Festive Shortbread

There is something very English (or Scottish I should say!) about shortbread at Christmas. It appears in beautiful tins and packages in every food store around this time of year but it is so easy to make yourself and so much better than anything you can buy. This recipe is from Martha Stewart. Apparently she made this at the request of Ralph Lauren many years ago as holiday gifts for his friends and he always adored eating it! If it's good enough for Ralph then it's good enough for me!

Here's the finished shortbread cooling on a wire rack.

  

My addition to the recipe is to add the seeds of one vanilla pod to the butter when it is creaming. The vanilla flavour makes them more seasonal I think.

240g of room temperature, unsalted butter is creamed for about 5 minutes, with the seeds added for the last minute. You should be able to make out the black flecks in the creamy butter here.

The dry ingredients are then added; 2 cups of flour, 1 1/4 teaspoons of salt and 3/4 cup of icing sugar, all sifted together first. Add slowly to the creamed butter with the mixer on slow speed too.

The mixture is pressed into a 10-inch, loose bottom, fluted tart pan using clingfilm until it is smooth. Chill for about 30 minutes, cut into 8 wedges, prick with a fork and bake at 150 degrees celsius for about an hour, or until the shortbread is golden brown and firm in the centre.

A video of Martha Stewart making the recipe can be found here. The shortbread will keep for a couple of weeks in an air-tight container bit it's so delicious it probably won't last that long!

Braised Red Cabbage

I could not contemplate Christmas dinner without braised red cabbage. I always make it well in advance because it freezes so well and reheats beautifully on the hob. This recipe is Nigella Lawson's and it is the first time I have made it. She loves to add pomegranate to everything at Christmas so this cabbage is braised with red onion, apples, all spice, pomegranate juice and a little red wine vinegar which was my own addition to balance out the sweetness. You can find the recipe here. The house smelt of Christmas for the 3 hours it was cooking. I popped the whole thing in the oven at just under 150 degrees celsius for just over 3 hours, stirring now and then, rather than simmering on the stove top. Either way, the first taste went down very well so I think this one should be a winner. One red cabbage will serve at least 10 people as part of a big meal, probably more, so it is also very economical. I freeze it in two batches so there is some for another meal early in the new year. I hope you give it a go!

The finished braised red cabbage after just over 3 hours in the oven.

A Christmas Outing

This Sunday we made our annual visit to Hinton Ampner, a National Trust property in Hampshire near where we live. Accompanied by friends who had never visited before we were looking forward to seeing the house decorated for the festive season and soaking up some Christmas atmosphere.

  

The house was lovingly rebuilt and restored by its owner, Ralph Dutton, after a devastating fire in 1960.

There is something beautiful about the Hampshire countryside as autumn fades into winter.

A wonderful choir sang carols on the grand staircase.

The house was decorated to reflect the song The Twelve Days of Christmas. Nine pairs of shoes represented nine ladies dancing.

Each pair contained a beautiful flower arrangement.

This stunning tree had twelve drummers drumming around the base.

Another tree, this time in the window of the dining room.

I was very taken with this impressive table setting of seven swans-a-swimming.

Exquisite flower arrangements added a very festive feeling to each room.

I like arrangements that include things you could find in the woods. They are very natural and unstructured.

By the main entrance a sparkling tree welcomed hundreds of visitors. It was a very relaxing afternoon.