Merry Christmas!

We're counting down to the big day and Boston got 12 inches of snow this weekend! So, if you are looking for a white Christmas, our friends and family are welcome to come and visit us - it's cold but beautiful. The girls and Rick are planning to go skiing/snowboarding sometime, I may summon up the courage once again, but I'm too old and much too busy to break any bones.

This is the scene from our front door step on saturday, before the snow ploughs arrived.

This is the table on our balcony, at least 18 inches of snow!

So, I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all our friends and family a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

Gingerbread House

My girls love making gingerbread men at Christmas and this year is no exception. Lucy even roped her boyfriend into helping make this gingerbread house. Cute isn't it?

If you're looking for an easy recipe, then you've come to the right place!

Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients:3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, soft
¾ cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
½ cup unsulphured molasses
1 large egg

Royal Icing (see recipe below), candies, sprinkles to decorate

Directions:

1. Prepare cookie dough: Whisk flour, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl.
2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
3. Add the ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves until well mixed.
4. Beat in the molasses and egg.
5. Using a wooden spoon slowly beat in the flour until a dough ball forms.
6. Cut the dough in halves and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to 2 hours until firm.
7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
8. Roll dough out to 11/4 inch thickness on lightly floured surface. Cut out gingerbread people or shapes of your choice.
9. Place on cookie sheets and bake for approx. 12 minutes or until light golden brown.
10. Cool on wire racks, and then decorate as desired.

Royal Icing:
Ingredients:1 large egg white, room temperature
3/4 - 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
Food coloring, optional

Directions:

1. In a bowl using an electric mixer, beat egg white until just frothy.
2. Add powdered sugar. Mix with wooden spoon until sugar is incorporated into the egg white.
3. Add food coloring one drop at a time if desired.

Mince Pies

Christmas in the UK wouldn't be Christmas without Mince Pies! I've heard that they've even started appearing in the supermarkets in October, which shows how much the Brits love them. Originally these sweet little tarts were made with meat or suet, but today we prefer the vegetarian variety - a delicious combination of dried fruits, apples, spices and brandy or rum.

You can go ahead and make your own "Mincemeat", but I have found two ready made brands in the US, which are quite passable (Nonsuch and Grandmother's). I usually add extra raisins and a drop more brandy or rum to give it a more authentic taste. These "pies" can be baked in muffin tins, but I always use my English tart tins, which are a little shallower than a muffin tin. If you've never made pie crust, you can buy it ready made. However, I prefer a sweet tart crust for mince pies and my recipe, which even has added wholewheat flour, is so easy (especially if you own a food processor), I would encourage you to try it - it's foolproof!

Mince Pies
(Makes 18)

Sweet tart dough:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup wholewheat flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
8 ounces (2 sticks) butter, chilled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 1 jar (1lb. 12oz) Mincemeat
 1 egg white and sugar for glaze

Directions:

• Prepare tart dough: Place the flours, sugar and the chilled butter in food processor bowl.

• Pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
• Whisk the egg and vanilla in a small bowl.
• Add to the flour, sugar and butter mixture and mix until the ingredients form a ball. A teaspoon or two of water may be required if the mixture is too dry.
• Turn onto a work surface and with the heel of the hand, press the dough together until is smooth.
• This dough can be rolled out immediately and baked, or wrapped in plastic and chilled in the refrigerator until ready to be used.

• Assemble pies: Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Roll out the pie dough on a clean, lightly floured work surface, until about 1/8th of an inch thick.
• Use 2 cookie cutters (1 large, 1 medium) that fit your tart tins. Cut out 24 large and 24 medium rounds.
• Grease the tart or muffin pan with non-stick spray and use the large size rounds to line the bottoms of each hole. Fill with a spoon of thed mincemeat mixture and lay the medium round on top to form a lid.

• Press to seal the edges closed. Brush with beaten egg white and sprinkle with sugar.
  

• Finally, pierce the tops with small sharp knife to release steam.

• Bake in preheated oven for 15 - 20 minutes until light brown.

These pies can be frozen for upto 2 months - if they last that long! Enjoy...

Almost No Knead Wholewheat Bread

As can see I've been making bread again! I tried the No Knead Bread recipe a couple of months ago and loved the simplicity of it. It just takes a little more planning than usual, which means making the dough the night before, but this is done in a matter of minutes because no kneading is required. I also loved the hard crust that baking in the cast iron pot creates, but to be honest, the bread lacked flavor and this was very disappointing.

Since then, I've discovered the Almost No Knead recipe developed by Cook's illustrated. They corrected the lack of flavor with the addition of beer and vinegar, which mimics the sourdough taste of artisan breads. I have baked the white flour version and found it to be much tastier than it's cousin - hurrah! However, I have been intrigued to discover if the wholewheat version would be just as good.

This recipe method is "almost" exactly the same, the dough just requires to be kneaded 10 - 15 times after resting for 8 to 18 hours. The wholewheat version is sweetened with honey which adds really great flavor and has a softer and closer texture. I made a double batch of dough and made rolls with half of it, they tended not to be so crusty because they're baked in a regular baking pan but they were equally as delicious. Hope you try it!

Almost No Knead Wholewheat Bread
Ingredients:
2 cups (10 ounces) all purpose or bread flour
1 cup (5 ounces) whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons honey
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (7 ounces) water at room temp
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (3 ounces) mild flavored lager (can be non-alcoholic)
1 tablespoon white vinegar
Directions:

• Whisk flours, yeast, and salt in large bowl. Add honey,water, beer, and vinegar.
• Using rubber spatula, fold mixture, scraping up dry flour from bottom of bowl until shaggy ball forms.
• Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 8 to 18 hours.
• Lay 12- by 18-inch sheet of parchment paper inside 10-inch skillet and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
• Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and knead 10 to 15 times.
• Shape dough into ball by pulling edges into middle. Transfer dough, seam-side down, to parchment-lined skillet and spray surface of dough with nonstick cooking spray. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until dough has doubled in size and does not readily spring back when poked with finger, about 2 hours.
• About 30 minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest position, place 6- to 8-quart heavy-bottomed Dutch oven (with lid) on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees.
• Lightly flour top of dough and, using razor blade or sharp knife, make one 6-inch-long, 1/2-inch-deep slit along top of dough. Carefully remove pot from oven and remove lid. Pick up dough by lifting parchment overhang and lower into pot (let any excess parchment hang over pot edge). Cover pot and place in oven.
• Reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove lid and continue to bake until loaf is deep brown and instant-read thermometer inserted into center registers 200 degrees, 15 - 20 minutes longer.
• Carefully remove bread from pot; transfer to wire rack and cool to room temperature.

Almost No Knead Wholewheat Rolls

Our cat - "Kitty"

Doesn't she look so cute......