#mixed spice

[morethansalad]

Gingerbread Fudge Brownies (Vegan & Gluten-Free)

[askwhatsforlunch]

Apple and Nut Parcels

These Apple and Nut Parcels, filled with deliciously Autumnal flavours, make a beautifully seasonal dessert to end your Sunday Lunch. Have a good one, friends!

Ingredients (serves 3):

5 medium Ribston Pippin apples, rinsed

1 teaspoon Mixed Spice

1 1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 heaped tablespoon good Chestnut Honey

1/4 cup pecans

1/4 cup hazelnuts

6 brik pastry circle (paper thin Tunisian pastry discs resembling filo)

6 tablespoons good Chestnut Honey

Peel, core and dice Ribston Pippin apples, and place apple dices into a medium bowl. Sprinkle with Mixed Spice, tossing well to coat; set aside.

In a small saucepan, melt butter over a low flame. Once melted, remove from the heat, and stir in Chestnut Honey. Set aside.

In a small frying pan over a high flame, toast pecans and hazelnuts until just browned and fragrant. Remove from the heat and allow to cool, before chopping the nuts roughly.

Preheat oven to 180°C/°F.

Line a baking tray with baking paper. Set aside.

Lay a brik pastry circle onto your work surface. Brush generously all over with Honey butter. Lay a second brik circle on top, pressing gently.

Spoon a cup of the spiced apple dices in the centre of the pastry disc. Sprinkle with chopped pecans and walnuts, drizzle genenrously with 2 tablespoons Chestnut Honey, and wrap the pastry to form a parcel. Place it onto prepared baking tray, seam and edges down.

Repeat with remaining brik pastry circles, spiced apple dices, chopped nuts and Honey, saving a few of the chopped nuts, until you have three beautiful parcels.

Brush them with a little of the Honey butter, and place baking tray in the middle of the hot oven. Bake, at 180°C/360°F, 20 to 25 minutes, until a nice golden brown colour.

Remove from the oven, and brush parcels with remaining Honey butter.

Serve Apple and Nut Parcels hot, sprinkled with chopped pecans and hazelnuts.

[corvidconventicle]

Your seasonal spice shopping list is

allspice, anise, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, coriander seed, ginger, mace, nutmeg, and white pepper.

get the dried and ground stuff for shelf life and time saving.

tbsp = table spoon, tsp = teaspoon. A tablespoon is roughly 15 grams and a teaspoon is about 5.7 grams.

british mixed spice: 1 tbsp cinnamon, 2 tsp allspice, 2 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp cloves, 1 tsp ginger, 1 tsp coriander, .75 tsp mace

pumpkin spice blend: 3 tbsp cinnamon, 2 tsp ginger, 2 tsp nutmeg, 1.5 tsp allspice, 1.5 tsp cloves

chai spice: 4 tsp cinnamon, 3 tsp ginger, 2 tsp cardamom, 2tsp anise, 2 tsp allspice, 2 tsp cloves, a pinch of black pepper

gingerbread spice: 3 tbsp ginger, 2 tbsp cinnamon, 1.5 tsp allspice, 1.5 tsp cloves, 1 tsp anise, .75 tsp nutmeg, pinch of cardamom, pinch of white pepper

apple pie spice: 2 tbsp cinnamon, 1 tbsp nutmeg, 1.5 tsp allspice, 1.5 tsp cardamom

This is just a general base, you can and should adjust the ratios to fit your preference. Make a small batch, taste test, adjust ratio as needed and then you can make a bigger batch to get you through the months when the flavours are "unavailable."

If you're the type that feels like you need the pumpkin to be in the pumpkin spice you may actually want to stock up on some cans of pumpkin puree in coming months. Since the spice is just supposed to be what you put on pumpkin it doesn't usually include it, but Starbucks does have pumpkin in their drinks so if that's your goal you may want to procure some.

[clove-pinks]

Christmas Pudding 1.0

The pudding has been steaming for a few hours now. My wife and I took turns stirring it East to West (the journey of the Three Wise Men) while making a wish. ("I think we probably wished for the same thing," she said after).

I am using a recipe from The Daring Gourmet blog, which carefully describes each step (with pictures), and also has nuts optional, which was a must for my wife. I found that most Christmas Pudding recipes called for nuts. The link is every ad-ridden, long-winded recipe site cliché, be forewarned, but serviceable.

With the slight chaos of my life I didn't purchase any candied peel in time for Stir-up Sunday. The store didn't have it, and I didn't have time to make it. Sorry I Americanized the pudding with a substitution of sweetened dried cranberries. We don't make candied peel here, we have cranberry bogs.

Another learning experience: it takes a lot less toasted fresh bread to make two cups of crumbs than I imagined. I made the crumbs by pulsing the toast in a food processor, as the recipe instructed, and it worked wonders. I chopped up toast with a knife for the 1915 Eggs in Tomatoes and while that sufficed, it wasn't really crumbs. So help me, I am scared of the food processor and don't use it enough.

I also made the "mixed spice" (linked in the Daring Gourmet recipe), which the writers swear is some kind of very traditional and authentic British spice mix.

I really have no idea if this is an authentic British thing or not. (It's not in Captain Marryat's novels, that's for sure). The earliest reference I could find is in a very interesting 1855 book called Food and its Adulterations, that feels ahead of its time. My real Day Job is in food safety, and this book is quite similar to current guides for adulterated foods! Including the scientific investigation of samples with a microscope.

The 1855 guide to authentic mixed spice states that it "rarely" contains nutmeg or mace—two ingredients in the modern recipe I followed, along with coriander.

My new pudding mould is 2 litres (which I thought was a standard size), but it seems huge?? It just barely fits in the massive pot I use for lobscouse.

[portersposse]

Homemade British Mixed Spice

Enjoy this wonderfully aromatic and flavorful British Mixed Spice blend in a variety of both sweet and savory dishes throughout the holidays

[hoardingrecipes]

Chunky Cheese Bread

[the-little-eleven]

[imakehotchocolate]

Frothy Hot Chocolate

I got a new giant mug for Christmas and needed something to fill it up, hence the froth. I also added mixed spice to make it more Christmassy. 

350ml milk

6tsp cocoa powder

1 1/2tsp honey

1/4tsp mixed spice

After making the hot chocolate I poured 50ml of it into a jug and frothed it with a little frother thing from Ikea. I also frothed some more milk in another jug. Then I poured the non-frothed hot chocolate into the mug, followed by the frothed hot chocolate, and then spooned on the milk froth and topped with cinnamon.

Verdict - look at my polarbears. Aren't they cute? The hot chocolate was nice, but a little milkier than usual. The texture of the frothed hot chocolate was good, but tbh I could do without the milk froth. I don’t like cappuccinos either though so if you do you’d probably like this more than me.