Snowflake marshmallows

As you may have gathered by now I love Christmas, especially the time spent with family and friends. I have group of friends who I've been close to since I was at school and every year since we were 12 we've gone out for Christmas dinner. People have come and gone over the years, but tradition has remained. We don't all buy presents for each other, we do a secret Santa instead, but every year I make a little something. This year I decided I wanted to have a go at marshmallows as I've never made them before and I'd bought some snowflake cookie cutters which I thought would make good snowflakes marshmallows!

The hardest part was finding the ingredients. Liquid glucose can allegedly be bought from 'all good chemists' but even in London it took me about 5 chemists to track it down. One tried to fob me off with something that cost £11+ (it should be more like £1) and another with Lucozade (because that's just the same). And although leaf gelatine is now more popular they didn't have any in my sainsbury's so I had to go to waitrose. You also need a sugar thermometer and electric stand mixer or whisk.

You start by soaking 9 leaves of gelatine in 140ml of water.

Whilst it's soaking you boil the 450g sugar, 200ml water and 1 tbsp of liquid glucose in a heavy based pan until it reaches 127C keep an eye on it and any children around as it is very hot and can also go beyond the temperature very quickly and potentially burn.

Whilst the sugar is turning into a lovely syrup put 2 large egg whites in your stand mixer and whisk until they form soft peaks (as always make sure you get no yolk in the egg whites and the bowl is scrupulously clean otherwise they won't whisk up).

When the sugar reaches 127C carefully slide in the gelatine and water. It will bubble and potentially spit. 127C is very hot and syrup sticks so careful is the important word here!

Now turn the mixer down to a low speed and slowly and carefully pour the syrup onto the egg whites trying to hit the 'sweet spot', so that the syrup is landing in the little dip just in front of the whisk. When all of the syrup is a 1tbsp of vanilla extract (you could also add food colouring at this stage but I've never seen coloured snowflakes so I left it white) and turn up the speed slightly. At this point the mixture will be quite runny but if you whisk for 5-10 mins as the bowl cools the mixture will thicken and become lovely and fluffy and glossy.

Once you think it looks amazing pour it into a tin which has been greased with a slick of flavourless oil and then drenched in cornflour and icing sugar and try and get the top fairly flat. The recipe said to use a tin 30cm x 20cm but for snowflakes this left the marshmallows too thick so I used another smaller tin as well, probably about 20cm x 15cm and this was perfect.

Leave to set for at least an hour.





I found it too sticky to turn out of the tin so I actually cut the snowflakes directl out of the tin with my cutter. I found I had to be almost rough with the mixture and use my fingers to prise it from the tin. Once they are out dust them in a mixture of corn flour and icing sugar to stop them sticking. You can also dust all of the off cuts and keep them for you!

Next time I am wondering about using the magic liner or even cling film (greased and drenched still). I got there in the end though and popped them into lakeland's clear gift bags, tied with a little present ribbon and a gift tag/Christmas decoration dangling.

I also made a couple of extra bags for stockings.

Recipe taken from James Martin on the BBC website. He put a layer of raspberries in the middle which sounds very yummy.




#letsmakechristmas

Heart Christmas Decorations

I've been making Christmas decorations with my mum. Red and white hearts to be precise, very scandi Christmas! Now I know that they are very clearly not food related but try are in keeping with the #letsmakechristmas theme and they really are quite easy to make. My mum is far better at sewing than I am but even my poor needle skills can cope with these! You can also you the same method for year round hearts to dangle off drawer handles, door knobs, pins etc. You can also stuff them with a little lavender or a few drops of fragrance to make hearts to put in chest of drawers between your clothes.

You will need:
Sheets of felt in Christmassy colours (we used red and white)
Other matching fabric if desired (we used white and red gingham)
Matching ribbon (we used red)
Small buttons (we used white)
Embroidery thread in matching/contrasting colour (we used red)
Bond-a-web
Padding
Some thin card (any colour)
A pencil or pen
Pins
Needle
Scissors
An iron

Start by drawing a template of a large heart and a small heart on the card. You can do it by eye, use a cookie cutter or print a picture of a heart off the computer. I prefer the rounder hearts for this than the longer pointy ones. You could also do stars or stocking shapes or anything you fancied really but I like the hearts.

Fold your felt in half and pin the large heart template to the felt. Cut around the template through the two layers of felt so that you are cutting the front and back of your heart at the same time. This will ensure that the hearts are the same size. If you do this stage with material it is a good idea to iron some bond-a-web onto the back of the material before cutting out the heart to make it a little stiffer. As felt is quite thick there is no need to do this step for felt.






Unpin the template from your hearts and put to one side.

Take the small heart template and draw around it onto the smooth side of the bond-a-web. Roughly cut the heart out leaving a bit of a border around be edge. Place the cut out heart on a piece of contrasting felt or material. Take an iron and iron the bond-a-web to the material for about 5 seconds. Check the material is stuff to the bond-a-web. If it isn't iron for a few more seconds until it is. Now cut around the small heart you drew so that you end up with a small material heart with bond-a-web stuck to it. Peel off the white layer of paper from the bond-a-web. It can be quite tricky to find an edge but be patient and you will.






Now take your two large hearts and place the small heart in the middle of one of them. Iron it on for about 5 secs or until it sticks.

Now pin the two hearts together with the one with the small heart on at the front. Take your needle and thread your embroidery thread onto it. Either a matching or contrasting colour is best.

Starting at the top in the middle carefully sew a basic running stitch around the heart about 5mm away from the edge. Take your time with this and try and make all of the stitches the same size as they will be on show. If they look too different or scruffy simply unpick one and try it again.






Leave a gap of a couple of cm at the top of the heart.





Take small pieces of padding and gently push them into the heart through the gap you have left. Push them into all of the edges of the heart but don't over stuff it. Once you are happy sew up the gap.

Finish the heart by pushing the needle through the whole heart from the back to the front in the top centre. Thread on a length of ribbon folded into a hook and a button. Sew the button and ribbon onto the heart (pushing the needle all of the way through the heart each time). Try to keep the holes of the button lined up horizontally so it is neat. Finish sewing the button on by ending up with the needle at the back of the heart and tie off your thread.






You can either use these as decorations for your tree or tie them to a long length of ribbon or rope to make a garland. Enjoy!

Here are the finished results:

I'm sorry about the photo being the wrong way around but it is the right way on my laptop and no matter what I do it seems to turn around again when I upload it here

A round up of #letsmakechristmas

Over the past few months I've been busy making Christmas presents (a couple of the posts have been made by family members, but don't worry I have always credited them!). I always make some of my gifts but @vanessakimbell encouraged a whole host of food bloggers to get making with #letsmakechristmas. I do have a few last minute gifts to make, chocolate truffles, some things I can't post about yet (in case the recipient is reading) and some more mince pie gifts, but as they won't be made until the 23rd December I thought I'd do a round up now.

So here goes...

1. Delia Smith's mincemeat
2. Peyton and Byrne Christmas pudding (large and individual). Decorated versions here and here
3. Chocolate wafers dark chocolate topped with candied orange peel and white chocolate with crystallised rose petals and rose water
4. Piccalilli
5. Apple butter and decorated here
6. Apple and rowan jelly
7. Candied citrus peel
8. Lemon drizzle loaf
9. Double chocolate chip cookies here and here
10. Mulled wine spice bags
11. Onion marmalade
12. Sweet chilli jam
13. A trio of mince pies
14. Gingerbread houses
15. Blackberry vodka
16. Festive chocolate cupcakes
17. Marshmallow snowflakes
18. Chocolate truffles - also to follow but here is a previous post on truffles in the meantime.

There are also a few of posts that weren't made for Christmas presents but that would make good gifts all the same.

Festive Clementine Cake which is also gluten free
Apple and blackberry jam
Plum jam
Chocolate slabs

#letsmakechristmas

Blackberry Vodka and Homemade Secret Santas

Every year we all get together with mum dad's side of the family for a day of festive fun between Christmas and New Year. Maybe 5 years ago we stopped all buying presents for each other and instead started a secret santa, which all worked very well but wasn't quite as exciting as it could be. Last year my auntie had the fab idea of making our secret santas. We all have to make a gift for one person, the materials have to cost less than £5 and it has to be fabulous! Even the children have to make something (with a little help from their parents). The results were amazing, a seriously creative family!

So this year the stakes are high. I can't post about my Secret Santa yet in case the recipient is reading so in the meantime I thought I'd write about my dad's recipe for his secret santa (this is a dad whose only job in the kitchen is normally washing up!). I have been assured though that he did plenty of research to find a recipe for blackberry vodka.

Back in the autumn we had picked lots of blackberries which I posted about here and so both of our freezers have a good stock of blackberries.

To make blackberry vodka you need to start by weighing the blackberries. You then weigh out the same amount of sugar out and put them in a bottle or kilner jar covered with your vodka. Seal it up, give it a good shake and leave it somewhere dark and cool to mature. Ideally you need to leave it for at least 3 months, giving it a shake every week or so. You can then sieve out the fruit and pop in a bottle with a beautiful label. The jury is out on whether the fruit is tasty or not once it's out. Some have suggested serving it on ice cream and others say most of the flavour has gone so bin it. I say give it a taste and if it tastes good then eat it!

Here is the vodka maturing. You can see the blackberries have already started doing their magic as the vodka has changed colour.






Here are the finished product decanted into a bottle with labels added.






Incidentally at uni I used to regularly flavour vodka with sweets and chocolates. It sounds a bit odd but I tell you Mars bar vodka is amazing! Think baileys with a caramel flavour and a bit of a kick. Fab for making cocktails. Lots of sweets work, polo mints, skittles, pear drops. Pick your favourite and experiment. Just pop the sweets/chunks of chocolate in the vodka and give it a shake. I never used to leave it anywhere near 3 months. Maybe a week or so. Shaking every day. I haven't done it for a while though but give it a go and it's done when it tastes good! The sweets/chocolates virtually disappear so there shouldn't be a need to filter it, maybe just sieve and lumps out.

#letsmakechristmas

A Trio of Mince Pies

Every year I go Christmas shopping to help one of my oldest friends to buy gifts for his family and we always drop in to see his mum on the way home to have a chat and a drink whilst wrapping the presents up. This year I wanted to take her some mince pies and decided to try a couple of recipes I've wanted to try for a while.

The box I had to put them in was the right size for 6 pies so I decided that 3 different pies would be the perfect number.

I made a normal mince pie with a snowflake top. A mince pie with a frangipane topping based on an alternative Christmas pie by @hollybellmummy and finally a filo and puff pastry number that was on a Jamie Oliver Christmas special a couple of years ago, but I'd never got around to trying.

I started by making some short crust pastry. I sometimes put icing sugar in sweet short crust, which is a recipe I think I originally got from Mary Berry, but for mince pies I always use a basic pastry recipe my mum taught when I was very young, which was probably passed down to her from my nan. Whilst the pastry was resting in the fridge I started on the Jamie Oliver alternative mince pies. On a flours surface. I rolled the puff pastry to a thickness of around 3mm and covered with a layer of mincemeat, lemon and clementine zest and dried cranberries. The original recipe also had chestnuts crumbled over but I didn't have any so did without.



I then rolled the puff pastry into a tight 'Swiss roll' from the wider side



I put two overlapping squares of filo pastry in a greased muffin tin. Jamie just pushes the whole sheet into the holes but I thought it'd be neater to cut squares. I always use a bit of doughy off cut of pastry as a 'pusher' to encourage the pastry into the corners without tearing it with my nails.

I then sliced the puff pastry roll into thick slices and placed one in each filo case.



I finished off by brushing both pastries with melted butter and sprinkling the top with flakes almonds and icing sugar and popped in an oven preheated to 180C for about 30 mins. I found the filo started to go brown long before the puff was cooked so I places a piece of tin foil loosely over the top to prevent burnt edges. When they had cooled I finished them with another sprinkle of icing sugar.

Whilst they were baking I made the frangipane topping by creaming together butter and caster sugar, gradually adding the beaten egg and finally stirring through the almonds to make a shiny paste.

I then rolled out the pastry and lined greased muffin tins. I placed a heaped teaspoon of mincemeat in each case and topped half with a pastry lid in the shape of a snowflake (brushed with egg or milk for a shiny finish) and half with a spoonful of frangipane topping and three flaked almonds. I then baked them at 190C for about 20 mins.

Here are the three different mince pies cooling on the rack


And boxed up ready to go




Jamie Oliver's Alternative Mince Pies

INGREDIENTS
100g good-quality mincemeat. I used some I had made using a Delia recipe
25g dried cranberries
Zest of 2 clementines and 1 lemon
250g pack of good puff pastry
1 pack filo pastry
50g melted butter
50g flaked almonds
Icing sugar, to dust

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/400ºF/gas 6.

2. Dust a clean work surface with flour and roll out the puff pastry into a big rectangle about 20x40cm/8x16 inch and 3mm thick. Thinly spread the mincemeat over the pastry, leaving a 1cm/½ inch gap around the edges and sprinkle with the cranberries and zest. Tightly roll up the pastry, lengthways, like a Swiss roll.

3. Take two muffin trays (for 12 cupcakes each) and butter each one lightly with the melted butter. Place two squares of filo pastry in each hole ease the pastry into each hole. Brush with the melted butter, then cover with a second layer of filo pastry. Brush with butter again.

Tip: You can freeze the cooked, cooled mince pies in their trays (just wrap the lot in cling film) or in a plastic container. Just reheat them in a hot oven straight from the freezer.

4. Take the puff pastry roll and, with a sharp knife, cut it into 24 slices. Place each slice, flat-side down, into a filo-lined hole. Brush with melted butter 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.

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

Adapted from Jamie Oliver Christmas Special

Sweet Crust Pastry
8oz flour (self raising if you like thicker fluffier pastry)
4oz butter or margarine
4oz caster sugar
1 egg

Rub the flour and butter together with your fingers until it resembles bread crumbs. Stir in the caster sugar. Add the beaten egg and gradually incorporate it all together being very light of touch until it forms a ball. Tip the ball of pastry into some cling film and rest in the fridge for about 30 mins.

Recipe from my mum

Frangipane topping
50g caster sugar
50g butter
1 egg
50g ground almonds
A few flaked almonds for decoration

Cream the sugar and butter together. Mix in the beaten egg gradually and then stir in the ground almonds.

Adapted from @hollybellmummy's alternative mince pies

Old faithful recipes...Millies Style Cookies

I know I have posted about this before so apologies for there being no new recipes this time. I promise to make something new soon! I'm all for experimentation and trying new things, but in a similar way I rely on my old Tommy Hilfiger sweatshirt (that I have had for approximately 300 years and refuse to throw out despite the fact it's threadbare) when I need something cosy to wear around the house, sometimes it's also good to fall back on old faithful friends like this recipe. This is crowd pleaser recipe which I pull out when I need a quick, successful result.

Last night was ladies night with a group of lovely ladies from my old work. We meet up once a month for food, drinks and plenty of laughs. As this was our Christmas meet up I wanted to take them a gift. We don't do presents so some little bags of double chocolate chip cookies were perfect for this. I used this recipe and put them in plastic gift bags tied with Christmassy ribbon with a small Christmas decoration/metal gift tag attached.

Here is the finished result:


#letsmakechristmas

Sweet Chilli Jam

The second thing I made was some sweet chilli jam. This is absolutely delicious and can be served as a chutney (e.g. with cheese or cooked meats) or used as a stir fry sauce or dipping sauce.

It's very easy to make. It's just all wizzed up in a food processor and then cooked for a long while until it's thick and sticky.

How hot the end result is depends on the heat in the chillies so taste a little piece first and select the strength of chilli depending on your taste or the taste of whoever it's for.

Here is the full recipe.

Ingredients

8 red peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped
10 red chillies, roughly chopped
Finger sized piece fresh root ginger, peeled and finely grated
8 garlic cloves peeled and crushed
400g tin of tomatoes
750g caster sugar
250ml red wine vinegar
Tip the peppers, chillies (with seeds), ginger and garlic into a food processor, then whizz until very finely chopped. Pour into a heavy-bottomed pan with the tomatoes, sugar and vinegar, then bring everything to the boil. Skim off any scum that comes to the surface, then turn the heat down to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally. Once the jam is becoming sticky (1-2 hours depending on the size of the pan), continue cooking for 10-15 mins more, stirring frequently so that it doesn't catch and burn. It should now look like thick, bubbling lava. Cool slightly, transfer to sterilised jars, then leave to cool completely. Keeps well in a cool, dark cupboard - refrigerate once opened.

Adapted from a Good Food recipe



#letsmakechristmas

Onion Marmalade

On Saturday I spent the morning making chutney's and promised to post the recipes, so here goes the first, onion marmalade aka caramelised onion chutney. It really is worth the patience needed to caramelise the onions as the result is simply yummy! It is fab as a chutney with cheese or cooked meats or in sandwiches. I would also recommend using it to make a sauce next time you have a steak. Cook the steak and whilst it is resting deglaze the pan with a splash of red wine add a spoonful of the chutney, a splash of balsamic vinegar and maybe a few fresh thyme leaves. Perfect speedy sauce!

The original recipe uses red onions and far more alcohol and vinegar, but I use less liquid and normal onions as they are cheaper and the end result doesn't seem to suffer any detriment to flavour. I also add the sugar at the same time as the liquid otherwise caramelising the onions in the sugar causes havoc with the pan and is a nightmare to clean.

This will make about 4 jam jars.

Here is a photo of the chutney before the lid is on.









And the final product ready for wrapping.









Here is the full recipe

Ingredients
2kg onions
4 garlic cloves
4 tbsps olive oil
A knob of butter
140g caster sugar
A bunch of fresh thyme leaves
250ml red wine
200ml red wine vinegar

Quarter and thinly slice the onions, then crush the garlic. Melt the butter with the oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan over a high heat. Tip in the onions and garlic and give them a good stir and reduce the heat slightly. Cook uncovered for 40-50 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding a little water or more oil if they start to stick.. The onions are ready when all their juices have evaporated, they're really soft and sticky and smell of sugar caramelising. Slow cooking is the secret of really soft and sticky onions, so don't rush this part.

Add the sugar and thyme and pour in the wine and vinegar and simmer everything, still uncovered, over a high heat for 25-30 minutes, stirring every so often until the onions are a deep mahogany colour and the liquid almost all reduced. It's done when drawing a spoon across the bottom of the pan clears a path. Leave the onions to cool slightly in the pan, then scoop into sterilised jars and seal. Can be eaten straight away, but keeps well in the fridge.

Adapted from a recipe from Good Food








#letsmakechristmas

Christmas Hamper

Today I went to my friend house for a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner. She creates all the dishes she would have if she was at home and hence I'm now feeling very full, sleepy and on a sugar high! She said she'll let me have the recipes so I'll give them a try and post the results!

I might not see her again before Christmas so took along a hamper full of goodies I had made.





From top right going clockwise there is a lemon crunchy top cake, a bag of candied citrus peel, a mulled spice bag to make mulled wine, apple butter and double chocolate chip cookies.

The recipe for the lemon cake can be found here




The recipe for the candied citrus peel is here I dusted them all in caster sugar before putting them in a Lakeland gift bag and tying with a ribbon.



For the mulled spice bag I simply tied a couple of sticks of cinnamon, some dried orange rind, 5 juniper berries, 10 cloves, 5 cardamom, 2 bay leaves and 10 black peppercorns in a square of muslin and attached instructions to place it in a pan with 75cl of red wine and sugar to taste and then gently heat the wine without letting it boil.


The apple butter recipe is here and I just decorated the jar with a square if brown paper and a ribbon.



Finally the double chocolate cookies I have written two posts about before here and in my first ever post


#letsmakechristmas

Apples, apples and more apples

I've been making presents for Christmas for a while now and love @vanessakimbell's push to #letsmakechristmas.


As I mentioned on twitter I've been collecting windfall apples (apparently an old type of Golden Delicious) from my parents garden. This is on top of some I was given by a friend (Bramleys) and some wild ones (no idea what variety). There is something I find very satisfying about making something from ingredients I have picked or foraged. The only slight issue was what to do with them all. After peeling and blanching what seemed like 3000 apples to put in the freezer I wanted to try something else!

Apple Butter

I keep reading and hearing about Apple Butter. It seems to be an American recipe which is a bit like a thick fruit compote. I love cooked apples so it sounded right up my street! Basically you roughly chop 4lbs of apples and put them in a large pan including all of the skin, cores, pips etc (this is for two reasons. Partly as there is a lot of flavour in these parts and also as there is a lot of pectin which helps the butter to set. Plus it was a massive relieve given I was a little bored of peeling and coring apples). This is an awful lot of apples and although the pan was large they barely fit, luckily they cook down pretty quickly. I used a mixture of golden delicious and bramleys to get the sweetness and sharpness of the different varieties.


I then added about a cup of water or apple juice and a good splash of cider vinegar and cooked until the apples were very soft. This will take about 30mins depending on the type of apple.

Once the apple is cooked it's time to sieve it to get a smooth purée. Use the back of a spoon to gradually push the apples through the sieve until you are only left with skin, core, pips and so on.




Now for every for every cup of purée you have add 1/4 cup of caster sugar and add the zest and juice of one lemon. At this stage you can also add spices such as cinnamon or nutmeg but I decided to make plain.


Bring the mixture to a boil and then turn down to a simmer for an hour or two, stirring every so often until the mixture is very thick and slightly browner.

Place the mixture in sterilised jars. I made 4 jars.







I tried a little of the apple butter in 0% Total Greek yoghurt and it was delicious. It is also supposed to be great on toast or as a filling for pancakes.

Rowan and Apple Jelly

I picked to rowans for this ages ago and put them in the freezer. Apparently if you pick them before the first frost it's good to freeze them to allow them to break up more. This also meant they didn't go off whilst I was too busy to make them into anything.

I absolutely hate waste so imagine my delight when this recipe called for the cores and peels of apples but not the rest of the flesh which I could then prep for the freezer (fortunately I realised this before I got fed up of peeling!)

You start by taking the rowan berries off their stalks and then add an equal weight of apple cores and skins. Add water to about half way up the fruit, bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer until it is soft and broken down. Pour the mixture into a jelly bag or piece of muslin over a bowl and drain for a good few hours or over night. Don't push the fruit through otherwise the jelly will be cloudy. For every litre of juice at add 750g caster sugar plus a couple of cloves and a few strips of lemon zest.




Stir the mixture to dissolve the sugar and then slowly increase the heat to a rapid boil for 10 mins or 106C if you have a sugar thermometer. Remove the zest and cloves and pour into sterilises jars to set. This still has quite a dry flavour but goes well with meats and cheeses.



#letsmakechristmas

Food Bloggers Gift Swap

Today was the Food Bloggers Gift Swap event at Fortnum an Masons organised by @vanessakimbell and judged by @dan_lepard.



Fortnum's always reminds me of Christmas. When I was small we used to go into London to see the Christmas lights each year and go and see various Christmassy things such as Harrods and Fortnum's. I'm still almost overwhelmed by all of the lovely things to see and buy in the food hall and today was no exception. What was a surprise though is what else is in there as I'd never made it beyond the ground floor before and there are floors of beautiful household items, jewellery, bags and so on. Plus no less than 5 places to eat/drink. Who would've known! The event was on the 4th floor in a private room just off the restaurant where afternoon tea is served and what a wonderful place for afternoon tea, traditional whilst not being too stuffy.

Anyway I digress, back to the event. We all had to make some food gifts which were to be judged and then swapped at the end so we all got to take some home. The gifts I made and the recipes can be found here




When we arrived the gifts were all placed on tables and there was such a great selection and surprisingly hardly any duplications.

We all chatted and compared notes over cups of tea and little cakes whilst the items were judged.

I was lucky enough to take home three lovely gifts, some pumpkin and apple chutney, a decorated gingerbread house with a surprise ginger cake in the middle and some peppermint crunch.

Here are the photos of each and details of who made them.

The Gingerbread house was made by Sue from http://talesfromthegiantswood.blogspot.com




The pumpkin and apple chutney and peppermint crunch were made by Heidi from www.HeidiRobertsKitchenTalk.blogspot.com








And we also got a gift bag from Fortnum and Mason with these lovely White Chocolate and Cranberry Florentines




The whole event was organised so well and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. A huge thank you to Vanessa, Dan, Fortnum and Mason and everyone who helped and attended!

Merry Christmas and #letsmakechristmas!

Let's Make Christmas!

Let's Make Christmas!

Today I'm taking part in the Food Bloggers Gift Swap, arranged by @vanessakimbell and judged by @dan_lepard, as part of 'Let's Make Christmas'.





See here for full details http://writingacookerybook.blogspot.com/2011/10/lets-make-christmas-food-blogger-gift.html. Basically the concept is that instead of buying things for people for Christmas we surprise them with lovely homemade gifts. With my friends and family it won't be so much of a surprise as I make some of my gifts most years, but they seem to appreciate them and I'm always on the lookout for new ideas!

I was even more excited when Let's Make Christmas was extended to become an event held at Fortum and Manson where food bloggers could meet and swap their gifts, with the added twist of a dose of healthy competition. It will be wonderful to meet people I've spoken to online and over twitter and also new people too.

We are all allowed to enter up to three categories. I decided to enter an individual Christmas pudding in the baking category. It is a lovely Peyton and Byrne recipe that I'm very pleased with. I put it with a small bottle of brandy for flaming the pudding to serve it.

Here is a photo of it all wrapped up. I buy the plastic gift bags from Lakeland and the ribbon was from an online ribbon shop, I'll try and dig out the details of the website and add them to the post.







For the preserves category I have made a lovely piccalilli. It's one of my favourites, and this recipe is especially good. The veg are also nice as pickles before you add the spicy mustard sauce.







In the final category of sweets I made some little chocolate wafers. The white chocolate ones are flavoured with rose water and topped with crystallised rose petals and the dark chocolate ones are topped with some homemade candied orange peel, although you could top them with any of your favourite accompaniments.







And here they are all together. I just have to hope they make it all the way to Fortum and Mason in one piece!







Here are all of the recipes in case you'd like to give any of these a go #letsmakechristmas!

Christmas Pudding

200g raisins
150g currants
100g flaked almonds
75g dried chopped apricots
75g dates chopped
1 large cooking apple, peeled, cored and grated
1 medium carrot grated
1400g suet
140g plain flour
140g demerara sugar
75g fresh breadcrumbs
2 beaten eggs
4tbsps stout
Juice and zest of one orange
Juice and zest of one lemon
2tbsp brandy
1tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

This recipe makes 1 large and 4 small Christmas puddings. The recipe could be reduced, but they are lovely to give as gifts (and you also need to keep one for yourself!). It’s best to make this recipe approximately 3 months before Christmas.

1. Place the dried fruit and all of the liquid (apart from the eggs) in a bowl and soak overnight.
2. Add the remainder of the ingredients and place in well greased pudding bowls. Cover the top of the mixture with a small circle of baking paper, and then cover the whole of the top of the bowl with two layers of foil, securing with string.
3. Place the basins in a saucepan on a trivet, or a scrunched up piece of foil, and fill the pan approx. half full with boiling water.
4. Place on the heat, bring to the boil and then turn down to a gentle simmer and put the lid on.
5. Once you think it is cooked, check by carefully unwrapping the pudding and inserting a skewer. If it comes out clean it is cooked. The small puddings take about 3 hours and the large 4.5 hours.
6. Once cooked, put clean baking paper and foil on the pudding and leave to cool. Once a month carefully peel back the cover and 'feed' with a splash of brandy. Store in the fridge or a cool dark place until Christmas.
7. To reheat, repeat the steaming process but for 2 hours this time (approx. 1 hour for the small puddings). Turn out the pudding onto a serving dish, sprinkle with sugar and top with a sprig of holly. Pour over some brandy and set alight. Serve with brandy butter.

Here is the mixture ready to put in the basins






Here they are in the basin






And here they are steaming






Recipe adapted from ‘British Baking’ Peyton and Byrne.

Piccalilli
225g salt
2.25 litres boiling water
1 medium cauliflower (about 450g of small florets)
225g small pickling onions, peeled and halved
225g runner beans, topped and tailed and cut diagonally into 2.5cm pieces
¼ large cucumber, halved lengthways, seeds removed and then into 1cm chunks
110g courgettes, topped and tailed and cut into 1cm chunks
About half a jar of small gherkins
135g caster sugar
750ml distilled malt vinegar, plus an extra 5 tbsp
1 cloves garlic, crushed
¼ tsp whole nutmeg, grated
¼ tsp ground allspice
25g plain flour
12g mustard powder
12g turmeric powder
7g ground ginger
¼ tsp cayenne pepper

Piccalilli is a traditional British preserve. It is well worth making as in my opinion it is far superior to any that can be bought in a supermarket. It is best served with cooked meats and cheese, for example on a buffet or in sandwiches.
1. Mix the salt with the boiling water. Leave to cool, divide between two large bowls and add the cauliflower and onions to one bowl and the runner beans, cucumber and courgettes to the other. Cover with a plate to keep the vegetables submerged and leave for 12-24 hours.
2. Drain the vegetables and rinse them well, still keeping them separate.
3. Put the sugar, garlic and 750ml of vinegar into a large pan. Bring to the boil, add the cauliflower, onions, allspice and nutmeg and cook for just two minutes. Add the beans and the cucumber and cook for a further 3-4 minutes. The vegetables only want to be just cooked, with still a little crunch left in them. Sieve into a large bowl saving the liquid and set aside.
4. Mix the flour, mustard, turmeric and ginger powder with the rest of the vinegar and enough water to make a smooth paste. Add a little of the hot vinegar mixture, stir into the rest left in the pan and bring to the boil, stirring. Simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Stir the sauce into the vegetables and the gherkins. Spoon into warm sterilised jars and seal with vinegar proof lids. This will make 5-6 jars.

Here is a photo of the veg cooking so you can see the sizes I cut it all into





Here is the mustard mixture made from good old Colman's












And the finished product before it was decorated.












Recipe adapted from ‘Food Heroes’ Rick Stein.

Little Wafers – White Chocolate with Rose – Dark Chocolate with Orange

100g organic dark chocolate (70%)
100g organic white chocolate
1 tbsp crystallised rose petals
A couple of strips of candied orange peel (see below for recipe)
A few drops of rose water

This is an easy recipe, but looks very effective. You can always buy the candied peel, but the homemade version is delicious (see recipe below). The chocolates are also lovely with chopped nuts, dried fruit or toffee.

1. For the wafers, melt the chocolate in two separate bowls. To ensure you get a shiny finish, it is best to temper the chocolate. Stir the rose water into the melted white chocolate.
2. Take a large piece of baking parchment and draw circles on it as a guide (a milk bottle top is a good size). Turn over the parchment so the ink doesn’t go onto the chocolate.
3. Take about half a spoonful of chocolate and carefully use the back of the spoon to fill the circles you have drawn.
4. Whilst the chocolate is still wet sprinkle the dark with chopped candied peel, and the white with the chopped, crystallised rose petals.
5. Allow to cool thoroughly, and present them in a pretty box tied with a ribbon.

Candied Orange Peel:
2 medium oranges
200g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp black peppercorns, lightly crushed
4 cardamom pods, lightly crushed

1. Using a small knife, score the orange skin into quarters and carefully remove the peel from the orange.
2. Cut each quarter into strips of approx. 1cm wide. Place the fruit to one side to use for something else
3. Place the strips in a sauce pan, and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Drain through a colander and repeat twice more with clean water to remove any bitterness from the peel.
4. Wash and dry the saucepan. Place the sugar and 200ml water in the pan with the pepper and cardamom. Bring slowly to the boil, stirring occasionally. Add the blanched orange peel and cook for 2-3hrs on a very gentle simmer, until the peel is very tender and translucent.
5. Use tongs to remove the peel from the syrup, draining off any excess and place on a large piece of baking parchment in a single layer. Leave the peel to dry and crystallise. This can take 2-3 days. You will only need a couple of strips for the chocolate wafers, so you can pop the rest in a clear gift bag as a separate gift. This recipe can easily be doubled or made with other citrus peel, such as lemon or grapefruit. The syrup can also be put into a small sterilised jar and used for adding to coffee, cocktails, fruit salads or cakes.

Here is a photo of the peel cooling. I used a mixture of orange, lemon and lime.





And one of the syrup in a jar to keep






Recipe adapted from ‘Gifts from the Kitchen’ Anne Rigg.