Christmas Goodies....

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What are chocolate spoons Ella?

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Chocolate spoons:

Melt some dark chocolate in a bowl.
Dip the well of a teaspoon into the chocolate and then place on greaseproof paper and allow to set.
Once set, dip spoon again into chocolate but this time continuing 2 cm up the handle.

You can change this by doing another layer only half way up in white or milk choc, or even drizzling zig zags over the dark chocolate. Sprinkles can also be used by sprinkling over tacky chocolate but I tens to think these look a bit tacky... Finely chopped nuts would be better!!!

Finish by wrapping in celophane and tie with a ribbon.

ps: you can use stainless steel or plastic spoons depending on your preference...

These are great if you are doing some cookies as presents, cause they will make a lovely hot chocolate with some warmed milk- there you go hot choc and cookies nice easy present!

Oh that's a great idea!! thanks :)

You're welcome, I've got a great gingerbread recipe if you want that too...

So I thought I would pop the recipes I'm using for my gift baskets up in case anyone is lost for ideas.... enjoy!

Jamies Adults Only Rum Balls

Ingredients
1 pkt arrowroot biscuits
1 1/2 tetra packs condensed milk
1/2 cup coconut
3 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup rum soaked mixed fruit (use the rum and all)
extra coconut

Method
Prepare fruit by soaking in a bottle with rum a few weeks in advance.
Whizz up the biscuits in a food processor. Or just give them a good bash in a clean tea towel.
Combine all the ingredients and mix with your hands till combined.
Roll into small balls.
Coat balls in coconut.
Refrigerate till firm.


Chilli Jam

12 red jalapeno chillies
2 medium rip tomatoes
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 green apple, finely grated
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup sugar

METHOD:
1. Cut chillis in half lengthwise, then remove & discard seeds. Lay, cut side down, on an oven tray & place under a hot grill until the skin is black. Cover with foil & leave to cool.
2. Cut a small cross on the base of the tomatoes, cover with boiling water & leave for two minutes. Drain & cool. Peel skin from the chillis & tomatoes and chop the flesh finely.
3. Combine onion, apple, vinegar & sugar with the tomato & chilli in a medium pan. Stir until the sugar has dissolved & bring to the boil, Reduce heat & simmer for 30 minutes. Keep covered in the fridge for up to a month.

My warning: I made this once with different chillis, including habeneros (hottest in the world) and ended up with second degree burns on my hands because of it! Make sure you wear gloves when dealing with chillis.


Hazelnut Syrup Recipe(suitable for coffee)

1/2 cup of Finely Chopped Hazelnuts
2 tbsp of Butter
3/4 cup of Syrup (preferably maple)

Making the Hazelnut Syrup:
Melt the butter in a frying pan and toss the hazelnuts in. Cook them until they turn light brown. Add the syrup and heat thoroughly. (Do not boil.) For a stronger favor, add 3/4 cup of finely chopped hazelnuts.

While the syrup is still warm, place a metal strainer over a bowl and pour the syrup into the strainer to seperate the hazlenuts from the syrup. Store the syrup in an air-tight container, preferrably a glass bottle with a twist cap. This syrup will last for up to 4 months


Gingerbread men
400g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
1.5 tsp cinnamon
1.5 tsp ground ginger
225g butter
225g caster sugar
170g muscavado sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1. Preheat oven to 180°C
2. Sift flour, baking powder & salt & spices into large bowl
3. Melt butter in saucepan, add sugars, mix well, allow to cool. Add eggs.
4. Make a well in the dry ingredients and slowly add the butter and sugar mix. Put in fridge until cold.
5. Roll sausages out of the mix, slice and cook for 10 mins on a baking sheet.
It’s worth saying that I’ve played around with this recipe a little- you may well need more flour- keep adding to the mix until it reaches a good consistency. Also the mix works easiest when it comes out of the fridge- because of the high butter content, it melts easily.


Nans Christmas Pudding- Jamie Oliver

Ingredients

2 teaspoon softened butter, for greasing
3 large eggs
300ml of milk
1kg dried sultanas and raisins
200g dried cherries and cranberries
250g suet or butter
3cups plain flour
250g golden caster sugar
250g breadcrumbs
250 dates,chopped up
4 tablespoons of brandy
a pinch of salt
zest of 2 oranges
6 pieces stem ginger, finely chopped
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon bi carb soda
1tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp orange jam or marmalade
2 tsp vanilla essence

Method
Firstly prepare calico by cutting 2x 50cm square pieces. Boil for 30 minutes the wring out and flour liberally.
In a pan add all fruits, sugar and butter. Allow to simmer till butter and sugar are melted.
Remove from heat and add bicarb. Allow to cool.
Pour the egg and milk mixture into this bowl and stir or mix with your hands untill everything is combined.
Add all remaining ingredients and combine until silky.
Spoon this mixture into the middle of the calico sheet, make a slight point in the middle.
Gather the sides together and tie with string leaving a 2 inch overhang.
Place the calico in a large saucespon and put cold water in the pan untill it comes half way up the side of the bowl.
Bring the water to the boil then cover with a lid and simmer for 3 hours.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Dont forget to check the water regularly making sure that it doesnt boil dry or the pan will burn and the bowl will crack.
When serving the pudding simply remove the cloth or the foil and turn it out on a plate.
Serve with brandy butter or a nice thick custard.


Have more for other bits if anyone wants them....

Some really great ideas in this thread, i'm doing hampers this year for family we will see.

I'm actually excited about starting, just need to work out what i'm going to make and then write a list of what i need (that i dont already have in the cupboard) and i'll go from there.

Oooo those rum balls sound LOVELY!!! Thanks for sharing this one. :)

oh great thread! i think i might make up little boxes with a mixture of gingerbread, shortbread, choc biscuits and stained glass biscuits for family and friends :)

So we've hit a bump in the road...

I'm doing hampers to cut costs, but I'm finding that any sort of nice box or basket is nothing under $3 which when you're making 12 baskets is alot....

What have you used for the boxy bit??? Was thinking maybe wrapping cardboard boxes in nice paper... tacky???

could you use a square of heavy cardboard then just wrap in clear celphane

...... Coles supermarket has a FREE Christmas Magazine with 100 pages of lots of fantastic festive food & gift ideas to make (usually pick 'em up near the registers) :D

I picked up the coles booklet 2 weeks ago.....so many ideas in there.

I was also wondering what to use for "packaging"

I have looked at the following:
Gift boxes- $5 min each
Wicker baskets- $3 each from vinnies- not great quality
Plastic baskets from crazy clarks- $3 for the smallest suitable size
Wrapping paper- $2 a roll from Crazy's
Cardboard boxes- $0 free from back of stores...

So that's where I'm at at the moment.
What do you think?

Ella i didnt even think to ask stores for their unwanted cardboard boxes, awesome idea and then all thats needed is some wrapping paper/cellophane and some ribbon

All your other ideas are great too i guess it just depends on how much you want to spend.

Yeah well that's the problem isn't it. I would love to go buy the beautiful baskets but they cost too much so I'm thinking I will just do the boxes and cover them in some nice gold wrapping paper. I know it won't look as professional but there sure is a difference between $4 for wrapping paper and $34 for some little plastic boxes!

You could even just use a flat peice of carboard box and use the cello to wrap the whole package???

Right so I just tried the cardboard box thing.

DF says it looks great!!!!

Did it all with one square peice and folded around corners, only 2 peices of sticky needed.
I think once its filled and wrapped in cello it will look absolutely devine!!!!

Another $30 saved!!!!

Well i know what im giving my parents & grand parents for Chrissy :lol:

We finish work on the 23rd so might spend all Chrissy eve baking! Love baking!

Ok next problem...

I want something nice but cheap to put in the bottom of the boxes- I was thinking of that sort of shredded tissue paper stuff... where do you get that???? Perhaps spotlight would be a good place to look???

i was thinking of just doing that too :) i think little boxes from spotlight/lincraft are pretty cheap, then yer i was just going to cover them in xmas paper, havent had a look how much they are yet though
i was just going to put slightly scrunched up tissue paper or celophane in the bottom of my boxes.. or that fine hay looking straw stuff? lol sorry no idea what it called

Ella - lst year I made my own shreadded paper by putting tissue paper through the shredder turned out ok if you put multiple sheets through at the same time

Hey ladies....

I solved the stuffing problem. Spotlight has netting on sale for $2.50 a metre, 3 metres is enough to do 9 boxes. I did matching red to go with the red wrapping paper, looks great!!!

Jess- don't bother with boxes from spotlight, I have used Bundaberg Rum boxes (the ones that hold 12 x 700ml) as my DF works at liquorland, they are the perfect size, free and look great once covered!

Ella if you go to the Martha Stewart website you'll find recipes for bath bombs if you want something different for your hampers. Sounds great :)

Another packaging idea is to get on the net and search for Christmas Box Templates. You will be surprised how many free templates there are. Bell Shaped, Bon bon shaped, Christmas Tree Shaped...Then I was either going to trace onto thick card or re use drink cartons and cover in wrapping paper.

Also another gift idea I remember as a kid was baking Christmas puddings in terracotta pots, decorating them and wrapping them up.

Ooooh I love Christmas! :)

Some more yummy treats. The melting moments were seriously the most delicious things I have ever eaten, lol!! And sooo easy.

Passionfruit melting moments

Makes 30, cooking time 15mins

250g soft butter
1/2c pure icing sugar
1 1/2c plain flour
1/2c custard powder

1 Preheat oven to 160deg celcius or 140deg celcius fan forced. Line 2 baking trays with non stick baking paper.
2 Put butter and icing sugar into a bowl and use electric beaters to mix until combined well. Mix in flour and custard powder using the edge of a butter knife. Don't over mix the dough or the biscuites will be tough.
3 Roll teaspoons of the dough into small balls and place on the baking trays. Use the back of a fork to flatten them lightly and make a pattern on the top.
4 Bake for 15mins then cool on wire racks.

Filling:
60g butter
1/2cup pure icing sugar
1 tbsp passion fruit pulp

To make the filling:

1 Use electric beaters to mix the butter, icing sugar and passion fruit pulp.
2 Using a butter knife, spread some mixture onto one biscuit, then sandwich with another. Repeat until all biscuits are done.

**I also put a tiny bit extra of the passionfruit pulp into each bicky before I put on the icing because I didn't think there was enough flavour!


Spicy sugared nuts

Makes 4 cups

3/4c icing sugar mixture
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2tsp chilli powder
400g of nuts of your choice (I used almonds which were really yum!)
1 egg white lightly whisked

1 Preheat oven to 180deg celcius or 160 fan forced. Combine sugar cardamom, cinnamon, chilli, nuts and egg white in a bowl. Stir well to combine.
2 Line a baking tray with non stick baking paper. Spread nuts on the tray in one even layer.
3 Bake for 10mins or until golden brown. Cool completely on tray. Use a wooden spoon to break up and nuts that are stuck together.
4 Serve or store in an air tight container for up to 5 days.

Another packaging idea is to use the little chinese boxes with handles. You can get them from $2 shops cheaply. I got some for DD's bday for party bags.
Or how about using some decent quality plastic plates (like bbq/throwaway plates) and just pretty them up with cellophane and ribbons. I got some melomine (sp) plates from my local $2 shop for $1.50each to serve up my gift biscuits. I put some into little christmassy patty pans and put them onto the plates and wrapped them in clear callophane with a ribbon around it. Looked great!



Ohhh, another recipe for you all that I made the other day too...

Triple dipped choc strawberries

**This is just something I have made up so if I miss something in the 'recipe' or preparation just ask me!

I got two punnets of fresh strawberries. Chill them for at least an hour or so in the fridge.
Melt about 250g of white choc, dark choc and milk choc in large mugs(one at a time) in a big pot of lightly simmering hot water, filled enough to reach about 3/4 up the mugs. Be careful not to burn any of the chocolate!
Wash the strawberries and trim if you wish. Put the strawberries onto the end of skewers (one each).
Dip each strawberry into the dark choc, chill, dip into the milk choc, chill, dip into the white choc, chill. You have to chill them or the chocolate will all just drip off.
Make sure you have a large plate or something to stand the strawberries in in the fridge. I used some styrofoam that I had let here from packaging form our new airconditioner to stick the skewers into. Or I was also going to put them into a large gift box with the lid on and hole in it for the skewers.
These were soooo yummmy!!!!!! **DROOOOOLLLL**

I have started making my chrissie goodies... well the dough for the cookies at least LOL

just wanted to post an observation on the peppermint bark - it was delish but the centre milk/bittersweet choc layer didn't set very well - i think it just has too much cream in that recipe. i'm going to make it again for christmas with no cream at all - i think it will work better...

Mum and I do:

- shortbread wreaths piped in circles and decorated with glace cherries
- almond toffee crisps
- starry night tarts
- stained glass biscuits (cut out a shape in the middle and fill with crushed lollipops before baking - these can be hung on the tree)
- chocolate truffles
- cherry ripe
- apricot balls

I am sure there are more, but that's a start!

ETA - mince pies, too!

OMG, you'd better share about those almond toffee crisps! They sound delish!

ive just finished cooking my puddings (for two gatherings) a total of 8 hours of a huge saucepan boiling on the stove :doh: does my head in :lol: but i loooove pudding!

Oh, my....chrissy is only 6weeks away!!! EEEKKKK!!!! Not sure how much baking I will feel like doing, being 30++weeks pg tho...

But here's some recipes I found the other day which I though sounds lovely!!

Chocolate, Raisin & Hazelnut Pudding

Ingredients

375gRaisins
160g Sultanas
90ml rum
250g butter, softened
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
3 eggs
1 cup plain flour
½ cup self raising flour
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups fresh white breadcrumbs
120g Dry Roasted Hazelnuts
200g dark chocolate, finely chopped
1½cups buttermilk

Method
Preheat oven to 170ºC.
Place raisins, sultanas and rum in a bowl and set to one side.
Prepare 8 pudding basins – grease well and line base with baking paper circles.
Cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.
Sift flours, mixed spice and cinnamon. Add breadcrumbs, finely chopped hazelnuts, chocolate, buttermilk, rum soaked fruit and butter mixture and mix well to combine.
Evenly divide mixture between prepared pudding basins. Place basins into the baking dish and pour in enough boiling water to ½fill the baking dish, cover with foil. Steam bake for 1 hour. Remove foil and bake for a further 20 minutes. Serve cooked puddings in their basins with ice cream and a chocolate curl if desired.


Fruit & Nut Brittles

Ingredients

600g dark OR white eating chocolate, place in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on a medium heat for 3 – 4minutes
Dark Chocolate Brittle
½ cup Raisins
½ cup Currants
120g Dry Roasted Almonds
120g Dry Roasted Hazelnuts

White Chocolate Brittle
½ cup Sultanas
½ cup Park Cranberries
110g Dry Roasted Macadamias
80g Pistachios

Method
Use the same method for dark or white chocolate brittle. Combine fruit and nuts, gently fold ⅔ through chocolate and pour into a greased and baking paper lined 17cm x 27cm slice tin. Spread into a slab, sprinkle with the remaining ⅓ of fruit and nuts and leave to set. Break into desired pieces and serve.

Tip and Storage Instructions:
Tip: For a thinner brittle simply spread chocolate mixture over a greased and baking paper lined shallow baking dish.
Storage Instructions: Brittles will store in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks.

I've just read over this entire thread and I am so excited now! I'm going to bake up a storm for christmas this year and do hampers for my family.

So far my hampers will have:

BB Fudge
Rum Balls
Coconut Ice
Rocky Road
Stained Glass Cookies
Gingerbread Men
White Christmas
Fruit Mince Pies

So, I've got quite a few recipes from this thread, but I'm after a couple more. The recipes I need are for:

Rum balls (white choc and dark choc)
Coconut ice
Rocky road
Stained glass cookies
Gingerbread Biscuits

Can anyone help me out with these?

Looking forward to chatting about our christmas creations!!

This year I am doing 2 hampers one for my parent's house and one for DPs parents house for over the festive season to new year (and beyond) - well maybe 3... might need one for our house as well LOL

Not sure what will be in them but there were some real hits from what I made last year

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This year I am doing 2 hampers one for my parent's house and one for DPs parents house for over the festive season to new year (and beyond) - well maybe 3... might need one for our house as well LOL

Not sure what will be in them but there were some real hits from what I made last year

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There were some definate hits last year, you did well. I'd like to request that you atleast make that white christmas/white chocolate fudge thing you made last year, it was delicious!!!.

I'll have a look through my recipes i used last year and decide what i'm going to make this year.

For the best ever rum balls I seriously recommend Jamie Olivers Adults Only Rum Balls. You can get the recipe off his website. I made them last year, I made heaps and they got gobbled so fast, they were every single persons favourites in the hampers I did.

I put my fruit to soak in the rum about 4 weeks before I'm going to make them and I always do extra fruit and rum because DF loves to have the fruit over ice cream or apple pie. Nom nom nom

I still haven't started my hampers but I'll hopefully be able to start once this bubba comes!

Sarah, I don't know if anybody has mentioned this, as I'm on the fly & haven't had a chance to read through all the replies. But last night I tried Pumpkin Pie for the very first time. We are living in China atm & there is a huge American population where we are & being Thanksgiving yesterday, a lot of hotels put on wonderful buffet dinners - so we went along. I have never heard of pumpkin pie, nor ever tasted it but OH MY GOODNESS I have already googled & saved the recipe into my favourites to make when we are in Aus for Christmas! HTH!

Does anyone have any idea how long the evil bb fudge will keep in the fridge for?

I've got a lot of baking to do and I'm trying to make a baking plan so I'm not in the kitchen for 24 hours straight :)

Jaycee - for the stained glass cookies, you just use your favourite sugar cookie recipe, then cut out a hole or pattern in the middle of the biscuit before baking.

Buy some boiled lollies, seperate the colours and smash them to smithereens with a rolling pin in a plastic bag. Heap them in the cut-out of the biscuit and they will melt into the hole.

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Does anyone have any idea how long the evil bb fudge will keep in the fridge for?

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If it's in a covered container, it keeps for aaaaaages. I tend to make mine about 4-7 days in advance, mainly so that the shelf life is longer for the person who's getting it. But I've had fudge in my fridge for weeks and it's been lovely. (In an airtight container.)

I made Irish cream this year...

1C cream
1 tin condensed milk
1 and a bit C Irish Whiskey
1t vanilla
1t instant coffee (dissolved in a tiny amount of boiling water)
2T chocolate syrup.

It is really yummy and looks lovely in a pretty bottle.

OMG Sarah...we made peppermint bark today from your recommendation.....Nate kept pinching bits and dragging a chair over to the bench to find it, and I've had to hide the container from Cam...a huge hit.

Bumpity bump!! :bump:

SO who is making what??

Anyone making edible gifts this year?