Mince pies

For the mincemeat;

Ingredients:

• 500g pears (cored and cut into small cubes)

• 500g dried mixed fruit

• 100g stem ginger

• 100g crab apple jelly

• 250g muscovado sugar

• Zest and juice of 3 oranges

• Zest and juice of 2 lemons

• 100g flaked almonds

• 50ml ginger wine

• 2 tsp Ground ginger

• 2 tsp Cinnamon

• 1 tsp Nutmeg

• 50ml sloe gin

Method:

Mix all the ingredients well, except the gin, and put them into a large oven proof dish.

Bake in a preheated oven for around 2.5 hours at 120 degrees.

Stir in the gin and spoon into warm, sterile jars. Leave to mature for at least 2 months before using. Will keep for a couple of years.

For the pies;

Ingredients:

• 300g plain flour (sifted)

• 150g unsalted butter (cut into cubes)

• Water

• Mince meat

• Milk

Method:

Add the butter to the flour and rub it between your fingers and into the flour. Keep rubbing until the mix resembles breadcrumbs.

Add a small drop of water and mix together. Keep adding a little water at a time, until the mixture comes together to form a stiff dough amd leaves the bowl mostly clean.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry out as thin as possible - 1 or 2 mm is best. Cut rounds for the bases using a pastry cutter and place into cupcake cases.

Fill the base with mince meat and top with either smaller cut rounds or stars. Where the pastry top and base meets, use a little milk to seal the edges.

Brush with a little milk and cook in the centre of a preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 15 minutes, until golden in colour.

Cheese Scones

Ingredients: 

• 250g Self raising flour 

• Pinch of salt 

• 1 tsp baking powder 

• 60g butter 

• 100g cheese (grated) + a little extra for topping 

• 80ml milk + a little extra for topping 

Method: 

In a bowl, mix together the flour, salt and baking powder. 

Cut the butter into cubes and rub it into the flour, to make breadcrumbs. 

Add the cheese and mix well, trying not to overwork it, as the heat from your hands will start to melt the cheese. 

Add the milk, a little at a time, until the mix comes together to form a dough. You may not need all of the milk. 

Tip out onto a work surface and roll out to approx 2 cm thick. Cut the scones with a 

medium sized pastry cutter. 

Place onto a lightly floured baking tray and brush the tops with a little milk. Finally add a small amount of grated cheese. 

Cook in the centre of a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 10 - 15 minutes until golden on top and cooked through. 

Olive, Pumpkin & rosemary bread

Ingredients:

• 500g strong bread flour

• 10g salt

• 20g bread yeast

• 250ml warm water

• 50g black olives (sliced)

• 80g peeled and grated pumpkin or squash

Method:

Mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl, add the yeast. Slowly add a little water at a time, while mixing together with your hands to form a dough.

You can add more or less water depending on how your dough feels.

Tip out onto your worktop and knead for a few minutes.

There are various ways to knead your dough, I like to stretch it out, then roll it back in, and give it a 90 degree turn, before stretching it out again.

Cover with a damp cloth and leave to prove for about 20 minutes.

Lightly dust your work surface with a little flour and roll out the dough to form a rectangle a quarter inch thick.

Drizzle the surface with a little olive oil. Spread the olives, and pumpkin, evenly over the surface.

Roll the dough up from the short end and tuck the ends in to form a loaf. Place on a baking tray.

Leave the loaf to prove for a further 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 250 degrees Celsius.

Slash the top of the loaf along its length, and leave to prove for a further 10 minutes.

Pour some boiled water on the bottom of the oven.

Cook for 10 minutes before dropping the temperature to 200 degrees if the crust is looking pale, 180 degrees if the crust is noticeably browning, and 170 if it seems to be browning quickly. Cook for a further 40 mins.

Remove from the oven, the loaf should sound hollow when you tap it on the bottom, if not return it to the oven for a little longer.

Leave to cool fully before cutting.

Blackberry whiskey jam

Ingredients:

• 1kg blackberries (leftover from making blackberry whiskey)

• 1kg jam sugar

• Splash of blackberry cordial/squash

Method:

Heat the fruit in a large pan with the sugar and cordial. Stir until dissolved.

Slowly bring to a rolling boil and boil rapidly, without stirring, for about 10 - 15 minutes until setting point is reached.

Pour into warm, sterilised jars.

Lemon curd

Ingredients:

• 7 Eggs

• 8 lemons (rind and juice)

• 200g Butter

• 400g caster sugar

Method:

Melt the butter in a pan. Whilst you wait, beat the eggs.

Once the butter has melted add the rest of the ingredients to the pan and whisk together.

Don’t worry if the mixture looks like it's curdling, it should eventually come together. Give it a whisk every few minutes, to avoid it catching on the bottom of the pan.

Heat for around 10 mins until thick and creamy, but avoid boiling.

Carefully pour into warm sterilised jars and seal.

Store in a cool dry place and refrigerate once opened. Should keep for up to one month

Bread Pudding

Ingredients:

• 800g bread (torn into pieces)

• 800g mixed dried fruit

• 2 tbsp ground mixed spice

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1 tsp ground ginger

• 600ml milk (Any liquid will work. Try beer, wine, cider or whiskey)

• 2 large eggs

• 250g demerara sugar

• 100g Butter (melted)

Method:

Put everything except the butter into a large bowl and scrunch it up, to completely break up the bread and mix it up well.

Add the melted butter and mix well.

Grease and line a large baking dish and pour in the mixture. Pushing it down firmly into the dish. Sprinkle with a little sugar.

Place in the centre of a pre heated oven at 170 degrees for about an hour and a half until firm and golden. Cover with baking paper if it starts to brown too much.

Sloe Gin

Ingredients:

• 350g Sloes

• 125g granulated sugar

• 700ml gin

Method:

Wash your fruit and pick out any leaves, twigs, or insects. Put the fruit into a Kilner jar and cover with the sugar. Pour over the gin and put the lid on. Shake the jar to mix in the sugar. Shake once a day, for a few days, until the sugar remains dissolved.

After 3 months decant into bottles through a funnel lined with a muslin cloth. Whilst you can drink this straight away, it does benefit from ageing for a year or more, if you can wait that long.

Nasturtium capers

Nasturtiums capers make a great addition to salads, pestos, salsas and pizza, as well as a side for fish, like seabass. In fact anywhere you would use 'normal' capers.

Ingredients:

• 200g nasturtium seeds

• 40g salt

• 200ml water

• 200ml vinegar

• 1 tsp peppercorns

• 2 bay leaves

• Sprig of savory

Method:

Mix together the salt and water. Add the seeds and leave to soak overnight.

Drain and rinse the seeds and pack into a warm, sterilised jar.

Gently heat the vinegar with the herbs for a few minutes, until not quite boiling.

Pour the vinegar and herbs over the seeds in the jar and close the lid.

Leave to pickle for a minimum of 2 weeks before using.

Blackberry Whiskey

Considered by some to be superior to sloe gin, this is a must make for me every summer. Keep the blackberries to use in a pudding, or eat with Ice cream or use to make Jam.

Ingredients:

• 350g blackberries

• 175g granulated Sugar

• 700ml whiskey (Scotch or Bourbon - depending on your preference. I think Scotch is better)

Method:

Wash your fruit and pick out any leaves or twigs.

Put them into a kilner jar and cover with the sugar. Pour over the whiskey and put the lid on. Shake the jar to mix in the sugar. Shake once a day, for a few days, until the sugar remains dissolved.

After 3 months decant into bottles through a funnel lined with a muslin cloth.

Whilst you can drink this straight away, it does benefit from ageing for a year or more - if you can wait that long!

Damson jelly

Ingredients:

• 1 kg damsons (or plums)

• Up to 1kg granulated sugar

• Water

Method:

Put the fruit into a large pan and half cover with water. Simmer until the fruit starts to fall apart.

Strain through a muslin. Leave to drip for several hours or overnight, but whatever you do avoid squeezing or you’ll end up with cloudy jelly.

Measure the liquid and for every 600ml of juice, you’ll need 450 kg of sugar. Put the juice into a pan and bring to the boil.

Add the sugar and stir until dissolved.

Slowly bring to a rolling boil and boil rapidly, without stirring, for about 10 minutes, or until setting point is reached. This can take 40 minutes or more.

Pour into warm, sterilised jars.

Egg pasta

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs

• 200g bread flour

• A handful of blanched, chopped nettles or spinach (optional)

Method:
Stick the flour into a bowl with the nettles (if adding) and add the eggs. Mix together, by hand, to form a dough. You may need to add a splash of water, but be careful not to make the dough too wet.

Lightly flour your work surface and knead the dough for about 5 minutes, before rolling out thinly with a rolling pin and cutting into thin strips.

Cook the pasta in boiling, lightly salted water for 3-5 minutes.

Great served drizzled with olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Pumpkin Beer

Pumpkins are for more than just carving. Get ready for the Halloween season with this lovely winter beer. It usually comes out at 4.5 %

Ingredients:

• 1kg pumpkin

• 35g hops

• 500g dark malt extract

• 375g sugar

• 12 pints of water

• Beer yeast (or Young’s super wine yeast extract)

Method:

Cut the pumpkin into fist sized pieces and roast for 20 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius.

Put the pumpkin into a large pan with the hops and cover with 6 pints of water, boil for 30 minutes. Meanwhile put your sugar and malt extract into a fermentation bin. Strain the pumpkin water through a muslin cloth into the fermentation bin. Stir well to dissolve all the sugar and malt extract.

Pour in 6 pints of cold water and stir. Make a note of the gravity, it should be around 1040.

Add your yeast and leave to ferment for 3 weeks. Whilst a lot of recipes state much shorter times I find the beer benefits from this extended time.

Don’t forget to check your final gravity, if you haven’t already and want to know the percentage of alcohol in your brew.

Add a level teaspoon of sugar to each bottle and siphon the beer into the bottles. Cap the bottles (or use swing tops) and place somewhere warm for 2 days before moving to somewhere cool.

The beer should be ready to drink in 2 weeks, 3 is better.

Nasturtium pesto

Nasturtiums are easy to grow, and are an under-used garden staple. With a peppery, mustard like flavour, they are packed with vitamin C and iron. All parts of the plant are edible, from the leaves, to the seeds & even the flowers.

Ingredients:

3 handful Nasturtium leaves

6 Nasturtium seeds

1 Handful pine nuts

4 Garlic cloves (peeled)

Handful of mature cheddar cheese (grated)

3 tablespoons olive oil

Salt & pepper

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

6 Nasturtium flowers

Method:

Wash the leaves well. Black fly are huge fans of Nasturtiums.

Stick all the ingredients into a food processor and blitz well.

Store in a clean sterile jar.

To use, add a couple of teaspoons per person to your cooked pasta.

Hokey Pokey (honeycomb or Cinder toffee )

Ingredients:

500g granulated sugar

250g golden syrup

100ml water

2 teaspoons bicarb

Method:

Put the sugar, syrup and water into a large pan (it needs to be large for the later stage).

Melt on a medium heat, stirring occasionally. Once the sugar has all melted and turned a caramel colour, stop stirring.

Boil the sugar until it reaches 150 degrees (hard crack) on a thermometer. If you don't have a thermometer drop a little of the sugar into some water, it should set instantly.

Turn off the heat and add the bicarb. Whisk to mix the bicarb well (it will dramatically volcano and increase in size) and then pour into a lined baking tray with high sides.

Leave to set for about an hour, before breaking into bite-sized chunks.

Taken from my Eat like a Halfling! Cookbook. Available on Amazon now

Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

• 150g plain flour (sifted)

• 75g unsalted butter (cut into cubes)

• Water

• 300g pumpkin

• 90g dark brown sugar

• 1/4 can coconut cream

• 1 egg (whisked)

• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp mixed spice

• 1/2 tsp ginger

• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

• Pinch of white pepper

• 1/2 tbsp cornflour

To serve;

Icing sugar

Method:

Add the butter to the flour and rub it between your fingers and into the flour. Keep rubbing until the mix resembles breadcrumbs.

Add a small drop of water and mix together. Keep adding a little water at a time, until the mixture comes together to form a stiff dough and leaves the bowl mostly clean.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry out as thin as possible - 1 or 2 mm is best. Grease a tart tin and use the pastry to line the tin.

Blind bake (line the tin with greaseproof paper and baking beans) for 10 minutes at 180 degrees, remove the beans and cook for a further 10 minutes at 160 degrees.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5- 10 minutes, while you prepare the filling.

Peel, de-seed and dice the pumpkin. Add it to a pan, cover with water and boil until soft (approx 10-15 minutes). Drain and mash.

Whisk in the rest of the ingredients.

Pour the pumpkin filling into your precooked pastry base and cook in the centre of a pre-heated oven at 220 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes, reduce the temperature to 180 degrees and cook for a further 10 minutes.

Leave to cool, and serve dusted with a little icing sugar.

Elderberry & Blackberry Wine

This recipe is great if you heat, but not boil, a bottle, with a jar of honey, a few cloves, some grated nutmeg, ¼ pint of water and the juice and rind of a lemon. Add half a small bottle of brandy before serving. Drink whilst still warm.

We drink this every Christmas when family visit and we always run out!

You can also make this one with just elderberries or just blackberries.

Ingredients:

800g elderberries

800g Blackberries

4.5l water (boiled)

1.5 kg granulated sugar

1 tsp pectic enzyme

1 tsp of red wine yeast

1 tsp yeast nutrient

1 campden tablet (optional)

1 teaspoon fermentation stopper (optional)

1 teaspoon Bentonite (optional)

Method:

Put all the berries into a large bucket and crush with a rolling pin. Add the sugar, and the pectic enzyme, and cover with 4.5l boiled water. Stir well.

Once cool, make a note of your gravity.

Add your yeast and nutrient and cover loosely for 1 week before straining into a demijohn with an airlock.

When fermentation ends (once bubbles pass through the airlock at less than one a minute) add a crushed campden tablet and fermentation stopper, if using, as per the instructions on the packet.

Nows the time to check your final gravity, if you haven’t already, and want to know the percentage of alcohol in your brew.

After 3 days clear the wine by adding bentonite, if using, as per the instructions on the packet. Alternatively you can wait until it clears naturally.

Finally, syphon the wine into bottles and cork.

Age for a minimum of 3 months before drinking, but a year is better

Apple & Mead cake

Ingredients:

• 150g Butter

• 150g honey

• 2 eggs

• 225g plain flour (sifted)

• 1 level tsp baking powder (sifted)

• ½ tsp salt

• 70 ml mead

• ½ a dessert apple, sliced into thin wedges

• 1 ½ tsp of demerara sugar

• ½ tsp of cinnamon

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius.

Beat the butter, honey & eggs together in a bowl. Add the flour, baking powder, salt & mead. Mix well.

Spoon into a 7½ inch round cake tin and arrange the apple slices in a circle on top of the cake. Mix the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the top of the cake mix.

Cook for 40 - 45 minutes in the centre of the oven. Cover with greaseproof paper if it starts to brown too quickly.

Drizzle with a little honey and leave to cool for 15 minutes before slicing. The cake will continue to cook during this time.