Tiny little gingerbread houses together make a village, which makes me happy. I’ve always had a slight issue with the lone gingerbread house. It’s all a bit Hansel and Gretel to me. I worry about who might jump out of the woods. READ MORE
Okay, we’re almost there. It’s Christmas Eve. Are you okay? Have you finished work yet? This is my last recipe before the big day. It’s a bit of fun for the school holidays. And if biscuits feel a step too far then use whatever’s languishing in the biscuit tin.
Lots of great recipes like this in my book, Recipes from a Normal Mum, out now… on Amazon, at Waterstones, WHSmith, The Book Depository and many smaller outlets.
Last December: My slow cooker beef bourguignon pie and Crumble topped mince pies and a very ugly but delicious cranberry & raspberry traybake
Two years ago: Mini Yorkshire pudding canapes and Christmas pudding fizz and Brandy butter icing and Rudolf morsels
Three years ago: Lime meringue pie with chocolate pastry and Christmas scones and Ginger cake with Christmas cottage and Hot chocolate on a stick
Four years ago: Moonuts and Cheese biscuits and Parsnip soup and Inauthentic chicken tagine
Melted snowman biscuits
Makes about 30 x 12cm biscuits
Ingredients:
• 200g castor sugar
• 225g soft salted butter
• 1 large egg at room temperature
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 385g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 20g orange fondant icing
• Icing sugar
• 30 white marshmallows
• A black icing tube (can easily be found in the baking aisle)
• 90 small coloured sweets
Cream together the butter and sugar until really light and creamy looking – about 4 minutes in a stand mixer, about 6 with a handheld mixer of 8 – 10 by hand with a wooden spoon. Add the egg dribble by dribble, beating well after each addition. Lastly add the flour and baking powder and mix until combined. Use your hands to pull the mixture together, wrap in clingfilm and chill for 40 minutes.
Use a little flour to dredge the work surface and coat a rolling pin then roll the biscuit dough to about 3 – 4mm thick. Cut out circles about 12cm wide using a knife (they don’t need to be completely circular, they can happily be puddle shaped)and pop onto a baking tray (you can line with non stick parchment though these biscuits didn’t stick on my baking trays without it) then chill the whole tray in the fridge for 15 minutes. Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. (The chilling is what keeps the shape of the biscuits, as does the preheating of the oven – you need cold biscuits to hit a hot oven and immediately bake. Skipping either step can result in biscuits that spread. They’ll still taste fine but won’t look so pretty.)
Bake the chilled biscuits for 10 -12 minutes until they’re just starting to brown at the edges. Leave for 5 minutes to cool on the tray then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. In the meantime make 30 carrot noses with the orange fondant icing and set aside to harden.
Make some white icing by mixing the icing sugar with water until you have a stiff icing. Spread over each biscuit, add three sweets as buttons, place a marshmallow in the middle and add a fondant carrot nose (you can use icing to do this if it won’t push into the marshmallow) and draw on a mouth and two eyes with the black icing tube. Once the icing is dry draw on two stick arms using the icing tube. Leave to dry completely.
I wanted to do a stir up Sunday recipe but decided it was kind of pointless. Everyone seems to use a family recipe or good old Delia’s. So instead we have something a little different… and also a response to a few folk on my Facebook page asking for festive cocktails. At this point I hand over to my dear friend Caitlin, the manger of my favourite cocktail bar/restaurant/place to feed your sore head a monster breakfast/place to meet your husband/wedding party venue/place to bribe my toddler with strawberry juice.
“Too many cocktails are pink, sickly sweet or overly creamy in my opinion, as much as I love kitsch, I want Don Draper style with an element of homegrown, not Priscilla Queen of the Desert! Many of the spirits are made on the family farm – sloe gin, raspberry vodka & Christmas pud vodka, from home grown ingredients. I became fascinated with cocktails here after working my way through the wine list too many times! Once pregnant I became a cocktail pusher, designing the very bloke friendly ‘Cider with Rosie’ made with locally pressed 7% scrambler cider (made in our friend Robs back garden) Makers Mark bourbon, ginger ale & rosemary.”
Ingredients:
– 100g cranberries
– 150g sultanas
– 50g mixed peel
– 100g golden caster sugar
– 2 cinnamon sticks
– 1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
– 15g ground mixed spice
– 4 cloves
– Zest of 1 orange
– Zest of 1 lemon
– 1 litre bottle of vodka/gin
Put everything into a bowl/container/jug, making sure that whatever you use holds all the alcohol. Cover and leave for about a week in the fridge. Then strain through muslin and bottle ready for making into a Stir Up Fizz cocktail (one shot of this gin/vodka, topped up with champagne and served with a ginger biscuit) as soon as the festive mood takes you. Don’t throw the dried fruit away! You can serve it over ice-cream for a very grown up and super charged dessert.
A few other Christmas cocktail ideas from the lovely Caitlin… (a shot is 25mls by the way)
Blood orange margarita: Shake 1.5 shot tequila, 0.5 shot Gran Marnier, squeeze fresh lime, 1 shot syrup and 2 shots blood orange juice over ice. Strain into a tumbler glass with a salt rim and finish with a lime or orange wedge.
Snowball-Highball: Stir 2 shots Advocaat and a large squeeze of fresh lime over ice in a highball glass, top up with lemonade and pop a glace cherry on the top!
Sloe Gin Fizz: Muddle 2 raspberries or blackberries in the bottom of a whiskey style glass, fill half way with crushed ice, then add 2 shots sloe gin, 1 shot lemon juice and 1 shot syrup, and top up with soda.
Cider with Rosie: Pour 1 shot Makers Mark into a whiskey glass, add a squeeze of lemon juice, half fill with ice then top up with half Scrambler boxed cider and half
Schweppes dry ginger. Serve with a sprig of fresh rosemary.
Fabulous fizz (alcohol free for the cocktail pushers amongst us): Mix a third each of Shloer, ginger ale & pineapple juice. Serve over ice and feel very smug that your head doesn’t hurt the next day.
These mince pies are inspired by my friend Helen’s mother-in-law, who tops her mince pies with Viennese biscuit dough. They are divine! I thought I’d remove the need for a piping bag and add some heavenly Christmas flavours of orange, nutmeg and cinnamon to make these truly special. Don’t forget you can add your favourite tipple to the mincemeat. Brandy is traditional but Amaretto, ginger wine and even Baileys are all delicious. Makes 24.
Ingredients:
Pastry
– 250g plain flour
– 50g icing sugar
– 125g room temperature butter
– zest of one orange
– 1 large egg
Filling
– 411g jar of mincemeat
– 15mls of your favourite tipple (optional)
Biscuit dough
– 120g soft butter
– 30g icing sugar
– 100g plain flour
– 20g cornflour
– Pinch of cinnamon
– Grating of fresh nutmeg
Pop the flour and icing sugar into your stand mixer and give it a quick mix with the flatbeater. Add the butter and orange zest and mix until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. (Can obviously rub in with hands too.)
Add the egg, mix in short spurts until the pastry dough comes together into a lump. (Use a blunt knife for this stage if making pastry by hand.) Cover in clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 minutes. In the meantime mix the alcohol and the mincemeat in a bowl and make the biscuit dough. Here’s a pic of my little helper. Gratuitous shot of blond toddler alert:
To make the dough mix the very soft butter with the icing sugar in your mixer with the flat beater. Mix until really light and fluffy – about 4 minutes. Then add all of the other biscuit dough ingredients and mix again until combined and fluffy.
Wrap the dough in clingfilm and pop in the fridge. (You can make the biscuit dough with a wooden spoon and sheer willpower if you prefer.)
Roll the pastry onto a floured work surface to about 3mm thick and cut rounds out using a pastry cutter. Pop into your non-stick bun tray then place a teaspoon of the mincemeat into each pastry case.
Roll the biscuit dough to about 1cm thick on a floured surface and cut triangles using a sharp knife. (You can use a mini star cutter or other festive shaped cutter if you have one handy…) If the knife sticks dip in flour between cuts.
Then place on top of the mincemeat and pop the whole tray in the fridge for 10 minutes.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180C/Gas 4 for about 15 – 20 minutes until just starting to brown at the edges.
Eat within 3 days or freeze and use within a month. Defrost at room temperature.
I know. I’m as bad as all those retailers decking the aisles with tinsel in August. I just can’t help it though and I don’t care who knows it. I love Christmas. I love it! I want to live in a festive schmaltzy film. I want to wake up on the 25th December and find the Santa sack from my childhood nestled at the end of the bed fit to bursting with chocolate coins and maybe even a pink snail Keeper toy. I want flapjack covered with a layer of mincemeat and grated marzipan in October. Well okay then.
Ingredients:
175g butter
75g brown sugar
30g golden syrup
Pinch of salt
175g oats
25g rice crispies
100g sultanas
Half a jar of mincemeat
Half a block of marzipan, cold from the fridge
I basically followed an old faithful flapjack recipe but you should use your favourite. Pop the oven on at 140C or whatever your recipe says. Then I melted the butter, sugar, syrup and salt in a saucepan (careful measuring out too much syrup, your flapjack won’t hold a slice as well) until just about to bubble. Next I added the oats, rice crispies and sultanas and gave the lot a good stir until completely covered.
I tipped into a silicone tray (so I could avoid any lining activity) that measures about 20 x 24cm and flattened with a metal spoon until level. Then I very carefully spread half a jar of mincemeat (I used ready made stuff this time but I will most definitely be making my drunken cherry brandy mincemeat very soon) on the top of the flapjack – just a very fine smear, not huge dollops of the stuff. Careful the knife doesn’t rip through the delicate uncooked oats. On top of that I grated half a block of cold marzipan (grates better when colder, use the course side of the grater) and then baked for 30 minutes until golden brown on top. It looks like a pie topped with grated cheese pre baking. Do not be alarmed.
Leave to cool in the tray and only cut when cold or it all falls apart on you.
I enjoyed mine whilst writing my day dream Christmas list.
Holly Bell 