The offical online newsletter of the Parish of St. Brelade, Jersey
by Tony Bellows
Patricia Bougeard is the Lay Reader for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Jersey, attached to St Aubin on the Hill Church. Pat's seasonal variation is a must try! Takes 30 mins to prepare and cooking time is 10 to 12 mins.
Equipment:
You will need: Pastry brush and damp cloth to cover the filo pastry in between making crackers
Ingredients
2 pkts readymade Filo pastry
125g Jersey unsalted butter, melted;
6 Large Bramley apples, peeled, cored and each apple cut into 6 pieces
250g Mincemeat
2 teaspoons mixed spice
1 tablespoon water
3 teaspoons icing sugar, sifted.
Method
1. Heat the oven to 200 C / Gas 6. Cook the Apples with 1 tablespoon water, mincemeat and mixed spice on a low heat for 10 minutes until the apples begin to soften but not break up. Take off the heat.
2. Unwrap the Filo pastry and then cut the sheets in half, stacking them up ready to be used; put the damp cloth over them to stop them drying out.
3. Take a sheet of filo pastry (making sure you cover the others in the damp cloth) in half to make double-layered squares and brush a little of the melted butter around the edges to make a 5cm (2 in) border.
4. Spoon 1 tablespoon of mincemeat and apple mixture along one half of each pastry square, stopping about 2.5cm (1 in) short of the ends. Then roll each up loosely to form a sausage shape and put it, seam side down, on a non-stick baking sheet. Pinch in both ends then fan out the edges to form a cracker shape. Brush with melted butter and carry on until you have used up all the filo pastry and apple mixture.
5. Bake them for 10 to 12 minutes until they are golden brown. Leave the crackers to cool slightly before carefully removing them from the baking sheet.
6. Dust the crackers with icing sugar and serve them warm, accompanied either by Cream or Vanilla Ice-cream and maybe some Jersey Salted Caramel Sauce too!
You can add a handful of chopped walnuts or pecan nuts to the mixture and even some dried cranberries or apricots for a Christmassy taste, or serve with brandy cream.
