Day 273 - September 30th

I was reminiscing the other day to a friend about how when I was child my grandparents lived next door to us and every day, no matter what they were doing, at 11 o clock in the morning my grandparents would stop for elevenses. My Nan would always produce two tins of home baked goodies - one tin of cakes and one of pastries (jam tarts, mince pies, almond slices....). When ever it was the school holidays I too would join in this daily ritual and turn up on their door step at 11 o clock. It got me thinking about how whenever I decide to bake, I only ever bake cakes. Seldom do I make pastries so today I put that to right and made some Apricot Jam Slices. I had intended to make Mincemeat Slices but the jar of mincemeat in the cupboard left over form last Christmas went out of date in February and our local shop only stocks mincemeat at Christmas! So I used apricot jam instead.



Anyone whose interested here's the recipe:

Ingredients
225 g (8 oz) Self Raising Flour
pinch salt
50 g (2 oz) lard
50 g (2 oz) margarine
50 g (2 oz) caster sugar
1 medium egg, beaten
3 x 15 ml spoon (3 tbsp) milk
jam or mincemeat
caster sugar for dredging

1 Heat oven to 180ºC, 350ºF, Gas Mark 4. Grease a baking tray.
2 Mix flour and salt together. Rub in the fats and stir in the sugar.
3 Mix to a stiff dough with the beaten egg, add a little milk if necessary.
4 Divide the dough in half and roll both out thinly to the same size rectangle.
5 Place one piece on a baking tray, spread over jam or mincemeat
6 Place the other piece on top and pinch the edges together. Brush with milk and dredge with sugar.
7 Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
8 When cool, cut into squares or triangles.

The pastry isn't the easiest to work with but is quite forgiving.