Boxing Day and Mincemeat Palmiers

 

On Boxing Day (December 26th for all you Americans) we always tend to chill out. I spent the morning in my jammies starting to look at our wedding plans. I even pulled out our sofa bed so I could get the proper lounging facilities!!

In the evening we went out with a group of friends to celebrate the birthday of Nathan's club captain. It was a great chance to see everyone after a crazy December and a lot of people I hadn't seen since we had got back from holiday. It was a late night but we had spent most of the day chilling out.

 

 Nathan made us some bloody marys with special Christmas stirrers in the morning of Boxing Day.

 

French toast and Bacon for Breakfast- just because we hadn't eaten enough the day before! 

We then made a recipe I had seen on Gordon Ramsay's F word. It was really tasty and really easy to make.

  

  The mixture that we made worked for 2 puff pastry rolls.

  

I didn't butter the baking tray and regreted it as the mixture didn't stay contained within the pastry and ran everywhere... so make sure you grease the tin before you lay the pastries down.

 

My first attempt wasn't amazingly successful although the next batch (not photographed) were better. They did however taste AMAZING!

Gordon Ramsay's Mincemeat Palmiers

Makes approx 12

Ingredients

• 375g rolled puff pastry

For the Christmas mincemeat:

• 1 crisp apple e.g. Pink Lady
• 1 unwaxed lemon, zest and juice
• 1 small orange, zest and juice
• 250g raisins (or golden sultanas)
• 110g dried apricots, finely chopped
• 175g soft dark brown sugar
• 50g flaked almonds
• ½ tsp ground allspice
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon

• 100g salted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 tbsp brandy
• 2 tbsp dark rum

• Icing sugar to dust

Method: How to make mincemeat palmiers

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/Gas 5.
2. Grate the apple and put into a large mixing bowl, and the zest and juice of the lemon and orange then add the remaining ingredients.
3. Pour the melted butter over the mincemeat and mix together, then add the brandy and rum. The mixture gets better the longer you leave it in the fridge, but will be ready to use after 30 minutes.
4. When your mixture is ready to use, lay the rolled puff pastry flatly on a clean surface. Add a thin layer of the mincemeat onto the pastry, dust with icing sugar and roll the pastry from the both ends to make two concentric circles that meet in the middle. As you look at the end of the two rolls of pastry you should be able to see the layers of pastry and mincemeat.
5. Place in the freezer to set for at least 30 minutes and slice into 1cm thick slices, dust with icing sugar and place onto a buttered baking tray and bake in a hot oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and crisp. Remove from the oven then dust with more icing sugar, allow to cool then serve.