The little ginger house

As it is very nearly Christmas, today I thought I would have a go at making a gingerbread house as I have never made one before. I wouldn't be exaggerating if I told you it was very time consuming and although fun to decorate the construction was a living nightmare! Never the less I persevered through all the times that my roof would slide of the top of the little ginger house, one of my sides even broke in half so I had to make a new one at the last minute!

After all this my apron  was left covered in white icing and the kitchen was a tip however the little ginger house wasn't half bad in the end. And looking at it now I can tell you it is holding out well and hasn't yet fallen apart! The hardest part of this baking experience is yet to come! Trying not to nibble at it for a day till Christmas day! That would really be a Christmas miracle if it lasts un-touched in my house for a whole day.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away?

I decided that I wanted to make an apple crumble however I did not know a recipe for apple crumble at the time so I decided to improvise and hope for the best.

Luckily everyone in my family loved them! Although I was guttered that we didn't have any eggs so I couldn't make a homemade custard to go with it. Never the less it tasted just fine, well judging by the empty plates anyway.

The recipe for this apple crumble was as follows:

Ingredients:
For the crumble:
150g Rolled Oats (Blitz till fine)
150g Breadcrumbs (I blitz a loaf of fresh wholemeal bread until it resembled breadcrumbs)
150g Butter (Cold from the fridge, diced)
100g Soft Brown Sugar
1-2tsp Ground Cinnamon
A pinch of grated Nutmeg
For the apple filling:
750g Apples (peeled, cored and cut into chunks)
4tbsp Soft Brown Sugar
A squeeze of Orange Juice

1) Preheat the oven to gas mark 5.
2) Firstly to make the crumble topping put all the ingredients into a bowl, excluding the butter and mix till well combined.
3) Add the diced butter to the dry ingredients and using your fingertips blend the ingredients together until it resembles quite large looking breadcrumbs.
4) Set aside until needed.
5) For the apple filling put the apples, sugar, orange juice and the butter into a saucepan and stirring occasionally leave the apples to soften for 5 minutes.
6) In a shallow dish pour the apple mixture inside, get your crumble topping and spread evenly over the top.
7) Bake for 40-45 minutes.
8) Best enjoyed whilst hot.

I included step 8 (best enjoyed whilst hot) because this is very true, it feels so much like comfort food when eating it pipping hot with a mug of warm milk, mmmmmm yum.  However it is still nice the next day, I recommend that you re-heat it as believe me, when it is pipping hot it is very very scrummy. And if the saying an apple a day keeps the doctor away then I will defiantly be making this more often (yes it doesn't count) But I can use that as an excuse for baking apple crumble frequently, cant I?

Its beginning to smell a lot like mince pies

At long last the best 25 days of the year has arrived for baking. I have been waiting to bake lots of Christmasy goods, but have been holding back till the 1st December. FINALLY this day has arrived and I have been able to make one of the many cakes and bakes on my list of cakes and bakes to make in the next 25- 24 days not including Christmas, although I will probably be baking something even then!

From my very long list of things to bake I picked to bake mince pies first as they are a classic after all and everyone in my family loves them. The recipe I settled on was Jamie Olivers' mince pie recipe. It suggested that I add marzipan into the filling and I will defiantly try that next time. However even without the marzipan these mince pies went down a storm in my house. I can now honestly say that its beginning to smell a lot like mince pies in my house. Is it in yours?