I absolutely love Christmas baking, I try to make as many different Christmas themed treats as I possibly can.
Chocolate Orange Truffles
These are super easy to make and would make a lovely gift, just put them in a gift box and tie a ribbon around them.
Ingredients
- 300ml double cream
- 300g dark chocolate
- knob of butter
- 1 teaspoon of orange essence
- cocoa powder to decorate
Method
- Heat the cream over a medium heat in a pan until bubbles begin to form at the sides. Whilst this is heating, break the chocolate up into small pieces and put into a large bowl.
2. When the cream is ready, add the knob of butter and stir until dissolved. Pour the hot mixture over the chocolate and stir until melted. Add the orange essence then put in a fridge for around 2 hours until set.
3. About 30 minutes before you are ready to make your truffles, take the mixture out of the fridge to go slightly softer.
4. Put the cocoa powder into a bowl, use a teaspoon to scoop up the chocolate and use your hands to form 2cm balls. Roll them into the cocoa powder and keep in the fridge until needed. I stored mine in a tin, you can use any topping you prefer and swap the orange essence for sea salt to create salted chocolate truffles.
Winter Spice Apple Pies
I am not a fan of mince pies and I feel as though I am missing out by not liking them as they are a Christmas staple. I wanted to find an alternative so I decided to make some winter spice apple pies.
Ingredients
You will get around 12 pies depending on the size
- 2 medium sized cooking apples
- 4 tbsp. winter Pimms
- 3 tbsp. light brown sugar sugar
- 1 tbsp. mixed spice
- Zest of 1 orange
- 1 packet of shortcrust pastry (or you can make your own)
- A splash of milk
- A sprinkling of icing sugar
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease a cupcake tin.
2. Peel and chop the apples into quite small chunks.
3. Cover with winter Pimms, sugar, zest and mixed spice. Mix together thoroughly and set to one side.
4. Roll out your pastry until it’s approximately half a centimetre thick and cut out 12 large circles. They should fit perfectly into the cupcake tin without too much pastry overhang.
5. Gather the remaining pastry into a ball and re-roll to half a centimetre thickness. Cut out 12 small circles of pastry to act as lids. I cut mine into star and heart shapes but you could just do circles again if you wanted.
6. Place the pastry cases in the muffin tin and fill with the apple mixture. Place the lids gently on the top.
7. Using a pastry brush, brush the pastry with milk to give it a lovely colour when baked. Stab the lids with a sharp knife especially if the lids are sealed.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool in the tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
9. Dust with icing sugar before serving.
These are the cutest little biscuits and a great one to make with children. Children would enjoy decorating these although you may need to get some extra sweeties.
Ingredients
- 250g butter
- 150g light brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 350g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
- 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
to decorate:
- red smarties
- choolate chips
- curly wurlys
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180c and line two baking trays with grease proof paper.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add the egg and vanilla essence, then mix in the flour and bicarbonate of soda to form a dough.
3. Roll the dough out onto a floured surface to 1/2cm thick. Use a knife to cut out a blunted triangle shape to form the reindeer's head. Transfer the cookie to one of the baking trays and repeat until all of the dough has been used. bake for 10-12 minutes until golden. I had some extra dough so I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies.
4. While still warm, press a red smartie in to the bottom of the biscuit, followed by two chocolate chips for the eyes and two bits of curly wurly for the antlers.
