Mince Pies...as it's almost December!

I know it's not even December yet but I had a huge urge to make some Mince Pies today! Its cold outside and definitely beginning to feel a little bit Christmassy! I have to admit that these are cheats Mince Pies (as I didn't make the pastry or mince meat.. oopsie!) but they still taste amazing and I will make some proper ones in the run up to Christmas!

The recipe: (made 10 but I only used 1/3rd of the pack)

-Jus-roll Sweet shortcrust pastry packet

-Mince meat (I used Waitrose Cranberry and Port)

-Milk, for glazing

To make:

-Grease a baking tin with butter and preheat the oven to 180c

-Roll out the pastry until it is quite thin (as it makes nice crisp pastry), and then use a large round cutter to cut out the base of the pie

-Spoon in a heaped teaspoon of the mince meat in to each, but dont put too much as it will bubble over when baked

-Then roll out the leftover pastry and with a heart or star cutter, cut out the lid and place on top.

-With a pastry brush, brush over a little milk on the lids and edges, then bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, but keep an eye on them as they turn very quickly! 

-Then sprinkle with some icing sugar and enjoy whilst still warm! YUM!

Above are the things you will need to make the Mince Pies! 

And below are the pies ready to go in the oven! 

Yummy, fresh Mince Pies out of the oven!

Almond, Rosemary and Fig savoury biscuits!

I haven't done any baking for a while, so I decided it was time! I found this recipe for rosemary and fig biscuits (but really they are more like crackers), but instead of using normal flour, they use Almond flour/ground Almonds. This means that they are high in protein which is good :)

The Recipe: (makes about 25 biscuits)

-1 1/2 Cups of Almond flour

-1/2 teaspoon of rock salt

-1 tsp Rosemary, finely chopped

-4 dried figs, finely chopped

-1 egg

-1 tbsp Olive oil

To make:

-In a mixing bowl, stir together the almond flour, salt, rosemary and dried figs. Then add the egg and olive oil.

-Stir the mix until combined. 

-Roll out the mix inbetween 2 pieces of baking paper, so that you can get it nice and thin (about 1/8 inch thick), then cut in to sqaures with a knife or pizza cutter.

-Then bake on about 150c, for 8-10mins (but keep an eye on them as they brown quickly) until lightly browned on top and bottom.

-Enjoy!

Chopping the Figs and Rosemary, and below the dry ingredients on the left and then adding of the wet on the right!

This is what the mix looks like once combined, then below is the mixture having been rolled out!

Above is the mixture once it has been cut in to shapes (you can make up ones from little bits of mix). Then below are the biscuits ready to go in the oven!

And these are the finished biscuits cooling on a wire rack! Yum!