Christmas Cakes

1. Stage

Prepare the necessary products. Wash the dried fruit thoroughly, dry it well on a towel. Measure the spices. Prepare the almonds (I have almond petals, but for myself I decided that next time I will pre-mill the almonds, as in the original).

2. Stage

Grate the zest of 1/4 lemon and 1/4 orange. Squeeze the juice out of them. Mix with cognac and spices. Add dried dried fruit, candied fruit and almonds. Add the butter (in the original it is internal fat, but where to get it for a city dweller? so I replaced it with vegetable oil).

3. Stage

Stir everything thoroughly. Stir a few more times within an hour to better combine all the ingredients.

4. Stage

This mass is placed in a clean glass dish, cover with parchment and a tight lid. The mixture should be placed in a clean glass dish, covered with parchment and covered with a tight lid.

5. Stage

On the day when it is time to bake patties, knead the dough from the listed ingredients, if the dough turned out steep - add a couple of tbsp. of cold water, so that the dough was soft and well rolled out.

6. Stage

After kneading the dough, wrap it in clingfilm and put it in the cold for 1 hour. And take the mixture in the cherished jar out of the fridge, grind (necessarily!) with a meat grinder or blender. Wash a medium-sized apple and cut it into small cubes or grate it on a coarse grater, and combine it with the dried fruit mixture.

7. Stage

Divide the cooled dough into two parts. Roll out into a thin layer.

8. Stage

I purposely took a photo with a rolling pin, so that it was obvious how much the dough increased when rolling it out. The dough was 2-3 mm thick. I rolled out the dough without a dusting of flour, the dough slid on the tabletop beautifully. The dough is very delicate, sandy. It is better to roll in one direction, not as for dumplings.

9. Stage

Divide the sheet of dough into pieces, the number of which will depend on the size of your muffin molds. I used 7 for large muffins. And regular silicone molds - 10 pieces. If all the muffins were in muffin molds, the number would be 25 pieces. You choose the size. It is better, of course, in small ones, for two bites (to stretch the pleasure). Sliced squares of dough I lifted from the table with a wide spatula, as the dough is thin and delicate. Spread the pieces on the forms, in the center of each stuffing 1 tsp. The edges of the top not pinching, and overlap (you just need to cover the stuffing). Lightly pressing them, fix. You can cut out the base in rounds, and then roll the scraps again, cut out the lids. It doesn't change the flavor. The options are up to you.

10. Stage

Send to a preheated oven at 170ºC. Bake depending on the power of your oven, on average 30 minutes. The patties should have a creamy color. After the oven, cool them down and powder with powdered sugar. Do the same with the second part of the dough.

11. Stage

When the patties are ready, you can either pack them in a nice box, a few at a time, or in a clear box like this, each pie separately. I think both options are nice. The main thing is that the taste of these patties will not leave you indifferent!