Another yummy treat we make as inexpensive gifts (put it with the Chrissie caramels in celophane packages – pretty & decadent!) Enjoy!

3 egg whites
3.75 cups white sugar
0.75 cups light corn syrup
150g glace cherries (mix of red & green is ideal for a Christmas look & feel)
2 tsp essence (I love vanilla but my husband prefers peppermint – take your pick!)

Line 2 baking trays with non stick baking paper

Chop up the glace cherries (a very sticky job, but hey!)

Put sugar, corn syrup & water in jug (no lid or cover). Cook in microwave on high for 5 minutes or a bit longer – stirring every minute – til mixture is boiling & sugar has completely dissolved.

Cook for another 5 minutes then check every 30 seconds (take it out of microwave & use a warm sugar thermometer) until syrup reaches 125 C .

Beat egg whites to soft peaks (Did you know this is easier with free range. fresh eggs than horrid cage eggs from shops?)

Slowly pour syrup onto eggs, beating continuously.

Mix in the cherries & essence, and beat until nougat looses shine.

Drop  onto tray by the teaspoonful. Leave to set.

leave your thermometer in warm water to keep  it warm between tests. If you don’t have a thermomoeter (or you manage to break it like I did last Christmas)  drop a little syrup into very cold water as a test – its ready when it forms a firm supple ball.

Add pistachios or slivered almonds for a nutty addition.

These are yummy – I have to admit I make double batch now as we ‘test’ so many of them we don’t have a lot left to package as gifts let alone leave out for Santa…

45g butter (or marg if you must)

750g soft caramels

3 tablespoons low fat milk

2 cups of unsalted cashews

1 cup unsalted walnuts or almonds

Put the caramels, butter & milk in the microwave (well in a bowl then in the microwave!) and heat on high for 1 minute then stir.

Heat for another minute & stir.

Heat for another minute & stir (see the pattern yet?!)

Mixture should now be smooth – if not, heat for another 30 – 6 seconds and stir.

Stir in the nuts until they’re covered in caramel.

Line a baking tray (foil, baking paper, whatever) then drop teaspoonful of the mix onto the tray.

Once it’s set, drizzle some melted chocolate over the top. If I have time, I use white & brown chocolate for an even nicer effect, but one chocolate or none works well too.

Store in an airtight container if you can resist eating them! Oh, and you can use other sorts of nuts or even mixed nuts if you prefer (mixed nuts makes it a bit cheaper if you’re on a budget but it’s a pretty cheap gift anyway.)

Santa’s sleigh is packed, the reindeer and boomers are rested, Santa has checked his list twice, the elves are checking the load is secure – Santa is almost ready to leave the North Pole and head Down Under!!!!!!!

How about you – are you ready for Santa’s visit? Have you prepared a snack and drink for him, and put out something for the boomers?

Santa is VERY BUSY tonight, after months of preparing, so he really appreciates you leaving a snack near your stockings. And I believe that by making it yourself, you help build up Santa’s magic supply so he can get down (and up) small chimneys and find the right stocking for all his gifts.

If you need ideas for making a snack for Santa, try our recipes , article or look at any letters you have received from Santa. Or share your favourite ideas and recipes with us.

I hope you’ve been good and are excited, because Santa arrives in only a few hours!!!!!!!!!!!

We had some delicious Christmas pudding latst night, made by our friend’s Mum. She made it ‘properly’ – soaking the fruit for weeks beforehand (in Port in this case).

This pudding was mostly fruit and was about the moistest and yummiest pudding I’ve ever tasted. If I can get the recipe and am allowed, I will share it here too.

Anybody else had some good pudding yet this year?

Takes about 50 miniutes ot make, but they look so cool!

Ingrediants:

250 g plain sweet biscuits
2 tbsp cocoa

1 cup desicated coconut

150 – 200g white chocolate for decoration.
150g dark chocolate pieces, hundreds & thousands, or choc sprinkles for decoration as well.

Method:

combine buicuit crumbs with cocoa!

 Now add your cocoanut and sweet condensed milk.

Put cling wrap on them and put in fridge for 20-25 minutes

than shape them into fir tree shapes (cones really)

Now drissle melted white choclate  all  over(as your tinsel) and decorate with your delicous hundreads and thousands or choclate sprinkles (as your other decorations on your tree).

if you have some star stickers or icing shapes, put one on each tree to finish it off.

Ummmmmmmmmm,a quick,yummy and fun activity to do with your kids – maybe give as presents, too The trees, not the kids!)

These are a yummy snack for Santa but can also be wrapped to make a nice gift

ingredients

250g butter
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 egg
2 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup cornflour or custard powder
1/3 cup cocoa
1 tablespoon milk
200 g milk chocolate
100g white chocolate
round lollies (e.g. mini marshmallows, mini smarties)
icypole sticks (at least 12)

instructions

1. cream butter, sugar & vanilla
2. add egg
3. mix well
4. add cocoa, flours & milk
5. mix well
6. wrap mix in plastic and cool for at least 30 minutes
7. cut out 24 Christmas tree (or other biscuit cutter shapes always even number of each shape)
8. put in 180 C over for 15 minutes
9. cool on tray
10. spread melted milk chocolate on biscuits
11. press icy pole stick in chocolate
12. place matching shape biscuit on top
13. let chocolate set in fridge
14. melt white chocolate
15. use piping bag or paint brush to create chocolate ‘garlands’ on trees
16. use lollies to create Christmas balls on trees
17. allow chocolate to set before storing or wrapping

* Makes about a dozen trees if you have a 12cm long biscuit cutter. Will make more or less depending on your biscuit cutter.

* It’s fun to make different Christmas shapes and give a couple together as a gift…

Some years ago, my daughter called the shortbread we made for Santa 5cent biscuits (why? who knows! She was only 2 at the time!) We’ve now found a recipe for millionaires shortbread in a school book and this year we’ll make 20cent biscuits

Make shortbread as usual  and let it cool.

Heat a tin of condensed milk with 25g brown sugar and 25g butter until it simmers – don’t leave it to sit or it’ll stick. Keep stirring as it cools and thickens.

Spread the caramel over the shortbread and let it cool completely.

Melt some good chocolate ( a 250g packet gives a generous covering plus a little reward for the chef!) and pour it over the top.

Cool, slice and put on a plate for Santa – or for me! Yummy and easy – what more can you ask for in a recipe!

If you need to take a dish to a Christmas function, but know you won’t have time to cook anything at the time, why not cook it sooner and freeze it? Then just pull it out of the freezer in time for the event – a great back up for unexpected visitors over the holiday season, too. This is an easy to make lasagne that freezes nicely…

2kg mince meat plus 2 large jars of prepared sauce and 1 large tin tomato puree*
4kg cheese – a combination of two works well, especially if one is mozzarella for the stringy effect!
2kg penne, ziti or other tube pasta

make a layer of meat sauce

cover with pasta

cover with cheese

cover with sauce

repeat until the pan is full and/or you run out of ingredients, but make sure cheese is the top layer. Wrap tightly and freeze. Bake at 180 C for about 30 minutes, plus 5 minutes uncovered – longer if cooking from frozen.

* If you have time, add chopped vegies into the sauce for more flavour and to make it a complete meal when serving it.

Though it’s not a strickly Christmas recipe, it’s original and great fun for the kids.
My aunty made them last Christmas and I just couldn’t stop snacking on them! These addictive little treats are delicious, fun and very, very easy to make.

The ingredients are:
1 x 675 packet of Nutri Grain
1 x 45 grams packet of Cream of Chicken Soup powder
1 x 45 grams packet of French Onion Soup powder
2 teaspoons of mustard powder
1 tablespoon of curry powder
2/3 cup of Canola oil
500 grams of unsalted peanuts

One you have all this the making of Nuts and Bolts is extemely simple…
1. Warm oil in microwave for about 20 seconds
2. Combine all dry ingredients in a lidded container
3. Shake until the Nutri Grain is covered with the dry ingredients
4. Pour and stir in oil and shake some more
5. Keep stored in an air tight container

If the Nutri Grain goes a little soggy, simply heat in a moderate oven until they are crispy again.

If you don’t like peanuts you can change the recipe to cashews or even some mixed nuts. You could even throw in a broken up packet of 2 minute noodles to make Nuts, Bolts and Screws!

Great for a snack as everyone arrives or shares out presents at CHristmas, or make little packets of it as gifts.

Fruit mince can be bought in any supermarket, but it is so much nicer to use home made mince when making puddings, cakes, fruit mince tarts and the like. So here is a simple recipe for fruit mince – good to make it in or before October for best results at Christmas.

Oh, and jars of mince can themselves be a lovely Christmas gift!

1/3 cup raisins, chopped finely
1/3 cup currants
1/3 cup sultanas
1 Tbs mixed peel, finely chopped
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbs butter (melted)
1 Tbs brandy
1 apple, grated

Mix the fruit and peel, then add the remaining ingredients. Once thoroughly mixed, bottle and seal tightly.

* a small amount of grated ginger is a nice touch
* it is best to sterilise your bottles before adding the mince – as easy as heating them in the oven or in a pot of boiling water. Be careful not to burn yourself.

Along with Æbleskiver, the Danes usually drink Gløgg (which is very much like the mulled wine I’ve had on skiing trips.) Not sure if you could keep it hot enough for Santa, but I’m sure he’d enjoy it!

Persoanlly, I think this suits a Christmas in July celebration better than on December 25 for Australia.

Gløgg

250ml water

4 Tablespoons of white sugar

1 cinnamon stick

3 or 4 cloves

5 or 6 cardamon seed pods, peeled

small piece of ginger, peeled

peel & juice of 1 lemon

peel & juice of 1 orange

1 bottle of red wine

90 gram dried fruit (without glace cherries)

60 grams blanched almonds, chopped

0.25 cup of port, rum, brandy, vodka, or similar

Boil cinnamon, sugar, cloves, cardamon, ginger and peel in the water for about 10 minutes*. Remove the peel and spices.

Mix in the juices, fruit and nuts and heat to almost boiling. Take off the stove and mix in the wine.

The port/rum gets mixed in just before serving, but that should be pretty much straight away anyway to drink it hot.

* For a stronger flavour, leave the spices & peels water to sit overnight.

Another traditional Christmas treat from Denmark…

Klejner

.5 cup butter

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

.25 cup thickened cream

3.5 cups plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

.75 teaspoon ground cardamon

.25 teaspoon ground nutmeg

oil

icing sugar

Cream the butter and sugar.

Beat the eggs then whisk in the cream. Slowly mix the egg mixture into the butter/sugar.

Add dry ingredients to form a dough.

Divide dough into four and tightly wrap in plastic wrap. Leave in fridge overnight.

Work with one dough section at a time…

Roll dough out to about 6 mm thick. Cut into strips about 5 cm wide and then into diamonds by cutting the diagonals about 7 cm apart.

Cut a small slit along the length of the diamond and tuck one end of the diamond through the slit until it is a diamond shape again with just a little twist in the middle.

Keep refrigerated while doing the remaining batches.

Heat oil in a pan or deep fryer until hot. Add a few diamonds at a time (about 5 but it depends on the size of your pan) until they are puffed up and golden brown on both side – don’t forget to turn them once!

Drain on paper towel then roll in icing sugar.

Store in layers with grease-proof paper in air tight containers. This recipe makes about 4 dozen so I think I’ll reduce it when I make them!