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 :)