Homemade edible Christmas gifts

Monday 3 December at 3:50pm

With Christmas just three weeks away, there’s not much time left to tick off your Christmas list. But if you can’t face heading to the high-street this year, why not get creative in the kitchen?

Juliet Sear shows us how to make five cheap, simple and delicious Christmas gifts.

Baileys truffles

Makes 16-18

Ingredients

300g dark chocolate

200ml double cream

50ml Baileys

For decorating:

Cocoa powder

Cocoa powder sifted with icing sugar (if using glitter as well, check it is edible and non toxic)

Glitter cocoa

Christmas style sprinkles

Shimmer gold spray (optional)

100g melted milk chocolate if you wish to coat a few, optional

Equipment:

Baking tray with parchment

Bowls

Cocktail sticks or wooden skewers

Saucepan

Cling film

Wooden spoon

Method

Roughly chop the dark chocolate and place in a bowl.
Heat the cream until just boiling and then pour over the chocolate. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave to stand for about 5 minutes.
Mix until the chocolate has fully melted and then stir in the Baileys. Place in the fridge to chill until set and cold.
Make the truffle balls by scooping a large walnut sized amount of ganache in your palms, roll to create little round balls, place on a baking tray and either roll in your chosen coatings (see above) or if dipping, leave to chill again for 30 mins while you melt the milk chocolate coating
Melt the milk chocolate gently over a bain marie or in a microwave on low-medium heat for 30 second blasts until just melted. Allow to cool slightly before coating the truffle balls
To coat, spear each ball on a skewer, dunk in the cooled chocolate and tap gently on the side of the bowl to let any excess chocolate drip away
Place on a clean tray with baking paper (you can use an extra cocktail stick if you need to push it off the dipping stick). Sprinkle with sprinkles or chopped nuts or spray golden and leave to set and dry.

Storing tips:

Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks but before serving remove for an hour or two. Can be frozen for up to a month.

Snowflake cinnamon spiced biscuits

Makes 16 - 20 biscuits (depending on size of cutter)

Ingredients

200g soft butter

200g light muscovado sugar

1 medium free range egg

375g plain flour plus extra for dusting

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

½ tsp mixed spice

For the Icing:

250g white royal icing sugar, made up as per instructions

1 pasteurised egg white

juice of half a lemon

250g icing sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 180C and line baking trays with parchment.
Beat the butter and sugar together until combined then add the egg and mix. Whisk the spices through the flour, then tip the flour into the butter and sugar mix and mix well until a dough is formed.
Roll out to an even thickness of about 4 - 5 mm then cut out your desired shapes. Place on a lined baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes, depending on size, until golden and cooked through (test by pressing a finger onto the dough - the finger mark should spring up when dough is cooked, if a fingermark stays, then cook a little longer.)
To make the icing, gradually mix the egg white and lemon juice into the icing sugar until soft peak consistency (pipeable).
Cool on a wire rack then decorate with royal icing as desired

Tip:

If you wish to make these into hanging decorations, cut little holes out by pressing a straw into the dough about half way through the cooking time. Trim the straw as needed when the dough gets blocked up in the straw, this is really easy to do.

Hot chocolate orange snowglobe

Makes 1

Ingredients

2 tsp melted white chocolate

3 medium sized marshmallows

1 giant chocolate button

1 Rollo

1 Mikado stick

50g dark chocolate with orange, grated

White chocolate stars (optional)

edible pens for Decorating the face (orange and black)

1 jam jar

twine, tag, spoon optional

Method

First make the marshmallow snowman - use the melted white chocolate as glue to stick the marshmallows together.
Use some more white chocolate to stick the chocolate button to the top marshmallow as the base of its hat and then add some more melted chocolate and stick the rolo on top of that, leave to set.
Draw on a face and 3 dots for buttons.
Break a Mikado stick in half and insert into the middle marshmallow.
Add some more melted chocolate to the base of the marshmallow to stick the snowman to the bottom of the jar, allow to dry.
Grate dark chocolate into the jam jar
Place lid on and tie instructions to lid - the instructions are:

Heat 250ml of whole or semi skimmed milk until just boiled

Pour over the snowman and allow to stand for 1 minute

Stir with the spoon until all of the chocolatey pieces are melted and enjoy!

Mulled wine spice pack

Makes 1

Ingredients

1 orange

2 cinnamon sticks

1 tsp whole allspice berries

1 tsp whole cloves

Bottle of red wine

Method

Preheat the oven to 60C.
Sit a cooling rack on top of a baking sheet and cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the cooling rack.
Cut the orange into 5mm thick slices. Arrange on the baking paper and cooling rack and place in the oven for 3- 4 hours, or until the orange slices have completely dried out - turn the slices over every hour so they dry evenly.
Wrap one of the cinnamon sticks, the allspice berries and cloves into a piece of muslin with most of the orange slices then use string to tightly tie the bundle closed.
Using another piece of string, tie the spice bag to the neck of the bottle of wine, decorating with the remaining cinnamon stick and orange slices.
To use, add spice mix to a warming pan of wine, stir patiently and enjoy.

Spiced plum and sultana chutney

Makes enough to fill 3 jam jars

Ingredients

100g sultanas

1 tbsp chopped fresh ginger

2 onions, chopped

300ml red wine vinegar

1 tsp yellow mustard seeds

2 cinnamon sticks

1 chopped fresh chilli

1 ½ tsp ground allspice

400g light brown sugar

750g plums

Salt and pepper

Method

Place the sultanas, ginger, onion, vinegar, mustard seeds, cinnamon, chilli and allspice in a large wide pan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Cut the plums in half and remove the stones. Cut half of the plum pieces into two pieces to give quarters, and leave the rest as halves.
Add the sugar and plums to the pan and season well, then simmer until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil and simmer rapidly until the plums are beginning to break down and the liquid has reduced to give you a thick chutney – this will take about 30 - 45 minutes.
Carefully spoon into sterilised jars. Label and then store in a dark cool place for at least two weeks before eating.
Store in the fridge once opened and use within four weeks.