It’s Autumn half term and the ritual in our house is to make ready for Christmas by marinating vast amounts of dried fruits in alcohol overnight and making them into, puddings, cakes and mincemeat. This picture shows my willing assistant helping tie the string on eight little plum puddings, after conducting rigorous quality control procedures.
After many hours of steaming up the kitchen it’s quite difficult to say good-bye to them for several weeks, but restraint and anticipation makes the pleasure greater. The Christmas Cake is currently in the oven and probably needs another couple of hours before being cooled, wrapped needing only a few feeds of brandy before being decorated for Christmas.
I’ve already had a request for “lots and lots” of mince pies, so I’ll do my best and have completed today’s labours by potting five jars of Apricot and Ginger and four of Cranberry and Nut mincemeat. Each jar should yield a dozen pies so I wonder if I have done enough?