Part 4
Now
the catering was all done I could leave the kitchen (admittedly in a
dreadful state) and spend some time with our guests. We variously
enjoyed cheese and biscuits and soup and bread and other savoury
snacks as
well as some mulled wine that Matt had made (not for expectant types)
or soft drinks or tea.
And then I remembered the mince pies, or the pastry at least. I am
currently in possession of a large quantity of cooking apples so was
planning on making a mixture of mince pies, apple pies and mince meat
+ apple pies. (I
had prepared the apple earlier in the day by peeling chopping and
whizzing in the microwave for a few minutes. The
mincemeat was not home made this would just be one ask too many.)
Once
I had rolled out the pastry (by now there was a bit more space as the
chocolate on the biscuit had set and they were all stacked up) there
was a further delay in proceedings because I couldn't find my round
cutters. After emptying the baking tin cupboard (again) and finding
they weren't there I had a search through various other drawers and
cupboards. I eventually found them (I say eventually but in reality
it probably only took about 5 minutes, but it was a very frustrating
5 minutes) and used my newly discovered trick of dipping the cutter
in flour before cutting 12 pastry
discs
to fit in my fairy cake tin.
I
also cut 12 little stars to go on top of the pies.
I don't know a lot about pastry but
what I have learnt is that if you want to avoid a soggy bottom you
should blind bake. What I learnt today is that blind baking tiny
pastry cases in a fairy cake tin is not very easy. They sort of
“grew” so that there wasn't much space for the filling so I took
the executive decision to sort of reshape the partly baked cases with
a measuring spoon (it has a nice, smooth spherical aspect to it). I
added the fillings, topped with the stars, put them in the oven and
returned to spend more time with our guests (this after all was the
main aim of the day).
I had had enough of the kitchen
now so delegated to Matt the important task of taking the pies out of
the oven when they were ready. This was risky:
* Matt gets easily distracted
* The light in the oven is broken
* I think that the thermostat is not
working perfectly which might explain why the biscuits were done in
super quick (in fact quite a few things about the oven are broken, we
might get a new one depending on the financial situation in the new
year, or maybe I could get an oven manufacturer to sponsor me!)
But Matt, did a good job - they looked just
right.
Time was flying by and some of our
guests soon had to leave, but not before we had had the ceremonial
first eating of the Bûche
de
Noel. I didn't partake of
the first round but I was assured by those who did that it was very
good. I would wait until later in the evening to find out for myself.
I
did however fancy a mince pie. Unfortunately, despite careful
greasing of the tin they proved somewhat difficult to remove, but
with a bit of digging with
a teaspoon they mostly came
out in tact (thanks
again to Matt). The weird
semi blind baking / reshaping didn't seem to do too much (if any)
harm and they tasted
pretty nice. (I must say that I am start to enjoy the whole home made
pastry thing; it seems to give a bit of kudos amongst other bakers
too!) Sorry, I neglected
to take a photo but I have plenty of witnesses to attest to the mince
pies'
existence.
After
a bit more savoury snacking ('tis after all the season for my
favourite wafer and processed cheese ball shaped snack) I decided
that it was time to try the Bûche
for
myself. I wasn't disappointed and I'm not usually a big cream fan. I
had been concerned about how to store the leftovers but it didn't
seem that this was going to be much of a problem. It would certainly
be gone in another 24 hours. And
I must say that the cherries were a wise addition, it added a nice
fruity dimension.
So
after all that I had sort of achieved 50% of what I had hoped to
bake:
*
Cheese straws: none made. These would have to be done for another
occasion.
*
Mince pies: 12 made. Including some apple pies and mixed mincemeat
and apple pies.
*
Celebrity chef (the one who does all the “science”) inspired
gingerbread Christmas tree: not made. But there were a whole lot of
chocolate decorated multi-spice biscuits. The full on tree will have
to wait for
another year when I either have more time or am more organised.
*
Brandy snaps: none made. Probably no bad thing, I would probably have
made a ghastly mess.
*
Yule log: 1 Bûche
de Noel made.
Very nice it was too. So
nice I'm going to make another at my mum and dad's house, mainly
because it's the best thing I can come up with to use the other half
tin of chestnut purée. Apparently mum has the right sized swiss roll
tin so I will finally find out what one of these looks like. But I'm
going to put a bit more of my own twist on it next time so maybe it
really can be called a “bouche (mouth)
de Noel”.
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