You’ve barely cleared the table of the leftovers from last week’s Thanksgiving meal, and it’s already time to start thinking about preparations for the next big culinary endeavor — Christmas! When it comes to desserts though, the “big three” will surely return to the menu.
MINCEMEAT TARTS
Makes 12 tarts
Mincemeat, a mixture of chopped dried fruits, spices, and spirits, was developed more than 500 years ago in England as a way of preserving meat without salting or smoking and was esteemed as holiday fare there during the era of Henry VII, who proclaimed Christmas a day of feasting. When there was no longer any need to preserve meat with honey or spices, the meat in mincemeat was eliminated and replaced with fruit like apples and Seville oranges. In Elizabethan England, huge mince pies were made during the Twelve Days of Christmas, and later smaller versions emerged. Along with Christmas pudding and fruitcake, mincemeat has been the standard-bearer of traditional Christmas desserts in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere for centuries. This recipe for these little tarts uses prepared mincemeat (look for Crosse and Blackwell or Chivers brands) for convenience.
For the pastry
2 cups flour
1/2 cup ground almonds
5 ounces chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Grated zest of 1 orange
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon ice water
For the filling
1 cup homemade or prepared mincemeat
1 large egg white, beaten
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
1. Combine flour, almonds, butter, zest and sugar in a food processor. Pulse 8 to 10 times, or until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add egg yolk and water; process for 20 to 30 seconds, or until dough comes together.
2. Form dough into a ball and then flatten into a disk. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Dust a work surface with flour. Return dough to floured surface; roll out to a 1/8-inch-thick round. With a 3-inch cookie cutter, cut out 12 rounds. 4. Put rounds into cups of a standard cupcake pan. Reroll scraps; with a star shaped cookie cutter, cut out 12 small stars.
5. Spoon mincemeat into pastry shells; top each with a star. Brush stars and tart edges with egg white.
6. Bake for 28 to 30 minutes, or until pastry is golden and filling is bubbling. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool for about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar before serving.
CHRISTMAS PUDDING
Serves 10 to 12
The original “figgy pudding,” created sometime in the 1400s, was a dish of dried figs, dates, raisins and spices boiled in almond milk. Also called “plum pudding” — even though it contains no plums whatsoever — this steamed or boiled pudding was first recorded as “Christmas Pudding” in 1858 in a novel by British author Anthony Trollope. Curiously, plum pudding was a latecomer to Ireland, but it caught on quickly and today it’s one of the best loved Christmas desserts. Serve the puddings with Brandy Butter.
1 cup sultanas (golden raisins)
1 cup currants
1/4 cup chopped dried figs
1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
1/4 cup candied cherries, halved
1/4 cup mixed candied peel
1/3 cup brandy or dark rum
Juice and grated zest of 1 orange
4 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
3 large eggs, beaten
1/4 cup chopped stem ginger
1 apple, peeled, cored, and grated
1 1/4 cups flour
1 cup fresh white breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon Mixed Spice or pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1. In a large bowl, combine sultanas, currants, figs, apricots, cherries and mixed peel. Add brandy or rum, orange zest and juice; cover, and let stand at room temperature overnight.
2. Coat a 6-cup pudding mold or deep, heatproof bowl with butter flavored cooking spray; place a round of wax paper on bottom. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy; gradually beat in eggs. Stir in soaked fruits, ginger, apple, flour, breadcrumbs, Mixed Spice and cinnamon.
3. Spoon mixture into prepared mold; smooth top. Cover with a double piece of buttered wax paper and a double piece of aluminum foil. Fold together to make a pleat in center (to allow pudding to expand). Tie paper and foil in place with kitchen twine.
4. Place mold or dish into a large saucepan or Dutch oven fitted with a rack or put a folded kitchen towel on bottom of the pot (to prevent direct contact with bottom of pot). Add enough hot water to pot to come halfway up sides of mold or dish.
5. Cover and steam on medium-low heat for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, or until a skewer inserted into center comes out clean. (Check water level once or twice during cooking; add more water when necessary.)
6. With oven mitts to protect your hands, carefully remove pudding from saucepan. Remove foil and parchment; run a metal spatula around sides to loosen. Place a serving plate over mold and invert pudding; let cool for about 15 minutes. Slice and serve warm with Brandy Butter.
7. If not serving immediately, let pudding cool completely cool. Wrap in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil. Refrigerate pudding for up to 1 week or freeze. To reheat, return pudding to mold, cover with wax paper or foil; steam for 1 hour, as above, or until heated through. (Thaw frozen pudding before reheating as above.)
Mother’s White Fruitcake
Makes 1 loaf
Fruitcakes have been around for centuries. As early as the 1400s, prized dried fruits and nuts were traded westward to England where they were baked into cakes for special occasions, particularly Christmas, and plum or “figgy” pudding (a steamed fruitcake) was popular during Shakespeare’s time. It was the practice of English nobles during the Dickens era to feed carolers with a slice of figgy pudding, which probably accounts for how fruitcake came to be so intertwined with Christmas in both England and Ireland. The tradition was brought to America by the colonists in the years before the Revolution, and by the late 1800s, giving a fruitcake in a decorated tin was a firmly established holiday gift. This non-traditional “white” fruitcake was a favorite in my family, especially for those who preferred a lighter, more-cake-than-fruit holiday sweet with no spices and no alcohol. I like to bake it in a long (12-inch) loaf pan or in mini (5-inch) loaf pans for gift-giving (baking times need to be adjusted). Serve plain or decorated with icing and candied fruit.
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon freshly grated orange zest
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 large egg, beaten
1 cup mixed dried fruit (golden raisins, apricots, cranberries, cherries)
1/2 cup fruit and peel mix
1/2 cup pecans, roughly chopped
1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Coat a 12-inch loaf pan with no-stick baking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Stir in the orange juice, orange zest, butter, and egg; mix until blended. Stir in the dried fruit, fruit and peel, and nuts. Transfer to the prepared pan; smooth the top.
3. Bake the bread for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove from pan; let cool completely. Wrap in aluminum foil; store overnight.
Margaret Johnson’s “Recipes” page now includes “Ireland Hopping: Adventures in Food, Drink, and Travel.” For further details on her work, including how to order her cookbooks, visit irishcook.com
