"Pecan Shorties"

On my day off last week, the weather was horrendous and the last thing I wanted to do was leave the house. So instead, I got in the kitchen and made these beauties! These are a lovely take on classic shortbread, with crunchy pecans in every bite and rich dark chocolate coated on one side. 

I got the recipe from The Great British Bake off: Big Book of Baking. This is the first recipe I have made from this book and I love that there are so few ingredients, it's perfect for when you want to throw something together with what's in the cupboard. This recipe makes 20 shorties.

Ingredients:

• 75g pecan halves
• 250g plain flour
• 175g unsalted butter, softened
• 85g icing sugar, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 100g dark chocolate, chopped

Method:

1. Heat the oven the 180℃/350°F/gas 4. Tip the pecans into a small baking tray and toast in the heated oven for 5-7 minutes until slightly coloured. Leave to cool, then roughly chop. Mix with the flour in a large mixing bowl. 
2. Put the soft butter in another mixing bowl (or the bowl of a free-standing electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment). Beat with a wooden spoon (or the mixer) until the butter is as smooth and creamy as mayonnaise. 
3. Beat in the icing sugar a tablespoon at a time (use the lowest speed of the mixer). Once all the sugar has been worked in, add the vanilla and beat well for a couple of minutes until the mixture becomes almost white in colour, and light and fluffy in texture (about a minute in the mixer). Add the flour and nut mixture and stir in with a wooden spoon or plastic spatula to make a firm dough. 
4. Line a large baking tray with some greaseproof paper. Divide the dough into 20 even sized pieces. Lightly flour your hands and roll each piece into a ball. Set the balls on the lined baking tray, spacing them apart to allow for spreading. Gently squash each ball with your fingers to make a disc about 1cm thick.
5. Bake in the heated oven for 14-16 minutes until pale gold in colour with slightly darker edges, rotating the baking tray halfway through so the shortbreads bake evenly. Once removed from the oven, set the baking tray on a heatproof surface to allow the shortbreads to firm up for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. 
6. Once the biscuits are cold, gently melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of steaming hot water. Remove the bowl from the pan and stir the chocolate until smooth. 
7. Hold one shortbread horizontally by the sides and dip the biscuit base first into the melted chocolate, so the chocolate comes about half way up the sides. Lay the shortie chocolate side up on the greaseproof paper. Repeat with the rest of the shortbreads, then leave to set. 

These biscuits last about 3-4 days in an air tight container (if you can resist them for that long). Enjoy!

Scotch Eggs

Scotch Eggs

Scotch eggs are so so much better when homemade. I seriously recommend that you try making them, you'll never go back! This recipe is from Jamie Oliver's website >>> Scotch Eggs 

If you don't have a cooking thermometer (which I don't) then don't worry. All I did was get the oil super hot, use a slotted spoon to carefully lower the scotch eggs into the oil and watch them very carefully. As soon as they look golden brown and crispy, which took mine just a few seconds, take them back out of the oil with the slotted spoon and place them on a baking tray. Then bake them in the oven at 180 degrees for about 15-20 minutes to cook the meat thoroughly.

Mince Pies

I have absolutely no idea why this is the first year I've made mince pies. There's something so lovely and festive about making mince pies from scratch. They're so easy to make there really is no reason for not making your own! 

 Another great thing about making them yourself is that you can tweak the ingredients and the recipe to suit yourself; for example I added a handful of chopped walnuts to this batch to give them a little crunch and they're so good. This is a recipe by the very talented Paul Hollywood which you can find here. >>> Mince Pie Recipe 

This is such a lovely recipe I barely changed anything. The only tweaks I made was the handful of chopped walnuts as I mentioned earlier, I also chose to half the clementine wedges as I prefer them to be smaller so as to not take up too much room inside the pie. I couldn't find the little foil bun cases that are usually used for mince pies so I just improvised by lining the baking tray with tin foil and it worked just fine, adds a little character. My family and I absolutely loved these mince pies and they were such a pleasure to make, I'll definitely be digging out the recipe next Christmas :)