Christmas Office Treat!

We love having a treat or two in the office and now its the season when we can indulge!

Follow Jamie Olivers easy recipe and wow your colleagues with these unusual mince pies!

ingredients

• 100g/3½oz good-quality mincemeat
• 25g/¾ oz dried cranberries or blueberries, chopped
• zest of 2 clementines
• a splash of sherry or brandy
• flour, to dust
• 250g/8oz good puff pastry
• 1 pack filo pastry
• 50g/1¾ oz melted butter
• 1 free-range or organic egg, beaten
• 50g/1¾ oz flaked almonds
icing sugar, to dust

method

It really wouldn't be Christmas without being offered a mince pie, would it? I decided to do a bit of reinventing on the classic mince pie, so in this recipe I’m using a combination of puff and filo pastry, both of which you can buy ready-made in the shops for extra convenience.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400ºF/gas 6. Scoop the mincemeat into a mixing bowl and mix in the dried berries, the clementine zest and the sherry or brandy.

Dust a clean work surface with flour and roll out the puff pastry into a big rectangle about 20x40cm/8x16 inch and the thickness of a pound coin. Thinly spread the mincemeat over the pastry, leaving a 1cm/½ inch gap around the edges. Tightly roll up the pastry, lengthways, like a Swiss roll, place it on a floured tray, and pop in the fridge to firm up.

Take two cupcake trays (for 12 cupcakes each) and butter each one lightly with the melted butter. Place one layer of filo pastry over the tray (you may need more than one sheet to cover each tray depending on the size of the sheets) and ease the pastry into each hole. Brush with the melted butter, then cover with a second layer of filo pastry. Brush with butter again.

Take the puff pastry roll out of the fridge and, with a sharp knife, cut it into 24 slices. Place each slice, flat-side down, into a filo-lined hole. Brush with the egg and sprinkle a few flaked almonds on top of each little pie, then pop both trays in the oven for about 25 minutes, until cooked and golden brown.

Leave to cool, then crack the individual pies out of the trays. Dust with a little icing sugar before serving.

Light-emitting wallpaper is here!

An enterprising young designer from the Netherlands has invented what has to be the ultimate in home illumination – light emitting wallpaper.

The luminescent wallpaper is the brainchild of Jonas Samson, who designed and submitted it as part of his final-year postgraduate degree.

Explanation

So how does it work? Well, speaking exclusively to TechRadar, Samson explained that the wallpaper actually uses existing technology, but applies it in a different way:

"The base material is made from a commercially available product that’s manufactured by a number of companies. What I have done, though, is to apply that technology in a different way."

Delving deeper, Samson revealed that the wallpaper is constructed by "sandwiching" a number of layers together that combine to produce light:

"The back layer is a silver-based solution that conducts electricity, while the layer above this contains phosphorous pigments that light up. On top of this is a flexible, transparent ITO conductor layer, with regular wallpaper placed on top to act as the final, outwardly visual layer," he explained.

Off the wall

The result, when it’s switched on, is a visually stunning wall-of-light that can be turned off and on, just like a regular light.

Although Samson first revealed his creation to the public last year, this year’s upcoming Salone Internazionale del Mobile interior design show in Milan, where he is exhibiting, looks set to make his creation a must-have for those who can afford it.