Walnut mocha mini muffins

After discovering the joys of my new silicon mini-muffin pan when I made Christmassy mini-muffins, I couldn't wait to make some more!  This time I made double chocolate muffins with walnuts, chunks of dark chocolate and coffee.  I'm taking them to work tomorrow to help us all through an all-day meeting!

Rum and raisin mince pies

It's beginning to feel even more like Christmas...  The rum-and-raisin mincemeat was too good to wait until it's even Christmassier to use, so I made some mince pies.  I used the same pastry recipe as the one I used for my recent pecan, rum and chocolate chunk pie - it's so easy I'm not going back to shop-bought pastry!

Christmassy mini-muffins

It's beginning to feel a bit like Christmas...  These mini-muffins are full of Christmas flavours of dark chocolate, dried cranberries, rum-and-raisin mincemeat and cinnamon.  Delicious with coffee (try dunking them!)

White chocolate pomegranate flapjacks

I recently bought a pack of dried pomegranate seeds in an Asian supermarket.  They were quite sharp and crunchy, so rather than using them in cupcakes or cookies, I decided to try using them in flapjacks as an alternative to raisins or nuts.  I soaked them for a while first in some pomegranate juice and sugar to bring out the full flavour and sweeten them as they'd become quite bitter (I'm sure they're really designed to be used in Moroccan tagines and savoury dishes).  I also decided to add some sugar to the butter and syrup mix to compensate for the sharpness of the pomegranate.  They came out really well - the seeds were still quite crunchy, but the whole flapjack had a lovely fruity flavour and a gooey texture from the melted white chocolate.

Mini plum amaretto tarts

This is a really quick invention to use up some plums that needed eating and to brighten up a wintry Tuesday evening after a stressful day at work!  (It's made extra quick by the use of ready made pastry - pre-rolled is even quicker and you don't need to flour a worktop...)  We ate them with friends to celebrate Kirsty's first job as a law graduate, congratulations K!