My First Mince Pie

There are 9 days left for me to eat my way through London, and it's all in a whirlwind of papers, Christmas shopping, and soaking up every bit of this wonderful city. This is my excuse for the lack of posts, but expect plenty as Christmas draws closer as I have photos and cooking projects galore.

The end of November was also a lot of work, including finishing my 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo. It was a fun nerve-wracking mess, which included a lot of self-motivation with cakes and goodies. That often meant trips to Sainsbury's for goodies, which led to buying Mince Pie due to my friend Nicole being sad that I had never had it. So we grabbed whipping cream, two kinds of pies, and ran to write and eat pies.

Let me preface this to say that I didn't know mince pie was not a meat pie until recently. I thought all the uniquely British pies were meat pies or similar to Mrs. Lovett's (except not with human, I hope). This is why I was particularly excited by the puffy pastry that greeted me in one of our packs. Although not the traditional Mince Pie, with it's crunchy and more pie-like exterior, I think this is my favorite. It was sweet, comforting, and melded perfectly with our home-made whipped creme. I love the flaky layers especially. When you cut through you get flakes of light buttery pastry and then inside is a rich, flavorful filling made of raisins and fruits and spices. I wish I knew exactly what was in the ones we had, since it appears they're all a bit different. The core idea is that it's fruity (with wintery fruits) and mixed with spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. It was Christmasy and wonderful. The smell is especially nice of the cinnamon and raisins all mixed together.

I also tried the more traditional mince pie, which you can get in all shapes and designs and has a much more traditional pie crust. It was still extremely delicious, but didn't have the same flake to it that I loved of the pastry crust. While still delicious mince inside, it had more of a crunch to it. While probably delicious and much more typical in the Christmas spirit, I have to admit I love buttery, flaky, pastry crusts above any crunchy pie crust you give me.

I'm extremely tempted to bring Mince back home to make mince pie, or at least bring some cheap boxes back. It was extremely Christmasy in tradition and made me ready for everything Christmas. Let me know your favorite traditional Christmas food and I'll start up a collection.

- Mollie

Salisbury Sweets

As a weekend combo, my trip to Stonehenge was complimented by a quick ride to Salisbury to see Salisbury Cathedral, which holds one of the original copies of the Magna Carta, and the rest of the medieval town.

Of course this trip involved shopping, exploring the cobblestone streets, spending time in a pub and finding ourselves at a small strip of shops where a quilt shop sat across from a small bakery. We went into the quilt shop to hunt out blankets to protect us from the absolutely freezing dorm rooms, but couldn't help smell the delicious baked goods only a few feet away. A few other people stepped out holding warm pastries and breads. There was no way we could pass this up. Even if we ended up running to catch our coach home, we were determined to grab a treat for the ride home.

And thank god we were so determined. The bakery was, for one, adorable. In addition, their baked goods were cheaper than most in London and there was a selection that I had never even heard of. In fact, I just kept pointing and asking "what's that?". I doubt the lady enjoyed my poking and prodding the glass in front of all of her sweets, but I couldn't help myself. There were cinnamon rolls, croissants, danishes, iced buns, donuts, muffins and bits with glaze and cherries and fruits that I didn't even know what to call them.

The bakery is called Reeve The Baker and apparently isn't the only one. It looked like a cozy, family owned place, but we saw another smaller one on our way to the coach. They have them in quite a few towns, but boast using local ingredients, being health conscious and freshly baked. I was impressed by the local charm and care, despite their being a queue out the door.

 After poking, prodding and asking about most of the sweets I saw, I decided to get a Belgian Bun. I barely knew what this meant, but when I saw this beauty sitting there, glazed, cherry on top, swirled like a cinnamon roll, I felt my sweet tooth chime out in joy. There were raisins throughout the flaky soft pastry, with a sweet glaze and a cherry on top. I couldn't get over the fact that in each of the cinnamon-roll-style swirls there was a cherry. It was a cute touch that gave that bite something special. The glaze was also a great combination of being sweet, creamy and almost like a frosting on top of the lighter pastry.
As much as I wanted to savor this and make it last to the next day, I couldn't. I ate it all up that night.

Now if only I could compare a Belgian Bun in Belgian. That or I'll have to find a closer Reeve the Baker to London so I can get my hands on some more new treats to try.


- Mollie