Christmas finger foods you say?

Feast your eyes on these that my sister makes from scratch...

Taking the 'finger' bit a touch on the literal side...

Penis in the hole, a favourite of mine.

During my classical chef training we made lots of vol au vents after making puff pastry from scratch.
I cant remember ever filling them though!
And I can concur that silican moulds don't cook your pastry as quickly as good old fashioned metal tins, because I tested it out like for like last night.

In your opinion will the silicone ones do the job for the pork pie pastry, even if it takes a little longer, because silicone is what I have and deep metal pie tins is what I don't have !

Of course they will.
It's just a difference in thermal conductivity.
The metal ones will transfer the heat faster.
They will both get equally as hot given the time.
Yours should take little bit longer that's all.

But you want that heat to be conducted quickly.

If you want a crunchy outside you certainly do.
Having googled it, I think JC will get pork pies but they wouldn't be as good.
So your original doubt is probably quite correct.
Probably ok for sponge buns and the like only.
We will await the outcome.

Actually, having just gone back to my Hairy Bikers recipe (why did I read the Paul Hollywood one), you don't need a tin to mould them with anyway, they might slump down a bit but thats all part of the non-conforming person I am.

Hairy Bikers it is then - this weekend will tell.

sacre bleu John, quelle catastrophe !

next thing you be telling me petit fours are an endangered species !

rest assured vol au vents are alive and kicking in la France

Mine certainly did. For which she should be banned from ever setting foot in a kitchen again. I also found her grilling parsnips once...

I had two warm pork pies for my breakfast this morning from Burchall's in St. Helens. Beautiful.

My old lady used to put the veg on to boil at the same time as the joint went in the oven. There was no need to mash anything, it was all boiled to a puree that resembled Gerber baby food. It wasn't too bad if carrots or swede were on the menu because you could then see that one pile of mush had a slightly orange or yellow tinge from the other pile with a green tinge. The only thing on the plate that required any chewing was the gravy

After I got to be old enough to go to pubs on a Sunday lunch then I never tasted a sunday lunch that wasn't solidified through lack of moisture with burnt bits around the edge of the plate and on the tips of everything that stuck above the lake of gravy that my mother thought I loved.

Me, my brother and my dad would all go out for a sunday lunch pint and as you only had two hours worth of boozing in those days you had to stock up before last orders and try and string out the last pint a bit - why the hell my mother insisted on having all the plates on the table for 2pm when she knew we'd never get home before 2.30 I just don't know.

The three of us also ran a book on who would get the string on their plate if it was a rolled joint like pork or beef, for some reason she never thought to remove the butchers string from anything and would just carve it and serve it up on the plate - barmy my mother was, I blame the Irish.