Mumsnet Talk

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the gf pastry recipe ! I am very excited to give it a go

oh splendid, I'll mark my place.

I am a total baking dunce novice with a DP who loves a mince pie. The daft bugger was already stocking up during the September heatwave

I am determined to give them a go this year. Better buy a rolling pin, my usual tactic of using a wine bottle isn't going to cut it, right?

ooh, I have a question. In DH's country (Czech rep) they have a light sweet fruited bread called vanocka. have you ever made one? I need to find a recipe in english, as DH is impossible at translating recipes for me!

And do you have a good stollen recipe? I'm a sucker for sweetened breads

Oh, fab.

I took part in the previous webchats, and they were fun.

Oh, and a suet free mincemeat recipe. That is great, as I don't think I can buy suet here.

Oooh, just this week my 5 year old and I made your soda bread recipe. It is brilliant, especially when you stir in a bottle of Theakston's Old Peculier! Thank you for a much-loved (and scoffed!) recipe.

Hi Dan. If I say so myself, I make a lovely pastry (similar to yours - pâté suplé?). But two of my dc are dairy intolerant, so I can't make it with butter. I haven't found any vegetable fat that gives the same result, particularly for flavour. As a result, for the past few years I haven't bothered, just used bought pastry. But it bugs me! I want to use decent pastry, not just for mince pies, but for savoury baking, too.

So what is the best butter-replacement, and should I use a different recipe?

I keep glancing up and seeing webchat Def Leppard and getting really giddy
sorry, I'll leave you all to your mince pies now

prettycandles my DS has a milk allergy, I have found vitalite dairy free is the most buttery. I put a pinch of salt in, and roll it quite thin.

I will be there with my daughter and the kids!
I love mince pies, usually wait until 1st Dec for my first but as I am poorly with a virus I might go and have a dig in the cupboard for a jar of mincemeat and make myself a treat
See you all there, rolling pins at the ready

Just had a look at your mincemeat recipe Dan- there seems to be quite a bit of brandy in it (not complaining). Is it supposed to have just one amount?

Also, can this mincemeat just be put in to a container and frozen or is it better in jars?

I didn't understand this web chat and then realized it wasn't mince pies with Def Lepard

Thought it was with Def Leppard too

When ever I have made mince pies the mincemeat has bubbled up, overflowed and welded some of them to the tin. Am I just overfilling them?

Thank you!

Hello Dan.
What's the best way to make mince pies in advance for freezing & serving later. And how best to reheat from frozen?
Thanks.

Hi Dan. Sorry, will be at work on the day, but for your pastry, do you use block butter, or can I use good quality spreadable, and will it be as good if I bung it in carefully make it in my food mixer?

Hello,
I'd like to make sausage rolls, cheese rolls (and also sweet rolls eg chocolate/mince meat) at home, with a less fatty pastry/more of a dough type outer.

Have you tried anything like that? Ideally I'd like to be able to use if for the kids' snacks during Christmas, but if I find something that works it could replace the more costly and fatty pain au chocolat's and sausage rolls I they love to scoff frequently in packed lunches etc.

thank you!

Hi Dan, I can't join at the time, so here's my q.

Is there really a difference between using your hands and a food processor for the pastry making? I use a food processor and the pastry is always light and crumbly.

Hi Dan.
I love cooking/baking but don't have a sweet tooth.
Could you recommend me a nice festive savoury baking recipe?

Hi Dan.

Big fan here.

If you were of a mind to make a snazzy mince pie, the sort of mince pie that you would hope someone to mouth the words "wow, what is in this mince pie?" at you with the pointy finger from across a crowded Christmas drinks party, What would you do?

Would you bugger about with alter the mincemeat, or the pastry, or both?

Savoury recipes here too. DD is a fussy little bugger, she was very disappointed to have her first mince pie and find it full of fruit. She thought it would be something similar to a steak bake.
What can I make for her to take to school for their party. Something cheesy would be good, meat is permissible (no known vegetarians) but she'll leave it against a radiator and it will become rank.
Thanks.

Ooh dear dan it's so nice to have a chef or do you call yr self a cook? Who actually recognises that a lot of us don't want to (or can't) eat wheat!! I'm not a coeliac but I cook without wheat all the time; I use a mix of Kamut and Spelt for my bread and chestnut and rice flour for my cakes etc.

My question is that I don't use butter or marg either I use olive oil or almond oil.It's easy in my one saucepan cakes but in pastry it's more difficult have you any surefire ways of making good pastry with my non mainstream ingredients?

Hi Dan - my mother loves mince pies but has recently been diagnosed with Diabetes. I have been trying to find a good low carbs mince pie (or good alternative) recipe with no luck - do you have any suggestions please? I would love to be able to treat her at Christmas

Oh hurrah, another Dan-along! I love his webchats.

Just wanted to say how much I love the new book. It's great to see a baking book with a few different things in it. And I have now braved caramel making for the first time. My teeth have not thanked me for the treacle creme fraiche caramels.

Not sure if I'll be around tomorrow but will catch up with the thread later.