Today has really been a day of final preparations for Christmas. All the gifts are now wrapped and we've been to visit Mr C's family to deliver presents. All the washing is nearly done and I am starting to feel ready to start the festive season.
Quite a bit of time seems to have been spent in the kitchen today. The final touches were made to yesterday's Rocky Road. Now we just need to remember to take it out of the fridge tomorrow and put it in a nice box for the journey north.
Today I also made my first set of mince pies. I have helped my Mum hers many times over the years, but today was the first time I'd made any on my own. Not that I was fully on my own as sous-chef Mr C was helping out.
I have to admit though that the first batch of pastry went very strange whilst resting in the fridge. When it came out it was rock hard and we struggled to even cut it in half with a sharp knife. Too much water may have been the reason, but more experience may help!
I'm pretty pleased with the final version. They certainly tasted pretty good. I may have to work a bit more on the final presentation – or I could just blame my sous-chef for over-filling them! 😉
After a dozen mince pies the left over pastry made a fine half dozen jam tarts. This was something my Mum always used to do for me and my sister who didn't like mince pies when we were children and it certainly brought back several childhood memories.
Ooh, I love mince pies. Well done on producing your first batch! I made my own this morning and had to eat two immediately (for the purposes of quality control, you understand!). Haven’t tried Rocky Road – yours looks yummy.