Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Here is a quick recap of the '12 Baking Days of Christmas'...

On the first day of Christmas - Jam Cookies

On the second day of Christmas - Fruit Mince Pies

On the third day of Christmas - Iced Lemon Cookies

On the fourth day of Christmas - Gingerbread House

On the fifth day of Christmas - Fruit Mince Crumble Cake

On the sixth day of Christmas - Florentines

On the seventh day of Christmas - Peppermint Bark

On the eighth day of Christmas - White Rocky Road

On the ninth day of Christmas - White Christmas

On the tenth day of Christmas - Christmas Wreaths

On the eleventh day of Christmas - Chocolate Puddings

On the twelfth day of Christmas - Rum and Raisin Truffles

And with that I say goodbye - until next year! I am taking a short break and will be back with more recipes and more of Clive in the new year.

On the twelfth day of Christmas (Rum and Raisin Truffles)

One more sleep until Christmas people - is everyone ready for Santa? Have you got the cookies and milk ready? Don't forget the carrots for the reindeer!

I think we are all ready to go, we have prepared our desserts (chocolate cheesecake, ice-cream sandwiches and some fruit mince pies), got all the ingredients for a great BBQ, put the presents under the tree and stuffed the stockings. So yes I think we are good to go.

I am going to post a round up of the 12 Baking Days of Christmas tomorrow, but in the mean time here is the last recipe in the series - rum and raisin truffles. Very easy to make, extremely decadent and again they make great gifts. Enjoy!


Rum and Raisin Truffles (unknown source)
Makes approximately 45 (I made mine larger so got about 25)

120g raisins
75g flaked almonds, toasted and chopped
1/3 cup rum
400g dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup thickened cream
300g dark chocolate, melted
30g copha
60g white chocolate, melted
1/2 tsp vegetable oil
1 tsp cocoa powder

1. Combine raisins and rum in a small saucepan over a medium heat, stir until simmering. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Combine 400g of dark chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl over simmering water. Stir occasionally until melted. Remove from heat. Stir in raisin mixture and 1/2 the chopped almonds. Refrigerate for about 2 hours or until firm.
3. Take truffle mixture and from 15 bite sized balls, place on a lined baking tray. Roll each ball in remaining chopped almonds, gently pressing almonds to adhere.
4. Roll slightly smaller sized balls and place on another lined tray. Place in freezer for 20 minutes, or until firm.
5. Melt 300g dark chocolate, add copha and stir until smooth. Take off heat. Insert a bamboo skewer into ball and dip into chocolate to cover. Gently tap on side of bowl to remove excess. Place on tray, then repeat with remaining balls. Allow to set at room temperature.
6. Combine melted white chocolate and oil. Drizzle over half the remaining truffles. Allow to set. Before serving, lightly dust remaining truffles with cocoa.

Rating?
4 out of 5 reindeers!

On the eleventh day of Christmas (Chocolate Puddings)

Sorry for being absent of late! if I haven't told you already Emma (my beautiful big sister) has come back to Australia for Christmas, all the way from New York. So as you can imagine there has been a lot of catch up going on - especially since Em hadn't yet met Zoe, not that you could tell that now - since Zoe and Em are now best friends - lots of hugs and kisses are going on in this household. And I love it. So things are going to be a bit quiet on the blogging front for the next month - but I will try post at least a few times a week. And of course I have to finish my '12 Baking Days of Christmas' project.

I think the eleventh day of Christmas may in fact be the most awesome day - these chocolate pudding truffles are sooo delicious, they look incredibly cute and they are super easy to make! So give these a go, they make great gifts for friends and family - as long as you don't eat them all yourself first!


Chocolate Puddings (from Recipes+ - December 2008)
Makes 12 (I made mine smaller to get 24 instead)

1 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup raisins
2 tbsp orange juice (I omitted this)
375g dark chocolate, melted
3 cups plain cake crumbs (I used light fruit cake instead and 500g of it)
80g white chocolate, melted
1/3 cup red glace cherries, chopped (I just halved mine instead)

1. Process apricots, raisins and orange juice until finely chopped.
2. In a large bowl combine the fruit mixture, cake crumbs and half the melted dark chocolate. Shape mixture into 24 balls.
3. Coat each ball in the remaining dark chocolate and leave to set.
4. Drizzle the top of each ball with white chocolate and top with glace cherry. Leave to set.
   

And for something different you can instead coat each ball in white chocolate and then sprinkle with Christmas sprinkles, very festive...


Rating?
5 out of 5 reindeers!

On the tenth day of Christmas (Christmas Wreaths)

Okay I did it again, I used another Better Homes and Gardens recipe, and guess what - it worked! I was so excited when this recipe just worked for me until it came to tasting the end result. Bland, bland and blander. There is absolutely nothing of interest with these cookies. They were going to be used as Christmas presents, but currently they are sitting in my rubbish bin with a whole heap of day old cat food on top of them - not so yummy.

So that is it - I am done with Better Homes and Gardens recipes! To be honest I can't believe it took me this long.

Let us hope that the next two (and final two) baking days of Christmas are more successful!


Christmas Wreaths (from Better Homes and Gardens - December 2007)
Makes 16

2 3/4 cups plain flour
3/4 cup icing sugar
125g unsalted butter, chilled, chopped
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
Extra flour, for kneading
Extra 1 cup icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
About 1 tbsp hot water

1. Preheat oven to 160C. Line 2 trays with baking paper.
   
2. Put the flour and icing sugar in a food processor and process for 30 seconds. Add the butter and process until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the eggs and vanilla and process until the mixture forms into a ball.
3. Gently knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Divide dough into 16 pieces. Divide each portion in half and roll each half into a 16cm long sausage shape. Twist the 2 sausages together and form into a circle shape. Press the edges together, forming a wreath. Put the wreath onto the prepared oven tray. Repeat with remaining portions of dough.
4. Bake wreaths for 15-20 minutes or until firm to the touch and cooked underneath. Stand tray on a wire rack until biscuits are cool.
   
5. Put extra icing sugar in a mixing bowl, make a well in the centre, add the vanilla and stir in enough water until a thin mixture is formed. Put biscuits in a single layer on a wire rack over a sheet of baking paper or a tray. Spoon a little of the icing over each biscuit. Leave for 30 minutes or until the icing is firm.
   

Rating?
1 out of 5 reindeers!

On the ninth day of Christmas (White Christmas)

Okay my Internet connection is ridiculously slow at the moment so this blog post has been a pain in the butt to put together. Just imagine waiting for 5 minutes for each web page to load up - yes it really is that bad right now. Hopefully this will only be a small glitch and then we will have "lightning" speeds again tomorrow. Well we better.

Anyway onto the baking - it seems Better Homes and Gardens has let me down again! This time the White Christmas recipe (a classic Christmas treat in Australia) was close to a diaster. The recipe calls for 250g of Copha (vegetable shortening) however I found that it was nowhere near enough to make the slice stick together. So my White Christmas quickly became slightly yellow Christmas because I needed to add some unsalted butter (since I didn't have any extra Copha) to make it all stick together. But in the end it tastes pretty good - if you don't mind Copha. It really is a love or hate kind of ingredient. I don't mind it, but Mat thinks it is like eating wax - yummo. So if you can handle Copha then this is another treat that is great to package up and give us a gift or to eat yourself. It was last up to 3 weeks in an airtight container in the fridge.


White Christmas (from Better Homes and Gardens - December 2009)

250g Copha (vegetable shortening), chopped (I would have 2 packs on hand just in case you need more to bind it together)
3 cups puffed-rice cereal
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup icing sugar
1 cup powdered milk
300g rose-flavoured Turkish delight, chopped (I used red glace cherries instead)
1/2 cup toasted almond flakes

1. Line base and sides of a lamington tin with baking paper.
   
2. Put Copha in a small heavy-based pan over a low heat and melt. Remove from heat and stand until lukewarm.
3. Combine cereal, coconut, icing sugar, powdered milk, turkish delight and almonds and stir to combine.
   
4. Make a well in the centre, add Copha and stir until mixture is uniformly moist and coated in Copha. Spoon into prepared tin and pack down with the back of a spoon. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for 2-3 hours or until firm.
5. Remove White Christmas from the tin and cut into bars or squares.

Rating?
3 out of 5 reindeers!

On the eighth day of Christmas (White Rocky Road)

Okay so apologies in advance, there is a total lack of photos for this recipe - but it couldn't be helped! For one thing it was a very gray day so the lighting was not so good. Then Zoe didn't exactly want me to do any baking (picture tears, tantrums and a whole lot of carry on), so it was all very rushed. But hey I made it and it is delicious! Sweet white chocolate, chewy marshmallows, tasty almond nougat and crunchy almonds = awesome!

This is another treat that would be perfect to package up and give as a gift at Christmas time (or any time really). It will keep for up to 2 weeks in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

So you know what to do, get in the kitchen and get baking :)



White Rocky Road (from Better Homes and Gardens - December 2007)
Makes about 20 pieces

2/3 cup slivered almonds
1 cup white marshmallows, roughly chopped
1/2 cup shredded coconut
150g vanilla almond nougat, roughly chopped
375g white chocolate, melted

1. Line bottom and sides of 2 bar tins with baking paper.
2. Combine almonds, marshmallows, coconut and nougat.
3. Add the melted chocolate and stir to combine.
4. Spoon mixture into prepared tins, cover with glad wrap and refrigerate for 2-3 hours or until firm.
5. Turn out rocky road and cut each bar into pieces.
   

Rating?
5 out of 5 reindeers!

On the seventh day of Christmas (Peppermint Bark)

Can I just say that peppermint bark totally rocks my world!

How can something so simple taste so good?

Yummy white chocolate together with crunchy peppermint candy canes makes for an awesome Christmas treat. Also peppermint bark is a great sweet to give as gifts, easy to make and easy to love. Just pop a few pieces in a little plastic bag and then tie with some pretty Christmas ribbon - voila! You can also keep the peppermint bark in an air-tight container in the refrigerator if you want to make it in advance.

So what are you waiting for get yourself into the kitchen and make some now!


Peppermint Bark

500g white chocolate, melted
8 peppermint candy canes, crushed (just place the candy canes in a plastic bag and smack them around with a rolling pin - lots of fun!)

1. Mix together the chocolate and candy canes.
2. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
3. Spread out the chocolate mixture on the baking trays. Allow to set.
4. Break up the bark into whatever size pieces you want.
   

Yummy crushed candy canes...


Melted white chocolate...


Put the candy canes and chocolate together...


Mix it all up...


Spread it all out...


Let it set, and then break it up...



Rating?
5 out of 5 reindeers!

On the sixth day of Christmas (Florentines)

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me six geese a laying... or in my case a successful batch of Florentines. These are so simple and easy to make, it really is just a case of mixing all the ingredients together, baking them and finally spreading on some melted chocolate. The best part is that the florentines look very festive and they taste really good. Nice and sweet, with a bit of chew and a bit of crunch. Just what the doctor ordered, well actually a doctor would probably not order this due to the sweetened condensed milk - what a silly saying! Or perhaps just not the correct saying for this situation. Anyways that is besides the point, these florentines are easy and yummy, and they keep for a month in an air-tight container in the fridge - so they are great for Christmas presents. So what are you waiting for? Go make some :)


Florentines (from The Australian Women's Weekly - The Christmas Book)
Makes about 35

60g cornflakes
80g sultanas
35g dried currants
60g red glace cherries, chopped
60g green glace cherries, chopped
105g slivered almonds, toasted
3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
200g dark chocolate, melted

1. Combine cornflakes, fruit, nuts and condensed milk in a large bowl and mix well.
2. Drop level tablespoons of mixture about 4cm apart on oven trays covered with baking paper.
3. Bake at 180C for 8 minutes, or until browned lightly. Cool on trays.
4. Spread bases of florentines with chocolate; make wavy lines in chocolate with fork just before chocolate sets.

Spread the bases with chocolate...


Make a swirly pattern on the bases with a fork...


Then try not to eat them all...


Oh and if you have some left over chocolate why not make some chocolate freckles. Just spread little circles of chocolate on baking paper then cover with 100s and 1000s and allow to set. Yummy...


Rating?
5 out of 5 reindeers!

On the fifth day of Christmas (Fruit Mince Crumble Cake)

Okay is it just me or do I seem to be having a fair bit of difficulties with the 12 Baking Days of Christmas project? All of the cookie dough I have made so far has been really difficult to get together, my royal icing piping skills leave a lot to be desired and now this Fruit Mince Crumble Cake. Oh dear this was the biggest disaster so far. Let me just say that I have learned a very valuable lesson. When a recipe calls for a 23cm cake tin and you think your 20cm cake tin will suffice, you are wrong and you should just stop being so stingy and go buy a 23cm cake tin. That way you won't be so disappointed when you slice into your cake to discover the bottom of it isn't cooked at all and is instead just a sludgy mess. You also wouldn't throw a tantrum and throw the rest of the cake in the bin. Yes, it was not my finest moment. All of that aside though - the edges of the cake that were cooked tasted really good and I would be willing to try this recipe again with the correct cake tin. I think the cake would be especially tasty if served slightly warmed with some lovely home made custard. So don't let my mistakes deter you - I think this recipe could be a winner!


Fruit Mince Crumble Cake (from Better Homes and Gardens - December 2008)
Makes one 23cm cake

melted butter, for greasing
icing sugar, for dusting

Crumble
1 cup self-raising flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
125g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes

Cake
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup brown sugar
160g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
400g jar fruit mince (I used my home made fruit mince of course)
100g craisins (dried cranberries) (I omitted these)

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Brush a 23cm round springform cake tin with melted butter and line base and sides with baking paper.
2. To make crumble, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg into a bowl. Using your fingertips, rub butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Set aside.
3. To make cake, combine flour, baking powder and sugar in a large bowl. Rub butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Make a well in the centre, add egg and milk and stir until combined. Spoon mixture into prepared tin and press evenly on base.
4. Spread fruit mince over cake base, and sprinkle craisins over mince. Top with crumble mix.
5. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into centre of cake. Stand tin on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove cake from tin and stand on wire rack until cold. Dust with icing sugar just before serving.

Lovely looking cake cooling on the wire rack...


Dust it with a bit of icing sugar...


Then slice it open to discover it isn't baked properly :( ...


See mushy insides...


Oh well at least the edges were edible...


Rating?
3 out of 5 reindeers! Would of been higher if I baked it properly!

On the fourth day of Christmas (Gingerbread House)

For a very long time I have dreamed of having a few traditions at Christmas time. I've always wanted to leave some cookies and a glass of beer out for Santa, and of course some carrot sticks for the reindeer. Then there is the present opening on Christmas morning with a yummy breakfast to go along with it. Lunch with the family that ends in everyone needing to undo the top bottom of their pants. But most importantly I want to make a Gingerbread House each and every year - starting this year.

Yes I finally baked and decorated my first gingerbread house and it was so much fun. Even better is the aroma that flows through the house. It is just to die for - the rich smell of honey, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg is lovely and it is definitely making the house smell like Christmas.

The only down part of this experience was the dough (are we seeing a theme yet with me and dough?). Again it was difficult to get it to come together - but it got there in the end. The other thing is that I didn't get to taste the gingerbread since the house is still sitting on our dining room table. I really see it as more of a Christmas decoration than something to eat.


Gingerbread House (from The Australian Women's Weekly - The Christmas Book)

90g unsalted butter
200g brown sugar
1 cup honey
2 tsp finely grated lemon rind (I left this out)
2 eggs, lightly beaten (I needed 4 eggs)
750g plain flour
150g self-raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
Assorted lollies for decoration

1. Combine butter, sugar and honey in medium pan; stir over low heat until sugar dissolves, cool 10 minutes. Transfer mixture to large bowl; stir in rind, eggs and sifted dry ingredients.
   
2. Turn dough onto floured surface, knead gently until mixture loses its stickiness; cover, refrigerate for 1 hour.
3. Cut paper patterns for gingerbread house; cut one rectangle (20cm x 15cm) for the roof; one rectangle (15cm x 10cm) for the sides and one rectangle (16cm x 19cm) for the front/back. Trim front/back rectangle so that sides are 10cm high, as shown below.
4. Roll out dough on floured surface until 1cm thick; cut shapes from dough.
5. Place shapes on baking trays lined with baking paper and bake in 200C oven for 10 minutes or until firm.
6. Stand shapes on trays for 5 minutes, brush with glaze (recipe to follow). Transfer glazed shapes to wire racks to cool.
7. Cut door from front of house.
   
8. Cover a small board or tray with foil, spread a thin layer of Royal icing (recipe to follow) over foil to represent snow.
9. Assemble gingerbread house, using the Royal icing to glue together the walls and then the roof, as shown below.
10. Use Royal icing to secure lollies on the roof and walls.
11. Dust with icing sugar.
    

Royal Icing

2 egg whites
4 cups icing sugar, approximately
1/2 tsp lemon juice

1. Beat egg whites in small bowl until just frothy.
2. Gradually beat in enough sifted sugar for mixture to form very stiff peaks.
3. Stir in juice.
   

Glaze

1 tbspn caster sugar
2 tbspn boiling water

1. Combine ingredients in a small saucepan and stir over how heat until the sugar dissolves.
   

Now for the templates, first the roof...


Then the front/back of the house...


And of course the sides of the house...


Use the templates as a guide to cut out the gingerbread shapes...


After baking the shapes are glazed and left to cool on a wire rack...


Then you stick them together with royal icing to build up the house...


The roof is the trickiest bit - but a bit of extra royal icing and spending some time holding the roof pieces in place and it will all work out...


Then decorate to your hearts content, I tiled my roof with Freckles...


Made a colourful Smartie wall...


And gave the house a street number of 24 (which just so happens to be our anniversary and Mat's birthday)...


Rating?
5 out of 5 reindeers!