Its payday week! I don’t know about you lot but i am living on credit right now, i have a job that sadly pays early at Christmas which meant an extra week or so of eking out the last few pennies.
Too add to the horror the fridge freezer packed up a few weeks ago and decided that everything needed a layer of ice on it, which then melted, which then left all the food under a layer of water. Luckily the landlord was willing to replace it but it meant clearing out the freezer compartment and finding room in the “big freezer” for it all. I have a glut of apples that i have had in there since the Autumn and sadly they had to go. I defrosted them overnight and set to work thinking about what i could do with them. I also had a liter of homemade fruit mince meat that didn’t make it into mince pies that was clogging up the cupboard.
As i had the day off i thought i would go for two bakes, an apple and mincemeat bundt cake, thanks to Nigella i expect a lot of you rushed out and bought a tin, and apple and mincemeat parcels. Both recipes are very easy to do though folding the parcel takes a degree of skill i do not yet possess. I only went to origami club once but as long as you don’t leave any holes, any way you fold these is fine! Also if you don’t have a bundt tin you can do this in a deep cake tin too.
The bundt cake is very much a coffee cake, its dense but light, it would benefit from an icing on top if you so wish, plain glace is what i used but it didn’t really show up for the photos.
Apple and mincemeat bundt cake
You will need
- 260g Plain flour
- 110g brown sugar
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. bicarb of soda
- 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp.ground cloves
- 2 cooking apples, peeled, corded and diced
- 2 beaten eggs
- 80ml Apple sauce/ Apple butter
- 240ml mincemeat
- 3tbls melted butter
Oven to preheat at 170c.
First grease your tin, i always use either sprayed on oil or butter then coat in a very thin layer of flour. Add your dry ingredients together and in a separate bowl mix the wet and the chopped apples. Add the wet to the dry and gentle mix until all incorporated. Bake in the oven for around 40 mins, use a tooth pick or similar to check its cooked all the way thorough. Once removed let the cake cook in the pan then delicately turn out onto a cooling rack. Once cooled feel free to add icing as detailed above.
Apple and mincemeat parcels
You will need
- One large cooking apple and one med eating apple peeled, cored and chopped
- 240ml mincemeat
- Packet of frozen filo pastry
Preheat oven to 200c
In pan add your apple and mincemeat and cook it down until your apples are soft. Drain off the liquid and keep. Leave the mix to cool.
Take the filo pastry and cut the sheet into three equal bits. With a pastry brush, brush the liquid onto the sheet. Place a small amount of the mixture at the top of the strip place about a tablespoon of the mixture and fold over. Then fold the filled pastry from left to right to create a triangle. With a second strip again brush with the liquid and fold into triangles. Its ok if the shape isn’t quite there, as long as you make sure all the holes are covered up they will cook fine.
Brush the tops and scatter with brown sugar. Bake for around 15 minutes until the pastry is crispy.
Dust with icing sugar and serve
Bedsit Bonne Vivante 