Delicious (and easy) Mince Pies

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without homemade mince pies. This, however, is a proper cheats version. You can of course make your own mincemeat, but for speed and simplicity we use shop bought with a few extras to stir through to make the flavours sing. Ingredients unsalted butter , for greasing 375 g ready rolled shortcrust pastry plain flour , for dusting 200 g quality mincemeat 1 splash of brandy ½ an eating apple 2 balls of stem ginger 50 g dried apricots 75 g dried cranberries 1-2 pinches of mixed spice 1 large free-range egg 1 tablespoon semi-skimmed milk icing…

Plate of iced biscuits with Winter Rabbit apron

Iced Snowflake & Star Biscuits

Transform your kitchen into a Winter Wonderland. Bake a flurry of snowflake biscuits for a tasty Christmas gift. They’re great to make and decorate with kids, too. Ingredients 200g unsalted butter , softened 200g golden caster sugar 1 large egg ½ tsp vanilla extract 400g plain flour , plus extra 500g pack ready-to-roll fondant icing honey , for sticking you will also need snowflake and star cookie cutters Method Heat your oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Put the butter in a bowl and beat it with electric beaters until soft and creamy. Beat in the sugar, then the egg and vanilla, and…