Mulled

Merry Christmas everyone, best wishes for 2013!

Gluten-free stollen

Shot for BBC Good Food magazine, December '11 issue

Recipe: Hannah Miles

Prop styling: Tony Hutchinson

Food Styling: Cassie Best

Membrini

There’s a surplus of membrillo in fridge. Slabs of the stuff; I could probably tile the utility room with this year’s batch alone. Perhaps I could use that spare jar of damson jam as grout? Anyway, i’m saving a good wedge for the Christmas cheeseboard, but a simple cocktail made from membrillo, clementine juice and fizz is a great seasonal twist on the classic Bellini.

PER COCKTAIL

2 sugar cube-sized chunks of membrillo

The juice of 1 clementine

Prosecco

Mash the membrillo and clementine juice together, then pour the syrup into the bottom of a champagne flute. Top up with prosecco, then "Quaff" (as they say in Farnborough's sultry nightspots).

Gingerbread houses

Recipe >>> here <<<

Shot for BBC Good Food Magazine, December '11 issue

Recipe/food styling: Sarah Cook

Prop styling: Tony Hutchinson

Boozy sloe gin mincemeat

600g Mixed dried fruit (I used roughly equal parts raisins, currants and sultanas)

200g Unsalted butter

200g Light muscovado sugar

1 Large bramley apple peeled, cored and grated

Zest and juice of one large orange

1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon

A good grating of fresh nutmeg

150ml Sloe gin

Slowly melt the butter in a large pan; take off the heat and stir in the sugar and cinnamon. Mix the dried fruit, grated apple, orange zest, orange juice and sloe gin together in a separate bowl (it's good to do this the night before if you get a chance). Stir the butter into the fruit, mix together well and spoon into sterilised jars. Fashion into untold mince pies.

Cranberry clafoutis

I've made clafoutis' before, but with sweeter fruit such as blueberries,

blackberries and plums. In this instance I offset the sharpness of

the Cranberries by macerating them in a little warm honey first.

400g Fresh cranberries

1 tbsp Honey

75g Plain flour

100g Golden caster sugar

75g Ground almonds

1 tsp Ground cinnamon

2 Eggs

150ml Whole milk

100ml Single cream

Heat the oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Warm the honey in a small

saucepan, take off the heat and stir in the cranberries. Sieve the flour

into a mixing bowl, then stir in the sugar, almonds and cinnamon.

Whisk the eggs, milk and cream together in a seperate bowl, make a

well in the centre of the dry ingredients and slowly whisk in the liquid.

Mix well, until the batter is smooth and lump free.

Butter a shallow dish, add a spoonful of sugar and tap at an angle,

rotating slowly to coat the bottom and sides of the dish. Spoon in the

honeyed cranberries, then pour in the batter. Bake for 25 minutes,

after which the clafoutis should be risen and golden. A skewer should

come out clean when poked into dish.

Pink peppercorn pfeffernusse

For the second time in a week I chanced upon the wolf man on the way home. He seems to just appear on the horizon; long silvery hair, lupine scowl and (seriously) a wolf-embroidered fleece hanging off his bony shoulders. If that wasn't enough, he has TWO ACTUAL WOLVES tethered to his hands, albeit by unnervingly flimsy leashes. It's startling to witness; but has little to do with festive baking. I digress.

It’s Sinterklaas eve on 5^th December. Traditionally, children in Germany, Holland and Belgium leave shoes by the fireplace before bedtime; come the morning it’s hoped that Saint Nicholas will have filled them with treats – Pfeffernusse being a favourite. It feels a bit keen to be making Christmas biscuits at the end of November, but these really benefit from being left in a tin for a couple of weeks so that the spice flavours develop.

Pink peppercorn pfeffernusse
Makes 20

For the biscuits
2 Eggs
230g Light muscovado sugar
250g Plain flour
Zest and juice of 2 satsumas
1tsp Ground cinnamon
1/2tsp Ground mace
1/2tsp Ground cloves
1/3 Freshly grated tonka bean
1tsp Finely chopped pink peppercorns
1tsp Freshly ground black pepper
30g Ground almonds
A pinch of salt

For the sugar coating
2 Egg whites
250g Icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2. Whisk the eggs, sugar and Satsuma juice together until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in the zest, spices, pepper, salt and almonds before gradually sifting in the flour, mixing well and shaping into a ball of dough. Knead for about five minutes, then roll into 3cm balls and arrange on a greaseproof lined baking sheet (allowing a fair bit of space around each so that they don’t stick together). Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, turn the oven off and transfer biscuits onto a cooling rack. Whisk the egg whites and icing sugar together, dip each biscuit into the glaze and place back on the greaseproof lined tray. Put the tray back into the cooling oven for about half an hour.