During the festive season treat yourself or your special loved ones to our 3 Sweet and Simple Christmas Recipes.
Starting with an Easy Mince Pie Recipe from Karen Thorne Bed and Breakfast Academy and a rolling pin in hand, are you ready to bake?
By following the mince pie recipe, my mince pies have been a success each time, and so easy!
You’ll have to try them for yourself.
See below for Karen’s mince pie recipe included within our 3 Sweet and Simple Christmas Recipes.
1.Easy Mince Pie Recipe
Mince Pie Ingredients
5oz cold butter, cut into cubes
8oz plain flour
1oz sugar
Zest of half an orange
1 egg
1 jar of mincemeat
A little water
1 small beaten egg
Mince Pie Method
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C or fan oven to 180 degrees C.
Rub butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs (Food mixer ready!), add the sugar and orange zest and mix well. Add the egg and mix well until it forms a stiff dough. You may need a few drops of water, but I found that I didn’t need any.
Put the pastry wrapped in clingfilm for at least 30 mins.
Cut the pastry into 2 then roll out quite thinly on a floured surface. Use a large and medium pastry cutter to cut out 16 large and 16 medium sized circles. You’ll probably need to pull together the trimmings of pastry and reroll them a few times.
Take a mince pie tin and line with the large circles. If your tin has 12 holes, do it in 2 batches.
Put a teaspoon of mincemeat in each (be careful not to overfill). Brush the edges with water and then put the medium circles of pastry on top. Crimp the edges together.
Brush with beaten egg and put in the oven for 20 minutes. Turn the tin round halfway through.
Put on the cooling tray and dust with icing sugar.
2.Lebkuchen Christmas Cookies Recipe
Whilst I lived in Germany as an Au Pair many moons ago, I enjoyed baking and decorating these cookies with the children.
Lebkuchen Christmas Cookies Ingredients
1 tsp ground ginger
200g runny honey
1 tsp ground allspice or mixed spice
1 tsp baking powder
1 quarter tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp cocoa powder
100g icing sugar
1 half tsp ground nutmeg
200g plain flour
1 pinch sea salt
100g ground almonds
85g butter
2 tbsp water
Decorating icing, 100s and 1000s and silver balls (optional for decoration)
Lebkuchen Christmas Cookies Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Line two baking trays with baking paper.
Heat the honey and butter in a small saucepan over a low heat until melted. Tip into a large mixing bowl and put in the fridge for five minutes.
Remove the honey-butter mixture from the fridge and sieve in the remaining ingredients, stirring to combine. (The mixture will be sticky) Return to the fridge for about 1 hour, or until completely cold.
Break off pieces of the dough and roll slightly smaller than a golf ball. Transfer to the baking trays and flatten down slightly, leaving enough space between each lebkucken to spread during cooking. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the lebkuchen has risen and are firm to the touch. Set aside to cool slightly on the baking trays, before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make shaped lebkuchen like I did, wait until the dough has cooled but still soft. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to 2.5cm/1in thick. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes and bake as above.
Finally the really fun part, decorate with icing, 100s and 1000s and silver balls.
Tadaa!
(Adapted from a recipe by Sophie Whitbread on bbc.co.uk)
3.Easy Chocolate Truffles Recipe
These delicious truffles were so easy to make and would be great as a gift. How about placing them in a decorated airtight tin or box. You could even get the kids to paint an egg box, line inside with red paper napkin and tie a ribbon around (like the image below).
As the egg box is not airtight however, be sure to eat them straight away! Great way to get your children or grandchildren involved!
Easy Chocolate Truffles Ingredients
250g Rich Tea biscuit crumbs
30g cocoa powder
80g desiccated coconut
395g sweetened condensed milk
Easy Chocolate Truffles Method
Blend biscuits into crumbs.
Transfer crumbs to a bowl.
Add cocoa powder and 20g of the desiccated coconut.
Make a hole in the centre.
Pour the condensed milk into the hole and mix with a wooden spoon.
Put in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Roll mixture into small balls, slightly smaller than a golf ball.
Roll the balls in the remaining coconut.
Store in an airtight container.
(Adapted from a recipe on bestrecipes.co.au)
We hope that you get as much pleasure out of making and tasting these 3 Sweet and Simple Christmas Recipes as much as we did.
Enjoy and Merry Christmas!
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