Welcome to my post for day 7 of the #12daysofparenting; Christmas Baking and welcome if you’ve hopped over from Mad House of Cats and Babies We have so many prizes to give away this year, entries via the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.
What else says Christmas like Mince Pies and Gingerbread? Except for maybe gingerbread mince pies but I might leave that experimentation for another day……
Mince Pies
Now you may have seen that the husband hates my insistence on making homemade goodies when there are perfect shop bought alternatives, but the Big One and I love nothing more than getting into the kitchen together and there was a deal on mincemeat.
So while they weren’t as pretty as the Waitrose offerings they were still pretty tasty.
Ingredients
Sweet Pastry
250g plain flour
100g icing sugar
125g cold, cubed, butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg, beaten
Splash of milk
Flour to dust
Mincemeat
Just kidding – I bought a jar of Robertson’s!
How to do it
1. Sieve flour and icing sugar into a bowl
Get a light dusting EVERYWHERE
2. Rub butter into flour until it resembles breadcrumbs
Attempt to show the Big One what to do, spend most of your time trying to stop him putting lumps of butter in his mouth to taste. Strange child.
3. Add beaten egg and a splash of milk, mix until it forms a dough
4. Pop into a bag and chill for 30 minutes
5. Flour the work surface and rolling pin
And the floor, you, the big one, the baby whose just watching….
6. Roll pastry out thinly
0.3mm apparently but I don’t keep a tape measure in my kitchen
7. Grease a muffin tray
8. Cut out 12 circles and place in the tray
We used a glass because we didn’t have a circle cutter
9. Spoon a good dollop of mincemeat into each case
10. Roll out the rest of the pastry and cut small shapes to act as a lid
I suggest raiding any Play Doh cutters as they are perfect size, we had Christmas trees and stars
11. Place on top and glaze with milk
12. Cook for 20-25 minutes at 180
Leftover Pastry
And here I did something which my Granna used to do for me. I gave the big on the leftover pastry rolled out to play with and create his own cut out treats.
Lots of cutters. Strawberries.
Shame I totally forgot they were in the oven and burnt them to a crisp…..a long way to go before I hit my Granna’s standards.
Gingerbread
To celebrate the end of nursery we decided to have another go at gingerbread now we had the cookie cutters at our disposal.
The Gingerbread recipe, tried and tested, stands up to multiple rolling outs and is hardy enough to cope with Toddler cooking.
To see how children have changed the holidays for others, why not hop over to Mummy Fever to see what they say?
My code word for #12daysofparenting is ICY
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Fab! Looking good, love the concentration in their faces when they bake 🙂
I’ve never made gingerbread but this looks like it could be simple enough for a novice baker like me!!
Glad it’s not just me who uses playdoh cutters for baking! Love the gingerbread. Mmmm.
They look lush! I think I spotted a BLW cookbook too 😉
Author
You definitely did! Cluttered kitchen…..
Ooh mince pies are something I am yet to make. I absolutely love them whilst they are still warm with some brandy butter x
Those mince pies look so yummy. I much prefer homemade mince pies and treats to shop bought so I am totally on your side 🙂
These mince pies look delicious and so do the gingerbread men. These are definitely my favourite Christmas foods. I think I should have a go at making my own.
Haha! Brilliant. I much prefer homemade too, though I go for shop bought pastry because mine is rubbish. Homemade mincemeat is easy – you should make some next year 🙂
I have never tried making mince pies before but I can imagine it would not look as good as these. I still have not had my mince pies of the year yet.
I haven’t made any mince pies yet this year but I must do soon! I love them but no one else in the house does! X
Fab way of getting the Big One involved, you can see he had fun with it; my, check out his concentration in the last 2 pictures of him … so lovely to see such interest from a big toddler. 🙂 Yummy recipe; hopefully no burning of Granna’s learnt treat next time 🙂 #12daysofparenting.
Oh wow, these look fab. You have a proper little baker on your hands 🙂
Louise x