Chocolate oat cookies

A fruity oat cookie which is easy to make and loved by all - they don't last long in our house. At Christmas time, I make them with dried cranberries and white chocolate chips and gift them to friends and family. As an alternative, you can use raisins or dried apricots or leave the fruit out completely.

140g plain flour

½tsp baking powder

½tsp salt

75g oats

125g butter, softened

75g dark brown sugar

100g caster sugar

1 egg, beaten

½tsp vanilla extract

100g dark or white chocolate chips

100g raisins, dried apricots or dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 180ºC.

Line 2 baking sheets with greaseproof paper.

Measure out the flour, baking powder, salt and oats. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugars together, beat in the egg and vanilla extract and then add the flour mixture, mixing well.

Stir in the dried fruit and chocolate chips and put the bowl into the fridge for about 20 minutes. This will allow the mixture to firm up and make the next bit less messy.

Take the bowl out of the fridge and using the palm of your hands, roll teaspoons of the dough into a ball. Place onto the baking sheet, press down lightly with a fork and pop them into the oven for about 10 minutes. When they're lightly browned, take them out and leave on the trays for about 5 minutes before putting onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Christmas mincemeat

Here’s a recipe for old fashioned mincemeat (essential for your mince pies) which I discovered in my mother’s book. It includes carrots - a sign of the times perhaps - which do give it a certain sweetness but if you’re at all worried, fresh cranberries are a good alternative (if you can get them early enough).

Mincemeat is very easy to make (though I’m not sure my mother ever did!) and simply involves putting all the ingredients into a bowl to let it infuse for a couple of days. Then it goes into a low oven for a few hours, before allowing it to cool and adding the brandy. I’ve halved the recipe and adapted the spices slightly.

225g cooking apples - peeled, cored and grated

110g carrots - peeled and grated

225g sultanas

225g raisins

225g currants

225g soft brown sugar

225g shredded suet

110g candied peel

3 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp allspice

1 tsp nutmeg

zest and juice of 1 orange

zest and juice of 1 lemon

4 tablespoons of brandy

Put all the ingredients, except for the brandy, into a large ceramic bowl, give it a good stir and cover with a clean tea towel.

Leave in a cool place for a couple of days, stirring occasionally.

When you're ready to cook it, preheat the oven to 120ºC, cover the bowl with tin foil and place in the oven for 4 hours.

... and enjoy the smell of Christmas in the kitchen!

When the time is up, remove the bowl from the oven and allow to cool completely. Give it a stir every now and then so the melted suet coats all the fruits and when completely cool, stir in the brandy. Pack it into your sterilised jars and label. This amount of mincemeat makes 4-5 jars which will keep for up to a year.

For information on how to sterilise the jars, read my post on 'all you need to know about making jam'.

If you don’t have the time to make your own mincemeat, a jar of store-bought mincemeat can be enhanced with the addition of grated apple, lemon and orange zest and, of course, brandy.

Christmas Cake

The smell of Christmas comes early in our house when cake, mincemeat and pudding are all made in advance, ready for the big day. This is my grandmother's recipe, a moist cake filled with dried fruits, almonds, cherries and citrus fruit. Tradition dictates that it should be made at least six weeks before Christmas to allow the flavours to mature, and once cooked it should be regularly 'fed' with brandy to keep it moist!

225g butter

225g caster sugar

340g plain flour

6 eggs

450g currants

225g large raisins

225g sultanas

100g lemon zest

50g mixed peel

100g glace cherries

100g almonds

50g ground almonds

½tsp ground cloves

½tsp ground cinnamon

½tsp ground ginger

I have substituted lemon zest for ‘lemon peel’ and mixed peel for ‘citron peel’. I have also included the option of using spices.

You can also make your own candied peel - instructions given here.

I used a 23cm diameter springform cake tin which was perfect for the amount of ingredients shown.

Note, this cake is alcohol free, so if you want a boozy version, soak the dried fruit overnight in about 100ml of good brandy.

First of all, prepare your cake tin. Cut two circles of greaseproof paper to fit the bottom. For the sides, measure around the tin and cut a length of greaseproof paper to fit, allowing about 10cm extra height. This is important to stop the cake from ‘scorching’ while it cooks. Fold up 2cm and snip at intervals up to the fold. Put around the inside of the tin (the cut edge onto the base) and put your circles in. Then wrap the outside with a double layer of brown paper (again 10cm higher than the rim of the tin) and tie it with string.

Preheat the oven to 150ºC.

Measure out the flour and add the spices. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Then beat in the lemon zest and mixed peel. Add the eggs, one at a time, alternating with a couple of tablespoons of the flour mixture. Then mix in the fruit (soaked or otherwise), almonds, cherries, and the remainder of the flour mixture.

Put into the prepared tin and bake for 3-3½ hours or until a skewer comes out clean. I checked after 3 hours and it was ready. Remove from the oven, pour a little more brandy over the top and wrap the whole thing tightly in a double layer of tin foil. When it's completely cool, unwrap, take the cake out of the tin and remove the greaseproof paper. Then rewrap it in a double layer of tin foil and place it in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.

Drizzle the cake with extra brandy during the storage time to keep it moist - my mother used to store her cake upside down and every week or so, she would unwrap it, poke a skewer into the base of the cake a few times, spoon brandy over it and wrap it up again. This made sure the top of the cake was kept moist.

Instructions for making your own marzipan to cover your cake are given here.

And to finish off, take a look at my grandmother's royal icing recipe.