Christmas is a coming!

Well I can, honestly and thankfully say my journey with the GBBO is over. I had a phone call yesterday with "not good news" and they gave some scripted feedback of " the quality of candidates was very high, yadda yadda yadda, range of repertoire blah blah blah" to be honest I wasn't listening, I was just letting it sink in a bit. Not only did I get so far last time, to being a standby, they then badgered me to apply this time, raising in me that false sense of hope. At least I know I'll have some sort of normal life for the remainder of this academic year, and I'm a true believer in things happening for a reason. It wasn't meant to be and in the spirit of my good, and very supportive friends, onwards and upwards.

The best things to come out of all of this are my blog and my expanded repertoire of baking. I'm not scared of trying something new, knowing that actually nothing is impossible if you truly believe it! Also I'm not going to forget the praise Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood had for my baking when I met them earlier this year; great pastry and wonderful meringues!

Recipes
Two recipes today, which I made as a stuff you to the GBBO last night in a bid to move onwards and upwards. I can't claim they are my own creations, but they are very tasty and well worth sharing with you.

Jamies mince pie cookies


250g unsalted butter at room temperature and soft
140g caster sugar
1 large egg yolk
300g of plain flour
1 jar of mincemeat (411g)

Making these made me realise that a cookie recipe is basically a cake recipe minus the raising agent and so much egg. Cream the butter until it's light a fluffy with the caster sugar, it really does take about 3-4 minutes in the Kenwood electric mixer, and the change is quite amazing. I always used to cream butter until I was bored (back in the days of using a wooden spoon) but now I have the Kenwood, I know it is much more. The butter does get paler, and the volume increases until it's like stiff cream!
Mix in the egg yolk and sift in the flour. This should make a thick paste which you can fold in about 3/4 of the the mincemeat. Take a tea spoon (the regular kind not the measuring kind) of the cookie dough and plop it on to a lined baking sheet. Add a smidgen o the reserved mincemeat onto the top of each cookie ball before baking in an oven that has been preheated to 180C for about 10 minutes or until golden brown. Dust with caster sugar and let cool on in the tin for about 5 minutes before transferring to a wire wrack.

These would be amazing sandwiched with a boozy, brandy buttercream!

They went down a treat at rehearsals and the mincemeat flavour really came through!

Nigella's Almond Macaroons

If you like coconut macaroons and marzipan then these are the treat for you, and amazingly easy to make. The recipe is one that I have already committed to memory too it's so simple!

200g ground almonds

200g caster sugar

2 large egg whites.

Basically mix all of the above into a dough and when it comes together break off bits about the size of a walnut and roll them into a ball. Put them onto a lined baking sheet and stud the top of them with a blanched whole almond. Press them down slightly and bake them at 180C for 10 minutes until they just start to take colour.

They were slightly chewy and very delicious! I can see pistachio, hazelnut and other ground nut varieties of this recipe! 

Mary Berry's Christmas Cake

Yes, I know, can you believe it? This year has seen a surge in supermarkets doing their own version of a Christmas Cake kit. Tesco have Mary Berry, Waitrose have Delia Smith and Sainsbury's have their taste the difference version. I think it's great to get people to challenge themselves with their baking, Chrimbo cakes are quite a commitment to get right! 

I wish I had the time to try them all out and review them (I'm not sure I could stomach that much fruit cake though!). I'll stick with the family recipe for the time being.