Category Archives: Christmas Cooking

Dec19

Chocolate Cranberry and Pistachio Christmas Treat.

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Chocolate Cranberry and Pistachio Christmas Treat.

A good friend makes this recipe each year as just a large slab that she then cuts into squares (or shards as she calls them, lol), The colours just look so pretty together, so I thought I’d take it a step further and make an edible decoration out of it!

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There really is no recipe as such, and the method is as straight forward as it looks.  Heat chocolate until smooth and runny. You could use any kind of chocolate you like, milk, white, dark, I used a store brand milk cooking chocolate.   You can just pour it out onto a flat surface or use some cookie cutters like I have.  While still runny, sprinkle with your favourite fruit and nuts, pistachio and cranberry work well at this time of year as the colours are what I consider “Christmassy”.  Dust with edible glitter if you like, but it still looks yummy without!  

Light spray of oil to stop sticking
Pour in chocolate, using a spoon to help it reach the tops of the shape
Sprinkle with nuts and berries.
Sprinkle with edible glitter (optional)
Allow to cool
Mr3 cleaning up!
The cookie cutter set, $17 on ebay
Assemble
Chocolate tree

 

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How the flat versions can turn out

Dec14

Classic Christmas Cooking – Window Biscuit Decorations

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Classic Christmas Cooking – Window Biscuit Decorations

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I helped the kids in Mr 8s class make these at school, so thought we would give them a try at home.  There is heaps of different recipes out there, so you can really make them any flavour you wants, but you want to choose a biscuit that doesn’t rise too much.   We used a basic butter biscuit recipe.

  • 125g butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup caster sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 egg, at room temperature
  • 2 cups plain flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda.

I also added a sprinkle of cinnamon and all spice.  I probably don’t need to tell you how to make biscuits.  To be honest, they rose a little more than I would have liked, so might use a different recipe next time.  The recipe also started with the usual ‘pre-heat oven’, but after mixing the ingredients you had to put the dough into the fridge for 45 minutes.  What a waste of electricity having your oven running all that time?

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Use any shapes you like, then a smaller shape inside.  Pop a hard lolly (boiled lolly or jolly rancher etc) into the centre and bake on some baking paper at around 180 for only a few minutes.  The lolly will melt in the time it takes to cook the biscuit.  So simple.

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If you live in an area of the world that is humid, these wont last long on the tree.  So just eat them!

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Dec13

Sweet Christmas Treats – Mars Bar Crackles.

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Sweet Christmas Treats – Mars Bar Crackles.

These are a really easy alternate to the traditional chocolate crackles. They are not as sickly sweet either, so adults can enjoy them.

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All you need is 2 table spoons of cream (some recipes say thin cream, but either works) 200 or more grams of Mars Bars  Rice bubbles (home brand will be fine) and thats it.  I also add chocolate drops and coconut for some different textures, but that is not at all necessary.

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Break up the bars and add the cream (I also added coconut at this stage).  Microwave in 30 second bursts, stirring at each interval to avoid hot spots (burnt chocolate).  Once its all runny, you can either add the rice bubbles directly, or poor into another bowl that has the rice bubbles in it.  This actually works better as its easier to distribute and you don’t end up with a heap of chocolate stuck to the bottom of the bowl.

Allow to cool slightly (you can put it in the fridge) so that you can roll the mix into balls.  When its hot its just too sticky and you can’t get it off your hands.  If you are going to add extra chocolate drops, do it when the mixture is cooler so they don’t melt.

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