Mince Pies.

Oh mince pies, you are delicious. Forever the taste of Christmas and something I didn't like when I was younger but thankfully my tastes changed! Thousands of mince pies pulled fresh from the oven when I worked at a bakery, dusted with icing sugar and perfectly scrumptious, a memory I savour. Sadly, mince pies seem to be non-existent in this corner of the world. So I made some! Hooray, Christmas is saved!

Before this venture, I'd never made pastry before. I found this recipe for super, SUPER easy puff pastry and while I tweaked it a smidge, it worked perfectly. I used regular butter rather than European high-quality stuff and it came out quite nicely. I also decided to make pastry, which really adores being cold, on an almost 70-degree day. 70 degrees in December! Bonkers! Despite the warmth, it worked!

Rolling and folding the pastry is pretty theraputic. It starts off all crumbly and sticky and it all comes together so very nicely, uniform and square. Before I started rolling, I remembered I didn't have a rolling pin. Oops. One of Vi's tall bottles did the trick!

Once the pastry had chilled for several hours, I gave it another roll and used a glass to cut out circles. Yep, I don't have any cookie cutters either. Woefully underprepared to make mince pies! I bought my mincemeat, which I should mention isn't actually meat but a mixture of fruits and spices, at Walmart and plopped a dollop in the middle of each. I'd planned on making little parcels but open-topped pies were easier!

After about twenty minutes in a 350 F oven, the smell of warm, allspice-y fruity goodness wafting through the apartment, these little beauties had puffed up nicely and were ready for noshing! Well, after a little bit of cooling down and a generous splash of heavy cream!

Utterly delicious! I'll definitely be making another batch this Christmas, as well as some mince pie cookies (the jar of mincemeat is ginormous!). What festive favourites make it feel like Christmas for you?

Love, K.