Happy Christmas to all our blog followers and we both hope that you have had a wonderful, relaxing and stress-free festive season. We know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, and can be very difficult for many, but hopefully everything went as well as you could have hoped for or expected. We rather enjoy having a quiet Christmas, seeing a few friends but not creating too much work for ourselves. However, this is the first year of living in Spain that we have really missed having the children for the Christmas period. Normally, we visit the UK early in January for a sort of second Christmas, but it is not the same. By way of recompense, we do have a week of skiing with the children to look forward to in February, so we will have to be patient.

Christmas, for us, is a great time for food and we both love spending time in the kitchen listening to classical Christmas playlists from my old radio programme and knocking up some tasty titbits as if we had 30 people to feed when, in fact, it is just us; who’s counting?

For the past couple of years, we have been asked by a number of people to either share our recipe for sausage rolls or, even better, send a parcel of sausage rolls. So, this year, we thought we’d give a little Christmas present (generous!) and share three recipes that we used this Christmas season. Don’t let that limit you, though, as you can cook and eat these whenever you fancy. And we have the oft-dreaded New Year’s Eve to get through, so these might be a good way of eating your way through the evening of 31st December and into a new decade…

Sausage Rolls - Christmas Day Picnic

Of course, the gin and tonic is optional…

Once you use Delia Smith’s recipe for her Quick Flaky Pastry, you will never, ever want another sausage roll wrapped in claggy puff pastry. I absolutely hate those grim sausage rolls that pass as a ‘cocktail snack’ so often found in supermarkets in packs of 48, suggesting (erroneously) a Christmas of fun and frolics. Pallid sausage meat, pale pastry and absolutely no flavour. These sausage rolls are crisp and packed with flavour, they keep well and crisp up easily with a little warming just before serving, and are equally delicious cold.

We had a few of these on our traditional Christmas Day picnic, high on a mountain on a warm day surrounded by breathtaking scenery and complete silence.

Delia’s Quick Flaky Pastry ingredients

225g plain flour
175g ice-cold butter
Pinch of salt
Cold water

Method

Measure out the block of butter, wrap it in foul and put it in the freezer for half an hour, as it needs to be rock hard.

Place the flour and a pinch of salt in a wide mixing bowl and when the butter is rock hard you simply grate the butter into the flour. Dip the block into the flour every now and again and gently move the grated butter around the flour with a fork just to separate any clumps. It may seem like a huge mountain of butter when you have finished, but just keep moving the butter gratings in the flour so they get evenly coated. This is why the butter needs to be rock hard.

Make a well in the centre of the butter and flour mix and then start to add cold water. Using a knife, start to bring the mix together without using your hands. Once the mix begins to come together, use your hands to gather everything up into a ball. Be careful not to add too much water.

Wrap the pastry in cling film and keep it in the fridge until you are ready to use it. You can make it well in advance.

Ian’s sausage-meat filling ingredients

I have variations on this recipe, sometimes using Moroccan seasoning like Harissa or Ras el Hanout, and you can be as brave as you like. This is my more Andalucian version!

475g good quality sausage meat
90g finely chopped jamón (or you can use smoked bacon)
40g finely chopped chorizo
30g dried sun-dried tomatoes
100g grated hard manchego cheese (you want a cheese that doesn’t melt too easily)
1 medium onion, grated
A sprinkle of dried mixed herbs
Beaten egg for brushing

Method

Soak the sun-dried tomatoes in boiling water to rehydrate them and then drain and chop into small pieces.

In a frying pan, gently toss and heat through the jamón and chorizo. Leave to cool.

Put the sausage meat in a large bowl and season well with salt and pepper. Grate in the onion, then add the cooked jamón and chorizo and the sun-dried tomatoes and, finally, the cheese. Add the sprinkle of herbs and then get your hand in and squish all the ingredients together to blend them well.

On a very well floured surface, roll out the pastry thinly and then cut it into strips around 12cms wide. Square off the ends.

Grab handfuls of sausage filling and roll it in your hands before laying evenly along the length of the pastry strip. Brush one of the long edges with beaten egg and then gently bring up the un-brushed edge over the sausage filling using the blade of a knife. Bring up the brushed edge and join the two edges well to prevent any leaking. Roll the entire roll over so that the join is at the bottom on the floured surface. Cut the roll into lengths of around 6cms, depending on how large you want your finished sausage rolls to be. Place then on baking parchment on a large oven tray. Using scissors, snip two little cuts in the top of each sausage roll and then brush them all with beaten egg.

Bake in a hot oven (pre-heated to 220C) for around 20 - 25 minutes, until they are crisp and golden brown. A fair amount of fat will escape the rolls during the baking, but don’t worry. When you take them out of the oven, just remove the sausage rolls from the tray and place on a cooling rack.

You can make the sausage rolls in advance and freeze them uncooked, then just take out as many as you fancy to bake.

Christmassy Fruit Pies - Christmas Eve Present Wrapping

Mincemeat is not commonplace here in Spain and, unless it is particularly good, I have to say that I am not a massive fan anyway. Traditionally, suet is added to mincemeat and that is another ingredient that is not easy to come by, and neither of us fancy trotting off to the supermarkets that stock UK products.

So, we have come up with an alternative using ingredients that are easily found here in Spain and elsewhere.

The almond pastry recipe comes from ‘The Great British Book of Baking’ and it is absolutely perfect for these little fruit pies, as it is flavoursome, light and crumbly.

Almond Pastry ingredients

225g plain flour
Pinch of salt
50g ground almonds
85g sugar (icing or caster), but I generally use a little less than this
175g butter, chilled and cut into cubes
1 egg yolk.

Now, there is no doubt that having a food processor makes the creation of pastry an absolute doddle, but if you don’t have a food processor then there is no option but to blend the butter into the flour using the age-old technique of rubbing the butter into the flour until you have what looks like fine breadcrumbs. Then, mix in the sugar and almonds and stir with a metal spoon until well incorporated. If you do have a food processor, then blitz the flour, sugar, almonds and butter until you have fine breadcrumbs.

Add the egg yolk and blitz again until the mix starts to come together. I then transfer this to a bowl and use my hand to form a ball of pastry. If there is a lot of dry mix that won’t come together, add a drop of water until it all comes together. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge until you are ready to use it. This can be made in advance, but best to remove it from the fridge 15 minutes or so before you need to roll it out.

Christmassy Fruit Filling

This is a bit of an adaptation of my strudel stuffing, and it fills the house with a Christmassy scent and tastes delicious!

Ingredients

2 large firm apples (Royal Gala or Pink Lady), cored, peeled and chopped into small chunks
100g dried cranberries
100g sultanas
1 cinnamon stick
3 or 4 star anise
4 tbsp Pedro Ximénez (sweetest of the sherries)
4 tbsp brown sugar
Juice and zest of half a lemon
3 tbsp orange juice
30g flaked almonds
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Place the dried cranberries, sultanas, cinnamon stick, star anise, Pedro Ximénez, orange juice, lemon juice and lemon zest into a medium-sized saucepan. Bring it to a gentle simmer, and allow it to simmer for 5 - 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. This will plump up the dried fruits with the lovely Pedro Ximénez and juice, all flavoured with Christmassy cinnamon and star anise.

Once this mix has cooled, remove the cinnamon stick and star anise.

Peel, core and chop the apples and then add to the pan of cranberries and sultanas. Sprinkle over the brown sugar and the ground cinnamon and heat through again. Simmer gently until the apple chunks begin to soften. If the pan begins to dry out, you can add another drop of orange juice or Pedro Ximénez, just to keep everything moist.

When the apple has softened remove the pan from the heat and add the almond flakes. Leave to cool.

Use a baking tin for shallow, small pies, normally around 12 hollows for the pies. Grease lightly with butter.

Roll out the pastry thinly and then, using a pastry cutter that is wider than the width of the pie hollows, cut out the pie bases. Gently press the pastry into the tin. Using a teaspoon, fill each pastry base generously with fruit mix.

Bring your pastry together again into a ball, roll out and then cut smaller circles for the pie lids. Prick each lid with a fork and then lay the lids on the fruit filling and press down gently.

Place in a pre-heated oven (180C) and bake for around 20 - 25 minutes until the pies start to turn golden brown. Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool a little in the tray before moving them to a cooling rack. The pastry is very light and crumbly and if you try to move them when they are still hot, they may break apart!

Dust with icing sugar before serving. These are delicious with thick double cream or brandy butter, and are perfect with a cup of tea while wrapping Christmas Presents on Christmas Eve.

Boxing Day Scotch Pancakes

If you have guests on Boxing Day, as we did, then these simple and delicious drop-scones are the perfect addition to the breakfast table.

Very easy to make, and the batter can be kept in the fridge for a day or two so you can conjure up a little, light pancake whenever you fancy!

Ingredients

220g Self Raising Flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
50g sugar (or a little less, as I prefer)
2 large eggs
280ml milk

Measure out the flour, baking powder, sugar and pinch of salt into a bowl, create a well and then crack the eggs into the well. Pour in a drop of the milk and start to whisk using an electric or hand whisk. Gradually keep adding the milk until it has all been incorporated and whisk well until you have a lovely, smooth batter.

Keep the batter in the fridge until you want to make your pancakes.

Pour a drop of sunflower oil into a large frying pan and brush the surface of the pan with the oil using a pastry brush. You want the pan to be fairly hot, but not smoking, then pour in small circles of batter, spaced well apart. Allow for around 3 pancakes at a time. The batter will begin the bubble, and when the bubbles start to pop turn each pancake over using a spatula.

Remove the batch from the pan into a dish and cover with a cloth while you cook another batch. Make as many as you need and then refrigerate the remaining batter for the next time…It can certainly be used for 2 or 3 breakfasts (or just the one jf you have a large family!). These little pancakes, or drop scones, are yummy with butter and honey, or fresh blueberries.

So, there are three little recipes that could see you through any family gathering or picnic. Let us know if you try any of them and what you think!

In the meantime, may we wish you all a very Healthy and Happy New Year!