Nigella Christmas: Food, Family, Friends, Festivities (25 page)

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Make the cake up to 2 weeks ahead and wrap in a double layer of greaseproof paper and then a layer of foil. Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. Decorate when needed.

FREEZE AHEAD TIP:

Make the cake and wrap as above. Freeze for up to 3 months. To thaw, unwrap the cake and thaw overnight at room temperature. Re-wrap and store as above until needed.

CHRISTMAS-SPICED CHOCOLATE CAKE

There are few more popular ways to end a dinner party than with a fallen chocolate cake – the cakes are so called because they are compact and flourless and, when cooling out of the oven, their rich centres drop and dip a little. It is into this dip, not so dramatic as to be called a crater, that you drop or scatter the sticky nut topping.

I serve this with Cointreau Cream, made simply by whisking 250ml double cream until softly whipped, whisking in about 45ml of Cointreau (or Triple sec or Grand Marnier, of course) to taste at the end.

Makes 10–12 slices

FOR THE CAKE:

150g dark chocolate, chopped

150g soft butter

6 eggs

250g sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

100g ground almonds

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

pinch of ground cloves

zest of 1 clementine/satsuma

4 teaspoons instant espresso powder

FOR THE TOPPING:

juice of zested clementine/satsuma (above)

15g butter

1 × 15ml tablespoon caster sugar

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

50g flaked almonds

• Take anything you need out of the fridge to bring it to room temperature. The only truly important thing, however, is that the eggs aren’t cold, so if they are, just put them into a bowl (I use the KitchenAid bowl I’m going to whisk them in later) and cover with warm water for 10 minutes.

• Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Butter the sides and line the bottom of a 23cm springform tin.

• Melt the chocolate and butter together in a heatproof bowl, in a microwave according to the manufacturer’s instructions, or suspended over a pan of simmering water, and set aside to cool slightly.

• Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla together until thick, pale and moussy. They should have at least doubled in volume, even tripled. If you’re using a freestanding mixer, as I do, this is effortless.

• Gently fold in the ground almonds, cinnamon, cloves, clementine/satsuma zest and espresso powder, taking care not to lose the air you have whisked in, then, finally, pour and scrape in the melted, slightly cooled, chocolate and butter, folding gently again.

• Pour into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 35–40 minutes, by which time the top of the cake should be firm, and the underneath still a bit gooey.

• Remove from the oven, and sit it on a wire rack, draped with a clean tea towel, to cool completely.

• To make the topping for the cake, put the clementine/satsuma juice into a small, preferably non-stick, frying pan with the butter, sugar and cinnamon and melt everything together, then let it sizzle for a minute or so and begin to caramelize before adding the almonds.

• Stir everything together, and occasionally tip the pan to keep it all moving; what you want is for all the liquid to disappear and the nuts to look shiny and be coated thinly in a fragrant, orange-scented toffee.

• Remove to a plate and cool.

• Unspring the cake and transfer to a cake stand or plate; I am brave enough to take it off its base sometimes, but don’t if you’re scared. Remember this cake, however intense and elegant within, has a rather ramshackle rustic appearance on the outside.

• Scatter with the almonds, mainly letting them pile up in the centre of the cake, but drop a few here and there all over the top, and serve with the Cointreau Cream if wished.

GLUTEN-FREE CAKE

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Make the chocolate cake up to 3 days ahead and store in an airtight container. Make the nut mixture and store, on baking parchment, in small airtight container or wrap in a loose “bag” of foil.

FREEZE AHEAD TIP:

Make and freeze the chocolate cake up to 1 month ahead. Thaw overnight in a cool room.

STAR-TOPPED MINCE PIES

This is the way I make my mince pies, and there is no changing me or them: they are small, to be popped straight into the mouth in one go; the pastry is plain, the better to contrast with the rich, fruited filling; and they have not full casings but little stars as lids, which makes them look beautiful and taste flutteringly light.

By all means use good shop-bought mincemeat if you want, but I’m hoping you might give my new Cranberry-Studded Mincemeat a go: it tastes both rich and boozy and fresh and fruity at the same time; and it makes for a slightly different mince pie, but in a welcome rather than challenging way.

With mince pies, I must have butter of some sort: I’ll take brandy butter (my mother’s), rum butter or a brown-sugar bourbon butter (for butter recipes). Mince pies are to be savoured – not just as one of the last truly seasonal foods in England, but also as a home-grown culinary triumph, provoking one delighted Frenchman to exclaim in a letter, as quoted proudly by Agnes Jekyll in her Kitchen Essays: “ce que j’adore dans la cuisine anglaise ce sont vos petits mince-pi”.

Makes 36

240g plain flour

60g vegetable shortening, such as Trex

60g cold butter

juice of 1 orange

pinch of salt

approx. 350g mincemeat

icing sugar for dusting

• Get out a tray of miniature tart tins, each indent 4.5cm in diameter, along with a 5.5cm fluted, round biscuit cutter and a 4cm star cutter.

• Measure the flour into a shallow bowl or dish and, with a teaspoon, dollop little mounds of vegetable shortening into the bowl, add the butter, diced small, shake to cover it, then put in the freezer for 20 minutes. This is what will make the pastry so tender and flaky later.

• Mix together the orange juice and salt in a separate, small bowl, cover and leave in the fridge to chill.

• After the 20 minutes, empty the flour and fat into the bowl of your food processor and blitz until you’ve got a pale pile of porridge-like crumbs. Pour the salted juice down the funnel, pulsing until it looks as if the dough is about to cohere; you want to stop just before it does (even if some orange juice is left). If all your juice is used up and you need more liquid, add some iced water.

• If you prefer to use a freestanding mixer to make the pastry, cut the fats into the flour with the flat paddle, leaving the bowl in the fridge to chill down for the 20-minute flour-and-fat-freezer session. Add liquid as above. I often find the pastry uses more liquid in the mixer than the processor.

• Turn the mixture out of the processor or mixing bowl onto a pastry board or work surface and, using your hands, combine to a dough. Then form into 3 discs (you’ll need to make these in 3 batches, unless you’ve got enough tart tins to make all 36 pies at once).

• Wrap each disc in clingfilm and put in the fridge to rest for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7.

• Roll out the discs, one at a time, as thinly as you can without exaggerating; in other words, you want a light pastry case, but one sturdy enough to support the dense mincemeat. This is easy-going dough, so you don’t have to pander to it: just get rolling and patch up as you need.

• Out of each rolled-out disc cut out circles a little wider than the indentations in the tart tins; I use a fluted cookie cutter for this. Press these circles gently into the moulds and dollop in a scant teaspoon of mincemeat.

• Then cut out your stars with your little star cutter – re-rolling the pastry as necessary – and place the tops lightly on the mincemeat.

• Put in the oven and bake for 10–15 minutes: keep an eye on them as they really don’t take long and ovens do vary.

• Remove from the oven, prising out the little pies straight away and letting the empty tin cool down before you start putting in the pastry for the next batch. Carry on until they’re all done.

• Dust over some icing sugar by pushing it through a tea strainer, and serve the pies with one of my butter recipes.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Make the mince pies up to 1 week ahead and leave to cool. Store in an airtight container layered up between sheets of greaseproof paper. Pop into a warm oven for 3–4 minutes before serving, dusted with icing sugar.

FREEZE AHEAD TIP:

Make and pack the pies as above and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight on a cooling rack and reheat as above.

CRANBERRY-STUDDED MINCEMEAT

I used to be old-school about mincemeat, preferring the sort that is really no more than dried fruits stirred up with some brandy, grated apple and suet and stuffed into a jar. It’s certainly easy, since no cooking is involved, but Hettie (who’s had more than a walk-on part in every one of my books since How to Eat ), introduced me to the notion of a suet-free mincemeat, a recipe I used gratefully in How to be a Domestic Goddess, and which I’ve adapted here to make it garnet-glinting and tartly fruity with cranberries.

I know this doesn’t make a huge amount, but it is enough to fill a good 50 of my little mince pies. It also happens to be the work – if you call tipping things into a pan and then scraping them out again, work – of moments, so if you need more (and it would be beautiful, in a jar, as a present), it’s not going to take much out of you.

I love the louche, old-fashioned mixture of port and brandy (which used to be administered to children for tummy aches) but if you wish to be a little more austere, replace the ruby port with cranberry juice and add another 2 heaped teaspoons to the amount of brown sugar below.

Makes approx. 600ml – enough for 50 mince pies

60ml ruby port

75g soft dark brown sugar

300g cranberries

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon ground cloves

75g currants

75g raisins

30g dried cranberries

finely grated zest and juice of 1 clementine/satsuma

25ml brandy

1/8 teaspoon or a few drops almond extract

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 × 15ml tablespoons honey

• In a large saucepan, dissolve the sugar in the ruby port over a gentle heat.

• Add the cranberries to the saucepan.

• Then add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves, with the currants, raisins and dried cranberries and the zest and juice of the clementines.

• Simmer for 20 minutes or until everything looks pulpy and has absorbed most of the liquid in the pan. You may need to squish the cranberries a little with the back of a wooden spoon to incorporate them.

• Take off the heat and, when it has cooled a little, stir in the brandy, almond and vanilla extracts and honey and beat once more, vociferously, with your wooden spoon to encourage it to turn into a berry-beaded paste.

• Spoon the mincemeat into sterilized jars.

NOTE:

If you want to revert to a more traditional, still suet-free, mincemeat, replace the fresh cranberries with a small grated cooking apple and take out the dried cranberries, adding 15g each of currants and raisins.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Make the mincemeat and spoon into sterilized jars. Seal with jam pot covers or a lid and store in a very cool, dry place for up to 1 month. (An extra splash of brandy on top at this stage helps prevent the mincemeat from going mouldy.)

Note: if using cranberry juice in place of port, store the mincemeat in the fridge for up to 10 days.

FREEZE AHEAD TIP:

Make the mincemeat and spoon into a freezer-proof container or sealable bags. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight at room temperature and use immediately.

RUM AND BRANDY BUTTERS

I veer between using rum and brandy to flavour this butter, but it remains, essentially, my mother’s version, which has – unusually, I’ve learnt – ground almonds in with the sugar, giving it a gorgeous, grainy, marzipanny richness.

Makes approx. 400ml

225g icing sugar

150g soft butter

50g ground almonds

3 × 15ml tablespoons good dark rum or best brandy, or to taste

• The easiest way to make this is with a processor. It means you don’t need to sieve the sugar: simply put the icing sugar in the processor and process to get rid of lumps.

• Add the butter and process again to mix well, then scrape down the sides and add the ground almonds and process again.

• Now, with the motor running, gradually add the liquer down the funnel, tasting as you go. You may find one spoonful is all you want; you may find that the suggested 3 is far from enough.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Make the butter, cover tightly and keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

FREEZE AHEAD TIP:

Spoon the butter into a freezer-proof container or wrap in foil and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge and use within 1 week.

BOURBON BUTTER

I don’t think I’ve come out of my bourbon phase; it doesn’t look as if I’m going to any time soon, either. Still, consider yourself the beneficiary: this is lush.

Makes 300ml

100g very soft butter

200g soft light brown sugar

2–3 × 15ml tablespoons bourbon, or to taste

• Cream the butter and sugar either using an electric mixer, a processor or simply by hand. Don’t worry if it looks grainy; the liquor will make it all cohere.

• Gradually add the bourbon, depending on how much of a hit you want this to have.

YULE LOG

A traditional French bûche de Noël always looks just the right side of cutely enchanting, and there is nothing hard to like about its tender, melting chocolatiness. But I warm to it most of all for the rich pagan symbolism: it is no less than a cake-emulation of the log that the Norsemen would drag home through the streets to burn in celebration of the winter solstice and to honour the gods and hope, thus, to cajole from them a good year to come. But always, too, it is about bringing fire and light to cold and darkness; this, too, is the gift of the winter kitchen.

I know the recipe looks finicky, and I can’t promise it’s a doddle, but it works easily and you will soon find you are rolling chocolate logs without a care. In fact, if you have a lot of people coming round, and you can find a serving dish or board long enough, it might be worth making 2 cakes and sitting them end to end, to look like a really long log. But even if you’re making just one log, I advise at least a freestanding mixer or a hand-held electric whisk: I wouldn’t contemplate this by hand.