Tag Archives: Frangipane Mince Pies

Advent Calendar – Day Eight

I’m hitting the Advent Calendar at a bit of a gallop today as I’ve just come back from my shopping trip, ugh, on a Saturday afternoon too! Still I can be consoled by my Day Eight make which I undertook last night, with our Knit and Stitch Christmas meeting in mind.

Frangipane Mince Pies! I’ve snuck a couple away for testing with a cuppa this afternoon, the rest are safely in the freezer where I can’t be tempted.

I’ve made these for several years now, and if you haven’t come across them before in the recipe section of Planet Penny they are thoroughly recommended. Instead of the traditional pastry top, which I find can often be dry and claggy, these have light almondy sponge and are very delicious and moreish. Even die hard Mince Pie Refuseniks have succumbed to these!

These are just as they are from the oven for freezing, but they look very pretty with a snowy dusting of icing sugar.

You’ll find the recipe here. Go on, you’re allowed, it’s nearly Christmas!

See you tomorrow…x

Dolly Peg Angels for Handmade Monday

Hello, and welcome to another Handmade Monday. I hope you’ve had a lovely weekend as we all rev up towards the Christmas festivities. I was very excited to find that I was able to control the weather on Planet Penny and arrange for some seasonal snow to fall!

I’ve just about reached the point of RSI on the needlefelting front now, and I’m longing to spend an evening with the hexipuffs or some crochet. I can’t believe how popular the needlefelted robin baubles have been, I think it’s the Kirsty effect! I’ve just posted the very last ones for this year on Folksy, the result of an experiment, but I really like it.

One of my fellow stall holders at the Pick’n’Mix Makers Market is Fiona Henderson of High Fibre yarns and she makes the most unusual yarns, a bit like french knitting, from lambswool, and I bought a few skeins to try out. So this is what I’ve used to make a little creamy wreath on which two teeny tiny robins can perch….

…they’ve still got the little feet that make everyone go ‘aaaah!’…

Looking at then here they look huge and a bit hairy, but in fact they’re only 2″/5cm long from beak to tail.

I also have a rather gorgeous raspberry pink yarn from High Fibre destined to be a mug hug soon, another reason to get at the knitting needles!

By way of a change, I’ve revisited the Dolly Pegs, and made a little Choir of Angels who are also listed on Folksy…

…and then decided the Dolly Peg Dolls would make a great tutorial to share, and you can find it here! I hope you enjoy it, I’d love to see your versions.

I’m off to do some baking now. We have the Christmas meeting of our Knit and Stitch group this week, and I’m using that as an excuse to get out the Frangipane Mince Pie recipe. I’ll have to get them into the freezer the minute they’ve cooled down though, they are SO more-ish I doubt there would be any left if I don’t!

Finally, thank you so much for the congratulations and nice comments about Planet Penny being on the Ch4 Favourite Craft Blogs list. I hadn’t realised before how many links there on the 4Homes website for makers and crafters, well worth a look. And of course the other place to visit today for handmade inspiration is Wendy’s Handmade Monday Linky over on 1st Unique Gifts.

I’ll leave you browse…

Have a lovely week! x

Mince Pies!

I’ve left it so late for this! Do you want to be making mince pies on Christmas Eve? Go on, you know you do… Radio 4 at 3pm…Nine Lessons and Carols and the smell of baking. The start of Christmas…

750g sweet shortcrust pastry ( I actually used 125g butter, 50g caster sugar, 250g plain flour, 1 egg yolk + 2 /3 tbsp water and it was just enough rolled out very thin!)
large jar of good mincemeat
200g unsalted butter
200g caster sugar
200g ground almonds
50g plain flour
2 large eggs
2 tbsp brandy
flaked almonds

Preheat oven to 180 deg C.
Grease three 12 hole tart tins. Roll out pastry thinly and cut 36 rounds of pastry to line tins. Leave to rest in fridge while you make the frangipagne.
Beat the butter until soft. Beat in the sugar until pale and fluffy and then beat in the eggs. Mix in the flour and ground almonds with the brandy.
Half fill the pastry cases with mincemeat and then spoon a heaped teaspoon of frangipagne over the top over each one. Smooth it over and sprinkle with flaked almonds.
Bake for about 20 – 25 mins until golden brown. Serve warm sprinkled with icing sugar.

These are light and moist and even non mince pie eaters profess to love them. I don’t know who to credit with the recipe as I picked it up last Christmas and have forgotten where, but I am happy to pass it on!