and Joseph adjustable rolling pin http://www.josephjoseph.com/kitchen-tools/adjustable-rolling-pin as they are AWESOME! Cut out little frilly circles just a little bigger than the pie holes *pie hole *sniggers**
Use some sort of blunt poking device…a little rolling pin, a spatula handle, a dildo… to push the circles down.
Mince them up!
Cut stars the size of the pie holes out of the pastry scraps…DON’T RE-ROLL…it’ll taste like shit!
Plop on a star…oh and I know I totally need a manicure so pipe down Judgey McJudgerson!
- Bake at 175C for 20 minutes until the mincemeat is bubbling and the oven stink o’ Christmas.
- Sprinkle with icing sugar then enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!
These pies are tiny, hardly a pie at all. They are actually closer to mini tarts but who has a mince tart? It would be like renaming the iPad mini the iPhone big. Any who, they are a perfect little morsel for a mouthful of Christmas cheer; like Mo Farah and gold medals you can have them all! *Mo probably didn’t eat his gold medals with a glass of wine watching Strictly…but maybe he did? Who knows?*
That’s right kids, go on! Eat all the pies…then bake more and eat them too!
It’s Christmas time!!!!
The moody ambience of a fragrance ad…”Smell like dessert, drive the chubby kids wild…Pie the new fragrance from Wondercat.”
Oh yeah, the joke…”Deep pan, crisp and even!” We laughed until snot shot from our nose…It doesn’t take much to tickle a Wondercat.
Mini Naanana…
Saturday naan Saturday naan
Saturday night you know the curry’s gettin’ hot…like you baby!
I’ll make you naan so you can eat the spicy slop…I’ll drive you crazy!
Did I just rewrite Whigfield?
It's carby time! oh! It's carby time! oooooh! oooooooh!
Anyways, I was going out to Greater Manchester Skeptics so Si needed dinner that would be ready when he fiiiiinally got home.
Home made chicken curry with basmati rice and…home made mini naan!
I worked out I could make the naan in the 30 minutes the curry would take (and with the ingredients I had lying around)…Jamie/Macgyver…eatcha heart out.
Super Quick Mini Naan
- 125g plain flour
- 60ml milk or liquid whey
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 2 tsp some other liquid fat (I used some olive oil)
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- flavour spices and things (I had sesame seeds, cumin seeds and ground coriander but nigella seeds, poppy seeds, dried onion bits etc would work great too…just throw in anything you feel like)
- bit of oil/fat for cooking (ghee would probably be good, I used groundnut oil)
- mix the liquids
- mix the dry
- add liquids to dry and need together for about 5 minutes
- leave in a bowl covered in a tea towel for 15 minutes
- either split into small blobs and roll out or roll and cut out shapes
- heat a griddle pan that you’ve brushed with oil
- cook for about 2-3 minutes on each side over a medium heat until golden
pan of naan
Generally naan should be tear-drop shaped which I find rolling out free hand to be annoyingly difficult to get consistent (I have been known to stamp my feet and throw dough across the room in a big hissy fit). I didn’t have a tear-drop cutter but, I have so many round ones I sacrificed one to erm, Vishnu(???) and stretched it at one end (really Richard Dean Anderson, I’m gunning for you).
sacrificial circle...offering to the curry gods
They looked a little rigidly uniform but being so tiny I think it works. I was quite happy with the griddle lines and they tasted gooood. When I got home Si said the naan were tasty and gave his blessing for them to be made again; This is very positive as many things get the “they were nice but, maybe try something else next time” comment or occasionally the “why would you replace ALL the tomatoes in bolognese with oranges?! Did you honestly think it would be a good idea?” speech.
fan of naan
man with naan
Wondercat Bakery 