Sharon Kendrick | Indulgent Mince Pies for a Christmas Conquest

THE SHEIKH'S CHRISTMAS CONQUEST opens in snowy England at Christmas time, so I’m sharing with you my all time favorite mince-pie recipe. The pies have orange pastry and are topped with cream cheese. They are super-indulgent and completely irresistible and I defy you to stop at one! It’s a famous English recipe from the celebrated cookery writer Josceline Dimbleby. They are best eaten accompanied by a cup of tea or a glass of mulled wine, preferably in front of a roaring log fire while outside fat white flakes of snow tumble to the ground. Carols are optional...

Indulgent Mince Pies with Orange Pastry*

Ingredients

For the pastry
- 500g strong plain white flour
- 175g icing or caster sugar
- 375g butter
- the finely grated rind and juice of 1 large orange

For the pie filling
- 250g cream cheese or mascarpone
- 25g golden caster sugar
- 500-625g good quality mincemeat
- the grated rind and juice of 2 lemons
- milk to glaze
- caster sugar

Make the pastry first. Sift the flour and sugar into a mixing bowl. Cut the butter into small pieces, stir these into the flour and rub lightly with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the orange rind. Using a knife, stir in the orange juice until the dough just begins to stick together. Gather up the dough into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 minutes before using.

Put the cream cheese and caster sugar into a bowl and beat until smooth. Knead the pastry lightly and roll out about three quarters fairly thickly. Using a 7.5cm diameter pastry cutter cut out 24 rounds, re-rolling the pastry as necessary. Butter two sheets of patty tins and line them with the pastry rounds. Spoon the mincemeat into a bowl and stir in the lemon rind and juice. Fill the lined patty tins to about half their depth with mincemeat, then put a teaspoonful of the cream cheese mixture on top and spread level. Roll out the remaining pastry and using a star-shaped pastry cutter cut out 24 stars. Place the stars on top of each mince pie. Pre-heat the oven to 220C/gas mark 7.

Brush the tops of the pies with a little milk and bake in the centre of the oven for 15-20 minutes until light golden-brown. Let the pies cool down before easing them from the tins gently with a round-bladed knife. Serve warm (they can be reheated), or at room temperature. Before serving, sprinkle with caster or icing sugar.

Rum butter with citrus zest

Ingredients
- 225g unsalted butter
- 160g light muscovado sugar
- the finely grated rind of one lemon and one orange
- 4-5 tbsp dark rum

Put the butter, sugar and citrus rinds into a food processor and whiz until smooth and soft. Add the rum gradually as you whiz. Keep in the fridge but take out and leave at room temperature at least an hour before you serve the Christmas pudding.

* Recipe by Josceline Dimbleby

About Sharon Kendrick

Sharon Kendrick has been writing stories for as long as she can remember and completed her first book at the age of 11! It featured identical twins fighting evil at their boarding school, but — sadly — this early manuscript has been lost.

Sharon wanted to be a journalist and so enrolled in a secretarial course to learn shorthand and typing, but life kind of got in the way and she drifted in and out of a succession of jobs. She has been a waitress, a cook, a dancer, and a photographer. She has worked in shops and sung in bars. Sharon even qualified as a nurse and drove an ambulance across the Australian desert!

When she settled down and married her dashing doctor, she decided life was not a rehearsal and that if she wanted to write a book, she’d just have to sit down and do it. Not easy with a lively toddler and a six-month-old baby while living in a tiny apartment. But she did it, and Nurse in the Outback was born, and accepted by Mills & Boon without any changes.

Since then Sharon has gone on to write many books for Mills & Boon and they have been published worldwide. She adores writing romance and considers herself lucky to have the best job in the world! It is a fantastic way to spend a day — inventing gorgeous heroes and complex, interesting women and charting all the ups and downs, the highs and lows of their relationships until they are really ready to let love into their hearts.

Sharon intends to carry on writing forever — and why not? For what greater pleasure could be gained than when a reader writes to tell you that you moved her to laughter and tears?

What Sharon values most is feedback from readers — a letter about a book makes it all worthwhile — and she loves to hear from the people she is writing for. Alternatively, if a reader tells her what they don’t like reading, then that is enormously useful, as well.

Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Blog

About THE SHEIKH'S CHRISTMAS CONQUEST

Summoned by the sheikh!

Sheikh Saladin Al Mektala isn't used to being disobeyed. Incomprehensibly, the woman he summoned to help his favorite mare—the best horse "whisperer" in the world—turned his generous offer down! So he takes matters into his own hands.

The snow is falling, the fire is roaring and the mince pies are in the oven when innocent Olivia Miller finds a darkly handsome and physically compelling man on her doorstep… The sheikh she dared to refuse is here to whisk her off to his kingdom—and this time he won't take no for an answer!

A passionate read for Christmas nights!