The Ghost of Christmas Present

The Debbie does Edmonds project is resting on the fact that I can get a serious amount of baking done on the weekends. If this weekend is anything to go by I could be in trouble.

Isn’t it amazing how busy things get at Christmas! I keep thinking I’ve got plenty of time left to do things but I absolutely haven’t – I keep forgetting appointments and engagements I’ve made but it seems I’m booked solid from now until Christmas – admittedly that is only a week away – but I can’t understand how it has happened without me noticing.

And then there is xmas shopping. I am very over Christmas shopping, if I was smart I would have given everyone a very nicely wrapped lump of coal fro Christmas, but then I would have probably had to go to 4 different shopping centres in Auckland looking for coal… I could always use the now infamous Christmas cake (3), it shares several similarities with coal – colour, texture, carbon content.

This all feels a little like it’s leading up to an excuse for poor Edmonds activity doesn’t it.

Well in reality it wasn’t that bad. I made 5 recipes – all on Sunday afternoon as we spent most of the weekend showing the Husbands Mother the sites (!) of Auckland. No thankfully she didn’t buy a house – she is much too polite for that.

So anyway back to the cooking. I made Christmas Mince Tarts, Strawberry Jam, Special Jelly, Grantham Macaroons and Mint Sauce – some really quite high effort recipes there so I am awarding myself extra points for effort.

Christmas Mince Tarts. Made using flaky pastry which seems wrong to me – not that I eat mince tarts but I always imagine them as little delicate things made out of sweet short pastry. The quantity of mince was also enough to make about 4 dozen mince tarts – slightly excessive for the 6oz of flaky pastry called for! I made the mince and the pastry in the food processor (it said chop with knives, it didn’t say I had to be holding the knives) and I used half butter, half lard because the recipe said butter or lard and lard is cheaper and I love lard. I did an excellent job of the rolling and folding (if I do say so myself). The pies turned out rather utilitarian looking due to the flaky pastry but got a rather enthusiastic response from the Husbands Mother (but she is a very nice person) and a very subdued, but not negative response from the Husband (this means they were better than average – I have learnt the response code).

Strawberry Jam – My first foray into the world of Jam making. Suffice to say that the jam did eventually set (I added pectin as I was a nervous virgin jam maker) despite me tipping the jars every 5 minutes to see whether it had set. I should add here that I don’t really like Jam either but you will be beginning to wonder what I do like.

Special Jelly – not really all that special the way I made it. I had two attempts at this. Jelly crystals into bowl – add hot water, add cold water, add milk, add beaten egg white, turn into mould and set. The first attempt I added the hot water and swished the bowl around too much and all the undissolved gelatine stuck to the sides and I added the milk and it curdled so I poured it down the sink. The second time I added the hot water and stirred gently but the gelatine still didn’t dissolve properly so I added the cold water, still hasn’t dissolved properly. At this point I thought about warming it up to try and dissolve the gelatine but I figured if it told me to add cold water it was supposed to be dissolved be now. So I chucked the milk in and it curdles again (note I don’t care so much this time) and folded the egg whites in and poured it into a bowl. The result was not terribly special – it separated into two layers, the gelatine was still in undissolved lumps. I think a picture says a thousand words.

Granthan Macaroons are nothing to write home about. Standard biscuit, a little gingery, nothing special. Possibly more special than the jelly though.

Mint sauce gave me an excuse to attack the mint jungle in the garden. Hardly even counts as a recipe – chopped mint, hot water, sugar and vinegar – but I’m taking it anyway.