1 Name: Masoni : 2011-12-20 13:37 ID:s0Z7iuG6 [Del]
Want to give out some lovely Christmas treats ?
Here are a few good recipes you can make and give !
Walnuts in dates with honey and orange blossom water
This is a lovely little Christmas gift, perfect to eat with coffee, wine or just as a little snack. Its roots are Middle Eastern and it seems particularly Christmassy in a very sticky way. They last a couple of weeks, though don’t keep them in the fridge. You can multiply as you need. I reused the honey jar after I had washed it. Don’t bother getting a fancy honey for this, as the flower water makes it taste amazing even if it is pretty basic stuff.
Makes 1 250g jar
• 1 250g jar, cleaned and sterilised in boiling water
• 125g jar of honey
• 2 tbsp orange flower water
• 6 dates
• 6 walnuts out of the shell
• Boiling water
1. Pour the honey into the prepared 250g jar. If your honey is too thick to pour, I find that a few seconds submerged in boiling water or 10 seconds in the microwave makes the honey more runny and easy to use.
2. Remove the stones from the dates and push walnuts in their place. Add them to the honey in the jar with the orange flower water, top up with boiling water and stir around a little, then seal with the lid while the mixture is still warm.
Cinnamon and chilli chocolates
This is a really simple recipe for chocolates as you don’t really have to worry about the mixture splitting when you heat it. These only keep for about three days unless you freeze them (though they are delicious straight from the freezer).
◘ 250ml of thick cream
◘ 1 cinnamon stick
◘ 2 small dried hot chillies
◘ 2 tbsp of tequila
◘ 25g unsalted butter
◘ ¼ tsp coarse sea salt
◘ 300g good quality dark chocolate
◘ 2 tbsp crème fraîche
◘ 6 tbsp of cocoa
1. In a small pan, heat the cream with the cinnamon and chillies gently for at least five minutes, remove from the heat just before it boils and add the tequila, butter and salt. Strain into a jug.
2. Grind the chocolate in a Magimix until it is the size of coarse breadcrumbs, then pour the warm cream mixture onto the ground chocolate, pulse until smooth, then add the crème fraîche.
3. Using a rubber spatula, scrape the mixture into a wide bowl and chill for three hours, stirring a little after an hour and a half.
4. Sprinkle the cocoa onto a plate, spoon rough scoops out of the chocolate mixture and drop onto the cocoa, turn them around in the chocolate and then transfer to another plate (if you prefer them to be more regular shapes, just roll them with your hands – I like them to look a bit messy and obviously handmade).
5. Chill for another few hours and then bag/parcel up with an extra sprinkling of cocoa. Keep them in the fridge until you are ready to give them away.
Candied clementines
These last a few months, though Christmas is their time to shine.
○ 15 clementines
○ 4kg sugar
○ 4l water
1. Prick each clementine at least ten times with a skewer. Heat half the sugar and half the water together in a large ovenable saucepan. Heat the oven to 225F/100C/Gas ¼.
2. Add the clementines to the syrup and transfer to the oven for about six hours or overnight.
3. The next day, discard the syrup (or use it as a cordial) and repeat the process for another night.
4. The next day, take the clementines from the syrup and cool them before bagging/boxing them
Recipes can be found here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/christmas/8965702/Edible-Christmas-present-recipes.html
