I love my food and I am honoured and privileged to be fed at all the houses on Christmas Eve as I deliver the toys around the world. Let me share with you some of the favourite treats that I get.
These tiny Santa cheesecakes are the ideal dessert for Christmas Day. The combination of sharp baked cheesecake, chocolate biscuit base and fresh zing of strawberry is so yum. Try stopping at one.
Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Line a 24 cup mini muffin tin with paper cases.
Use an electric beater to beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and lemon juice until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time.
Break each mini Oreo in half and use a knife to scrape the cream filling away from the lower Oreo. Place one mini Oreo into the base of each mini muffin cup.
Divide the cream cheese mixture amongst the muffin cups, pouring it or spooning it over each mini Oreo.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until slightly risen and just beginning to crack on the surface.
Cool completely on a wire rack and refrigerate while you make the toppings.
Whip the cream and icing sugar together until thick and fluffy. Prepare the strawberries by cutting off their tops (where the stalk is) to create a Santa hat shape out of each one.
Put the whipped cream mixture into a piping bag and pipe a generous blob onto each cooled cheesecake. Place a strawberry onto each blob, pushing it down so that the cream oozes out slightly to become the hat's fur trim.
Top each Santa hat with a small dab of cream for a pom pom. Dust with icing sugar just before serving.
Mars Bar Christmas Crackles
A fabulous combination of flavours in bite size pieces. You just have to try these.
2 tbsp of pouring (thin) cream
2 tsp cocoa powder, sifted
Spray a little canola spray into 2 x 12 cup mini-muffin trays.
Melt the Mars Bars, cream and cocoa in a glass bowl over simmering water. The bowl should not touch water. Stir the mixture until smooth.
Put the Rice Bubbles in a separate large bowl, pour in the chocolate mixture and stir until well mixed.
Spoon the mixture into the muffins tray and press down gently.
Refrigerate for 2 hours and turn out onto a tray to decorate.
Melt the white chocolate in the microwave checking and stirring it at 30 second intervals. Pour it into a piping bag while warm and snip the tip off.
Turn the crackles upside down and pipe the chocolate on. Finish with a red chocolate button on top of each one.
This simple shortbread recipe is as buttery and melt-in-the-mouth as any fancy traditional recipe. Whip up a batch and wrap them up for Christmas!
Preheat the oven to 170˚C.
Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the melted butter and stir until it's all combined.
Line a 28cm x 18cm lamington tin with baking paper and press the mixture in.
Bake at 170˚c for 30 minutes.
Remove from oven, cut into 2 squares, sprinkle evenly with caster sugar and prick each piece with a fork.
Return to oven for 15 minutes. Cool in tin.
These melted snowman cookies are the perfect Christmas cooking activity for the kids. Get playing now!
Basic cookie dough:1/3 cup (80g) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup (115g) caster sugar
1 1/3 cup (200g) plain flour
To decorate:1 cup (150g) pure icing sugar
To make the dough; Preheat oven to 180C (160C fan-forced) and line two trays with baking paper. Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add the egg and beat well. Fold in the vanilla, flour, baking powder and salt. Mix into a dough, shape this into a disc, then wrap in plastic and let rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Roll out and cut into circles (using a cookie cutter or the base of a glass tumbler). Transfer these to a baking tray and bake for 10 minutes or until golden.
Let cool completely. Slice up a few licorice strips into thin strips for arms, scarves, etc. Tiny dots for eyes or triangles for bow ties.
Make up a basic white icing (just add a tiny bit of boiling water to pure icing sugar and stir, then add more water until you reach the desired consistency - should be fairly thick). Decorate the marshmallows with eyes, noses, mouths etc. You can use an icing pen here, or just use the white icing as glue for the cachous.
Decorate the cookies, spoon on a little white icing and spread over the surface of your cookie, then press the marshmallow down in the middle and decorate at will!
Gingerbread Ice Cream Sandwiches
Take Christmas gingerbread to the next level by adding a creamy layer of vanilla ice cream between two spicy gingerbread cookies. Yum! Yum! Yum!
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Preheat the oven to 160˚C.
Cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
Keep the mixer on low speed and add the egg and golden syrup until fully combined.
Mix all the dry ingredients into a separate bowl and then gradually add them to the mixer until a dough forms.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead quickly until it's soft and pliable. Form it into a disc, wrap in glad wrap and chill for one hour in the fridge.
Roll the dough out to 1cm thickness and cut out 12 (or more) gingerbread shapes.
Line a baking tray with baking paper and place the gingerbread shapes onto the tray.
Bake for 10 - 15 minutes until slightly golden. Let them cool on the tray, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Once the cookies are completely cooled, use a palette knife or similar wide bladed knife, to place a layer of ice cream on one cookie, topping it off with a second cookie to create the sandwich. Use the knife to smooth around the edges and trim off the excess ice cream.
Put all the cookies in an airtight container in the freezer to firm up the ice cream before serving.
Serve the gingerbread sandwiches on a chilled platter to keep them from melting. Eat them quickly!
Happy making and happy eating.
