Mincemeat (To fill 5-6 Jars)

Core the apples and place them in a lidded dish. Bake for 1 hour or until soft in an oven heated to 200°C/400°F.

Squeeze all the pulp from the apple skins into a large bowl. Add the lemon juice and zest, then stir in the rest of the ingredients.

Cover the mince and leave it in a cool place for a couple of days. Give it an occasional stir. Fill the mincemeat into sterilised pots or jars, taking care to remove any air bubbles.

Seal and store in the larder. It will improve with age. Wait 2 months before eating it.

Mince Pies

Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Butter the tray. Roll out a piece of pastry on a floured surface until it is quite thin.

Using a cutter, cut out rounds and push the pastry lightly into the moulds. Leave in the fridge to set.

For the crème d’amande, beat the butter in a Kitchen Aid or Kenwood until very soft.  Keep the mixer beating and add the sugar and then the ground almonds.

Add the flour, then the egg and finally the alcohol.  Transfer the crème to a small bowl and place in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Remove the tray and the crème from the fridge. Half fill the pastry cases with mincemeat using a spoon then cover with crème d’amande using another spoon or piping bag if you prefer.  Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 25 minutes until golden brown.

Remove from the moulds and leave to cool. These can be frozen between layers of greaseproof paper in a Tupperware box until Christmas.  Defrost at room temperature or for a few minutes in a warm oven.  Serve immediately.

Sweet Pastry

Break your 2 eggs into a small bowl, Separate the remaining egg, add the yolk to your two eggs and retain the white if you wish. Put the flour and salt into a mixing bowl.

Put the cold butter between two pieces of greaseproof paper or butter wrappers, then bash it firmly with a rolling pin.

The idea is to soften it while still keeping it cold. Put the whole slab into the bowl of flour – there is no need to chop it up.

Cover the butter well with flour and tear it into large pieces.

Now it’s time to flake the flour and butter together – this is where you want a really light touch. With both hands, scoop up the flour-covered butter and flick your thumbs over the surface, pushing away from you, as if you are dealing a pack of cards.

You need just a soft, skimming motion – no pressing or squeezing – and the butter will quickly start to break into smaller pieces. Keep plunging your hands into the bowl, and continue with the light flicking action, making sure all the pieces of butter remain coated with flour so they don’t become sticky.

The important thing now is to stop mixing when the shards of butter are the size of your little fingernail. There is an idea that you have to keep rubbing in the butter until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs, but you don’t need to take it that far. Add the sugar at this point, mixing it in evenly.

Tip the eggs and extra yolk, into the flour mixture and mix together with a plastic scraper, scrape around the sides of the bowl and pull the mixture into the centre until it forms a very rough dough that shouldn’t be at all sticky.

While it is still in the bowl, press down on the dough with both thumbs, then turn the dough clockwise a few degrees and press down and turn again. Repeat this a few times.

With the help of your spoon or scraper, turn the pastry onto a work surface.

Work the dough as you did when it was in the bowl: holding the dough with both hands, press down gently with your thumbs, then turn the dough clockwise a few degrees, press down with your thumbs again and turn. Repeat this about four or five times in all.

Now fold the pastry over itself and press down with your fingertips. Provided the dough isn’t sticky, you shouldn’t need to flour the surface, but if you do, make sure you give it only a really light dusting, not handfuls, as this extra flour will all go into your pastry and make it heavier.

Repeat the folding and pressing down with your fingertips a couple of times until the dough is like plasticine, and looks homogeneous.

Lightly roll the pastry into a disc and then flour it a little. Wrap in greaseproof paper and rest it in the fridge.

Note: the dough can be kept for up to 10 days in the fridge or a few weeks in the freezer.