Tag: christmas

Chocolate coconut raspberry fudge

Chocolate coconut raspberry fudge

I love making homemade chocolates. They’re great as gifts and brilliant if you’re having people over because you can make them ahead of time but fudge making can be tricky. This recipe for chocolate coconut raspberry fudge is luckily a cheats alternative. No sugar thermometers 

Caramel chai hot chocolate

Caramel chai hot chocolate

It’s always fun to have lots of delicious treats up your sleeve. In fact, it’s not only fun, it’s essential if you’re as greedy as me. I like to play around with classics and this hot chocolate is absolutely incredible. Caramel chai hot chocolate. White 

Salted caramel chocolate truffles

Salted caramel chocolate truffles

Salted caramel chocolate truffles; a seriously indulgent homemade treat. Amazing for homemade gifts and fab for special occasions. Everyone will go crazy for these delicious bites. Soft, caramel scented chocolate truffles coated in a gorgeous chocolate shell. Seriously show stopping treats. There are a few stages with this recipe, but none of them are difficult, they just require a bit of time. If you plan ahead, this no bake dessert is amazing and well worth the effort.

Making truffles is a lovely recipe to learn and once you’ve mastered them you can do so many flavours and combinations. Even though making ganache is easy there is a trick to it to avoid the base from splitting; which has happened to me a few times. The best piece of advice is to be patient and keep everything on a nice gentle heat and you’ll be fine. 

Ingredients

250g dark chocolate (I use an inexpensive dark chocolate for this, something like Tesco dark chocolate, works so well)

100ml double cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp salt (plus a little extra to sprinkle on top of the truffles (optional)

1 ½ tsp ground coffee powder

5 tbsp dulce de leche 

To coat the truffles:

230-250g dark chocolate (I always use Lindt, it melts beautifully and you definitely want a good quality chocolate for this part of the recipe, so it has a gorgeous crispy shell for the truffle)

Sea salt to sprinkle on top (optional)

Makes 24 truffles 

Method for salted caramel chocolate truffles 

Finely chop the dark chocolate so that it’ll melt quickly when making the ganache.

In a large bowl pour in the double cream, vanilla extract, coffee, salt and dulce de leche. Then add in the chocolate shards and stir briefly.

In a small saucepan, start to heat a small amount of water which will be used to melt the chocolate. Once the water begins to simmer, put the large pyrex, heatproof bowl, on top of it and melt the ingredients together.  This is such a simple way to make a ganache, which is what truffles are essentially. 

Make the ganache

Every so often stir the mixture. These are very easy to make but chocolate can be quite fiddly, particularly when making ganache so my advice is to keep the heat as gentle as possible, turning down the heat for the water if it is bubbling too much to help get a beautiful ganache. The water should be hot enough to melt the chocolate and combine everything together but not too hot which can make the ganache split, so a little patience goes a long way here. If the mix does split, and you’ll know if it has because the chocolate will look grainy, just stir in a little more double cream and the mix should smooth out again. No problems. 

It should take about 5-10 minutes to make the ganache. 

When the chocolate is all melted and you have a smooth mix, take the bowl off the heat and directly cover the surface with cling film to avoid a skin forming. Chill the mixture in the fridge for a few hours so that it thickens enough to roll into truffles. 

Let’s roll the truffles

Once the ganache has chilled, take it out of the fridge and start spooning out small amounts to roll into truffles. If you want to weigh them, I’d aim for 16g each but you don’t have to weigh them if you don’t feel like it. 

Once you’ve portioned out the ganache, quickly roll it in the palms of your hands to make a ball. 

When you have rolled out all the truffles, chill again in the fridge for a few hours (or overnight) so they firm up enough to coat in chocolate. They will be softer than other truffles because of the yummy dulce de leche which will make them extra delicious when you eat them, but it just means it takes a little while longer to help them set. 

When they are set and firmer to the touch, start to melt the chocolate to coat the truffles. 

Finely chop the chocolate. (I’d recommend dividing the chocolate into two batches to coat the truffles because if you melt all at once it will likely firm up too much before you have coated all the truffles, and you want the chocolate to be silky smooth when it coats the truffles for the best finish.)

With the half of the chocolate you are working with, put about ⅔ into a heat proof bowl. Melt the chocolate gradually in the microwave in about 30 sec bursts. Stirring it occasionally to ensure that the chocolate is melting evenly and not getting too hot (this can make the chocolate go grainy). 

Once the chocolate has melted add in the final ⅓ and stir quickly until it has all melted (popping it back in the microwave briefly if it needs help completely melting). This is a cheat’s way to temper the chocolate for the coating which works well and means you don’t need to invest in a sugar thermometer. 

Let’s decorate the salted caramel chocolate truffles

With a small spoon and fork, take a truffle one by one, and coat it in a layer of chocolate, patting the fork against the bowl to tap away any excess chocolate before placing onto a plate lined with greaseproof paper. Once you’ve coated half of the truffles in chocolate, pour the remaining chocolate into a small piping bag and drizzle chocolate over the top and add a light sprinkling of sea salt. (If you don’t have a piping bag then just use a small spoon to drizzle the chocolate over the truffles). 

Then, repeat for the remaining truffles until they are all coated and decorated. 

Pop the truffles in the fridge. They’ll last for 1-2 weeks in the fridge very well. 

Looking for other no bake recipes? Try our Ruby chocolate valentines truffles or Chocolate peanut butter bites or Fruit and nut fudge

Cranberry pop tarts

Cranberry pop tarts

Cranberry pop tarts. These are such a fun and completely delicious treat, particularly in the winter when cranberries are in season. It’s a great recipe for when you’ve got leftover cranberry sauce that you don’t know what to do with. The tart and zingy cranberry 

White chocolate and cranberry cupcakes

White chocolate and cranberry cupcakes

White chocolate and cranberry cupcakes. This is such a beautiful festive bake. Great for anyone that wants an easy, stunning little showstopper. They’re even better for anyone that don’t like mincemeat.  White chocolate and cranberries are such a gorgeous combo. The tart brightness of the 

Sloe gin cranberry sauce

Sloe gin cranberry sauce

Sloe gin cranberry sauce is exactly the sort of easy peasy recipe you can knock up in a flash. For me, the Christmas table would be naked without a little cranberry sauce to have on the side.  Not only is it delicious with the tart berries, orange and warming spices, but the sloe gin is the shining star. It brings out all of the fruity flavours. A real celebration of winter seasonal ingredients.

No stress kitchen pottering is something I love to do. As the nights draw in and everything feels that bit colder I feel comforted by all the twinkle lights around.

It’s such a treat and made in minutes, giving you plenty of time to get on with all the rest of the festive jobs.

Is cranberry sauce just for Christmas day? Absolutely not. This recipe will make enough for the big day, leftovers and can be used in a range of sweet goodies too. I used mine to make delicious white chocolate and cranberry cupcakes and cranberry and orange pop tarts. Seriously, let your creativity run wild. 

Ingredients

340g fresh (or frozen) cranberries 

1 orange (zest and juice)

½ tsp ground cinnamon

⅛ tsp ground cloves

50ml sloe gin (or you could use port or simply water if you prefer)

130g caster sugar

Method for sloe gin cranberry sauce 

This is a super speedy recipe to make. 

Simply, wash your cranberries and add them to a medium saucepan. 

Add in all the rest of the ingredients and over a low heat cook the cranberries for about 10 minutes, until they burst and soften. 

Take the pan off the heat and give it a final stir. 

Remember, the sauce will continue to thicken as it cools, so don’t worry if it looks a little loose at this stage. 

This will happily sit in the fridge for a week. Or you can pop some in the freezer to use over the festive season. If you’re making the sauce ahead of Christmas, give it a stir before serving to break the sauce up a bit. 

Looking for other festive recipe ideas? Check out our Nutella mince pies; Gingerbread Nutella sandwich cookies, Mince pie Christmas cupcakes or our Reindeer Christmas chocolates

Can’t get enough of cranberries? Our Cranberry and apple curd is delicious and fab for breakfast with porridge or with scones for a festive cream tea.

Gingerbread hot chocolate

Gingerbread hot chocolate

I just love a recipe that takes minutes to make but delivers big on flavour and indulgence. This gingerbread hot chocolate does exactly that. Such a treat. Full of warming spices and rich dark chocolate gorgeousness, you simply must make time for at least one 

Tomato, red pepper and lentil soup

Tomato, red pepper and lentil soup

For me, there is nothing more comforting on a cold, cold day, than to put my feet up and enjoy a nice bowl of soup with a chunk of bread or a toasted cheese sandwich and this soup is such a winner. Tomato, red pepper 

Gingerbread Nutella sandwich cookies

Gingerbread Nutella sandwich cookies

What’s better than a gingerbread cookie at Christmas? That would be two gingerbread cookies. What could be even better than that? Well, that would be smothering them with nutella and making a cookie sandwich. You’re welcome. These gingerbread nutella sandwich cookies are delicious and a brilliant treat to make this holiday period. Particularly if, like me, you like the idea of making gingerbread decorations for the tree but then have loads of dough left over. If this sounds familiar, this is a recipe for you. 

This gorgeously spiced gingerbread makes quite a lot, so what I tend to do is make it up, divide the dough in half and then depending on what I have planned, roll and bake one half and then chill or freeze the other to use another time. It’s so great knowing you have this whenever you might want to do a simple and gorgeous festive dessert or need something to take to a party. 

Adding the nutella is brilliant. I usually have an open jar in the house, and really gingerbread was just waiting to be paired off with this luscious cocoa nutty spread. You could also use caramel or ganache if you don’t have it, that would be ace too, but this is maybe the easiest option. No extra stress this time of year please. 

These biscuits truly have their party dresses on with the addition of royal icing decorations; plus you can go crazy with creative flair. Or, if you don’t have time or just don’t fancy icing the biscuits, you can dust the tops of the cookies with icing sugar, before sandwiching them together; entirely up to you. 

Ingredients

170g caster sugar

170g unsalted butter (cold)

¼ tsp salt

120g golden syrup

50g black treacle 

500g plain flour

100g self rising flour

2 tsp ground cinnamon 

2 tsp ground ginger

½ tsp freshly ground nutmeg

¼ tsp ground cloves 

1 large egg

This will make 20 large star sandwich cookies, if baking with the whole amount of dough.

I jar of Nutella

For the royal icing

1 large egg (egg white only)

225g icing sugar (sieved)

Pinch of salt

(Or if you prefer, you can just dust the tops of the cookies with icing sugar, if you don’t want to ice the biscuits). 

Method for gingerbread Nutella sandwich cookies

Put the sugar, syrup, treacle, butter and egg into a mixer. Mix on a low speed for a few minutes until the cubes of butter break down a little and then turn the mixer on high for a few more minutes until the size of the lumps of butter has reduced. 

In a separate bowl, combine your flours and add the salt and spices. Then sieve to bring everything together. 

On a low speed, add the flour and mix on a low speed for about a minute until everything begins to combine. Then turn the speed up until the dough really begins to cling together and starts to form a ball. Don’t be tempted to add any liquid at this stage, the dough will come together. I’ve added extra liquid before and this means that the gingerbread will soften really quickly once baked which isn’t really what you want.

Bring the mixture together with your hands. Separate it into two. If using immediately, refrigerate each half for at least 30 minutes (longer is totally fine) and then roll out the dough, cut your shapes and bake. 

If you are freezing any of the dough, this is the time to do it. Wrap the dough tightly in clingfilm and store in the fridge for a month. 

Preheat your oven to 150C. 

I find it easiest to roll the dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper, which means that you won’t need to add any extra flour to the dough. Cut out the stars (I used two different shapes, but use what you have at home. If you don’t have any, round cookies work just as well). Roll the dough pretty thin. Remember, they are going to be sandwiched together, so you don’t want each cookie to be as thick as regular gingerbread. 

Make sure that you have an even number of each star pattern and then on half cut out a hole in the middle, using a circle or smaller star shaped cutter, so that you’ll be able to see all that gorgeous nutella poking through when they’re baked. 

You’ll need a few cookie trays for this, each lined with non-stick parchment paper. 

Cook each tray for about 15-20 minutes. You’ll know when they’re done when they’re set and browning around the edges and are lightly golden brown on the bottom.

When they’re cooked, take them out of the oven and leave to cool completely on a wire rack. Be careful when you take them from the tray, they are very fragile when they come out of the oven, but soon harden up nicely. 

Once baked and cooled, you can pop them in an airtight container and they’ll keep happily for a few weeks. Gingerbread is great like that. 

If you’re eating straight away, let’s prepare the royal icing. 

It’s so easy to make royal icing. All you need to do is separate an egg so that you have the whites. Be careful not to get any yolk in.

Add the whites to a mixer with a pinch of salt and then slowly add the sifted icing sugar until it is all combined and the icing looks white and glossy. I usually add a little boiled water at this stage to make the consistency a little looser so that it’s easier to decorate the biscuits. 

Pour the icing into a piping bag and cut a tiny hole at the bottom. 

Decorate the gingerbread cookies however you like and leave on a wire rack to set for an hour. 

Once they’re ready, get a spoonful of nutella onto each cookie bottom and then sandwich with the decorated tops. Enjoy!

These will keep in an airtight container for a few days. 

Looking for more inspiration for festive bakes? Try our Nutella mince pies; Mince pie Christmas cupcakes or our Vegan gingerbread

Nutella mince pies

Nutella mince pies

Nutella mince pies, now this is a delightful way to shake up your festive routine. In our house, we always make a batch or two of mince pies, often on Christmas Eve, and they’re such a comforting nostalgic bake that I can’t see this changing