Busy Year-End

A busy, but productive couple of days!

We went out to the garden centre, to take advantage of the post-Christmas sale. No plants (no beds), but some Christmas sundries that were reduced.

Once home, we've been Making. As with many other things, sloe gin/blackberry brandy were delayed from the autumn: we collected the fruit in mid-September, but had to freeze it. We changed the recipes for them, using 340 g of fruit (instead of 225 g), and 110 g of sugar, to 750 ml of spirits. The sloes were noticeably easier to prick, having been frozen, which may be a tip to remember. Last year, we made the gin straight after picking the fruit. As normal, the gin and brandy have both begun taking on the colour of the fruit, and (with regular shaking for the next month or so) they should be ready to bottle in about March.

In The Times' cooking section a week (or so) ago, there was a recipe for lebkuchen. I really like these German gingerbread biscuits, but—despite trying about five recipes—I've never found one that quite replicates the taste of biscuits bought from Germany. Accordingly, I was honour-bound to try this one. Result: a credible biscuit. Still not perfect, sadly, but very good. I shall, when time permits, note the recipe.

Lastly, we made about six pounds of mincemeat, in a display of extravagant organization. It will now have twelve months to mature! It started yesterday, with mixing the ingredients: they then mellow over-night, and we cooked it this afternoon in the slow cooker for about six hours. The alternative was in the oven for three, but the slow cooker seemed more appropriate (and is very abstemious with electricity use: about 0.1 kW, compared to the oven's 3.5 kW). It looks, smells, and tastes delightful, and I'm already looking forward to the mincepies. I finished it off (once cooled) with last year's blackberry brandy. As I said above, when I can, I'll note the recipe: we actually have several, courtesy of our National Trust preserves book, but this was actually from another book. Experimentation, perhaps, next year. The apples were from the hill side, so there'll be plenty more next autumn.