Playful yummy bakes for modern home bakers
White chocolate and cranberry cupcakes. This is such a beautiful festive bake. Great for anyone that wants an easy, stunning little showstopper. They’re even better for anyone that don’t like mincemeat. White chocolate and cranberries are such a gorgeous combo. The tart brightness of the …
What’s better than a gingerbread cookie at Christmas? That would be two gingerbread cookies. What could be even better than that? Well, that would be smothering them with nutella and making a cookie sandwich. You’re welcome. These gingerbread nutella sandwich cookies are delicious and a …
Nutella mince pies, now this is a delightful way to shake up your festive routine. In our house, we always make a batch or two of mince pies, often on Christmas Eve, and they’re such a comforting nostalgic bake that I can’t see this changing any time soon. That being said, it’s fun to mix things up now and then and these are particularly great for those that maybe aren’t the biggest fans of mince pies…the nutella and hazelnut and orange pastry do a great job at mellowing the intenseness of the mincemeat. They are just delicious. Served hot is my favourite with these, maybe with cream or ice cream, why not, but they freeze brilliantly too.
Happy baking.
170g plain flour
85g unsalted butter (fridge cold)
pinch of salt
30g icing sugar
55g finely chopped hazelnuts
1 orange (zest)
1 large egg
3 tbsp Nutella
9 tbsp mincemeat
Makes 18-24 star topped mince pies
First, let’s make the pastry. In a food processor pour your flour, salt, fridge cold butter and icing sugar and pulse until the butter is combined and it resembles fine bread crumbs.
Finely chop the hazelnuts.
Add in the orange zest, hazelnuts and the egg and pulse to combine until you have a ball of dough.
Flatten slightly, wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes or longer if you have it, to allow the pastry to rest.
Spoon in the mincemeat and nutella into a bowl and stir to combine.
Preheat your oven to 200°C and place a baking tray in the oven to heat up too. (This will help the bottoms of the pies cook evenly)
Cut your pastry in half and wrap up one portion to use later. Begin to roll out the pastry in a circle until it’s roughly ¼ inch thick. Cut out circles to match the size of your shallow pie tins. Then add a tsp of filling and top with stars. (Dabble the edges of the pastry cases to help the stars stick to the sides.)
Then brush the tops with egg or milk and bake in a hot oven for about 12 minutes.
Continue rolling and filling the cases until you have used all the pastry.
Once the mince pies come out of the oven, place them on a wire rack to cool and then dust with icing sugar to serve.
These freeze really well, so you can batch them up and defrost and eat whenever you fancy and will last a few months. If you’re eating them straight away, they’ll keep for 2-3 days in an airtight container.
To flash freeze, put the pies on a baking tray (that’ll fit in your freezer) on a single layer and freeze for about an hour, to flash freeze. Then you can pop them all in a bag after that.
Looking for more festive baking ideas? Try our Mince pie Christmas cupcakes, Mince pie cookies; Chocolate nutella muffins – with a crunchie topping, or our Fruit and nut fudge; all delicious and Christmassy. Perfect for the holidays.
Oh my, these are just the most deliciously indulgent easy peasy cheesy snacks out there. Think no fuss savoury doughnuts filled with mozzarella and you get the idea. Mozzarella dough bites are made with a handful of ingredients and don’t require yeast, so don’t need …
Mince pie Christmas cupcakes. Oh festive baking; in my mind there really isn’t anything better and complete to make me feel all cosy and Christmassy. Mince pies are such a classic staple in the UK, but I have to admit I’ve never been the biggest …
Gingerbread may just be my favourite cake of all time. Not to get this sticky, sumptuous delight confused with equally delicious gingerbread figures, this is a cake that is so richly spiced with 3 types of ginger and other gorgeous flavours that it really packs a seasonal festive punch. Absolutely love it. The nicest part of this recipe is that it is also happily vegan friendly, switching oil for butter and using vinegar and bicarb to help it rise beautifully. Amazing.
1 – any cake that you gently stir together in a saucepan without even thinking of getting out fancier mixers, is always a winner for me. Really helps create a stress-free vibe, which is perfect for baking in the Autumn and winter.
2 – the cake just gets better and better as it sits. Most cakes are amazing, but you do have to eat them up pretty quick, but the beauty of this is, that it’s actually better if you make the cake in advance, then leave it for a day or two and then even after that you can happily take pieces for a week and it’ll still be beautifully soft – thank you to all the sugary goodness there!
Lastly, the taste is incredible. The taste of Christmas and cosy nights in. Rich with the smoky taste of the treacle, matched with the golden syrup and topped with aromatic spices that all compliment the ginger hit – fresh, dried and preserved. This is one serious hit of seasonal indulgence and I absolutely love it. I love the dates here too, it’s got a definite sticky toffee pudding vibe going here and the orange zest really lifts everything. Lovely.
Give it a go and let me know what you think.
150ml vegetable oil
250g golden syrup
150g black treacle
125g light brown sugar
8 pitted dates (approx 95g)
65g stem ginger
25g fresh ginger (about a thumb sized piece)
Zest and juice of 1 orange
1 ½ tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
¼ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp salt
230 ml vegan friendly milk ( I used oat milk here)
300g plain flour
2 tbsp warm water
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 tsp apple cider vinegar
Preheat the oven to 170C.
Line a 23 cm square tin with baking paper and leave to one side while you get the batter ready.
Chop the dates and the stem ginger into small chunks.
Measure the oil and pour into a large, heavy bottom sauce pan. Now measure out the golden syrup and treacle using the same jug. The syrup will come away from the jug much easier if you pour the oil first.
Then tip the light brown sugar into the pan, followed by the dates, stem ginger and the orange zest. Use a fine grater to add the fresh ginger to the mix. Add the spices and salt.
Now, on a low heat, stir the sugars and spice mixtures until they melt together and warm up a little. This won’t take long. You don’t want the mixture to be hot, just warm.
Juice the orange into a jug and then top up with oat milk so that you get a total of 250 ml. Stir to combine and add to the sugary mixture.
Add the flour gradually, I usually do 4-5 batches so that you can whisk out all the lumps.
When all the flour is added, in a separate bowl or mug, add the warm water and the bicarbonate of soda. Once this has combined, add the vinegar 1 tbsp at a time and let it fizz. I’m not a science expert, but it’s this reaction between the bicarb and vinegar that will make the gingerbread rise, so once you’ve added it all, speedily add this to the main cake mixture and stir to combine.
Quickly add the cake batter to the prepared tin and bake in the pre heated oven for about 45 minutes.
This is a very sticky cake, but you can tell when it’s cooked as it will have risen in the middle and be coming away from the sides.
Leave to cool completely in the tin. Once cooled I would leave the cake wrapped in baking paper and foil for a day or so to let it get even more sticky and rich, then cut into 9-12 generous chunks and enjoy with a nice cuppa on the sofa.
Looking for other vegan friendly bakes? Try our Vegan chocolate peanut butter scones or our Get up and go granola – homemade breakfast ideas
Halloween sandwich cookies. These cheeky monsters are more cute than creepy but with their bright colours and googly eyes are perfect for a spooky treat. Rich dark chocolate biscuits sandwiched with buttercream. A simple biscuit to make but a gorgeous little show stopper for a …
Mars Bar cupcakes, what a joyous trio we have here. These cupcakes make me so happy. Chocolate and caramel is a mighty combo, so delicious. Soft and fluffy vanilla cupcakes, filled with dulce de leche and topped with not one by two flavours and buttercream, …
Apple pie; oh so comforting and brings up oh so many nostalgic memories of Sunday lunches and lazy evenings. Apple and cinnamon is such a classic, cosy combo and so evocative of chilly autumn and winter days. Mini apple pies have all the same comfort plus the happy benefit of being perfectly individually sized, no sharing needed. So delicious; fab served with cream, ice cream or my favourite lashings of hot custard; whatever you want. Such a delicious treat plus these little guys freeze really well, so you can bake up a batch and stash some away for when your need is great.
225g plain flour
100g unsalted butter
Pinch salt
1 tbsp caster sugar
Approx 100g stewed apples (or you can use apple sauce if you don’t have any, or in a rush)
Few tbsp milk for brushing on the pies
3 tbsp caster sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon for dusting on top of the pies before baking
Makes 10 mini individual pies
Add the plain flour and salt to a mixing bowl.
Cut the fridge cold butter into small cubes and then begin to rub the butter into the flour. The butter should be very cold for this as you don’t want the butter to melt into the flour here, just to form a consistency similar to small bread crumbs.
Once the butter and flour are combined, add the sugar. This isn’t a lot but will just sweeten the mix a little.
Add in 3-4 tbsp of ice cold water to the pastry until it begins to come together.
Then lightly flour a board and gently bring the pastry together into a ball. Flatten slightly. Cover and leave in the fridge to let the butter firm up again for at least 30 mins.
You can either use ready apple sauce for the filling or ready made stewed apples. I make mine by cutting up Bramley apples into small pieces and then adding orange/lemon zest, cinnamon, ginger and cloves to a pan with a few pieces of butter and sugar to taste. Then cook until the apples are soft. This takes about 10 minutes. If you are making the apples on the day you make the pies, be sure that the mix is cold before you add it to the pastry. Otherwise the filling will cause the pastry to melt before it bakes, which isn’t what you want.
Preheat the oven to 180 C. Add a baking tray to heat up at the same time. This will help the bases of your pies cook really well when you place your tray on top of this later.
Flour your board and begin to roll out the pastry until it is roughly 1 cm thick. Move the pastry a few times and add extra flour if needed to help ensure that it doesn’t stick.
Once the pastry is rolled, use the apple cutter (or a circle one if you don’t have one) and cut out an equal amount for the tops and bottoms of the pie. I rolled the pastry a few times and got 20 apple shaped pieces from this amount of dough.
Lay half the pastry pieces onto a tray. Fill each piece with approx 1 tbsp of apples, trying not to over fill, otherwise the filling might spill out when you’re baking.
Once they are filled, take some water and dab all around the edges to help seal the pastry lids to the bottom.
Place the apple lids onto the pies and press down gently. Then use a fork to crimp the pies and seal them shut. Add milk or a beaten egg to the tops of the pies to help them brown up nicely. Then using a knife make a few cuts into the pastry to help any steam escape when baking.
Combine the sugar and cinnamon together and then sprinkle some on top of each pie.
Bake for about 25 minutes, until the tops have browned and the bottoms are cooked.
Leave to cool on a cooling rack or serve immediately with cream, ice cream or custard. Whatever you fancy.
These mini apple pies will keep a few days in an airtight container or you can freeze the pies for a few months.
Looking for other tasty ways to bake with apples? Try our Apple pie muffins or for some cosy comfort try our Pumpkin spiced pancakes with orange maple syrup and toasted pecans or our Get up and go granola – homemade breakfast ideas, so tasty.
A delicious, no fuss recipe that does quite literally what it says on the tin. Raspberry jam and shortbread; a combo of sweet perfection (if you ask me). Raspberry shortbread crumble bars; sweet and tart jam (with extra fresh raspberries for added zing) with comforting …