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It wouldn't be Christmas without our favourite food and drink! We've put together a selection of treats you can easily make at home, take a look below and see what takes your fancy...
Warming festive drinks
There’s nothing like coming home after a crisp winters walk, to a cosy home and a warming Christmas drink. Here are some of our favourite recipes for you to try – making your own also means your home with smell divinely festive!
Mulled wine
Ingredients:
- ½ a bottle of red wine
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 star anise
- 2 cloves
- 1 orange sliced
- 1 lemon sliced
- 50g sugar
Method:
- Put all the ingredients and heat gently ensuring it doesn't boil for around 8 minutes
- Ensure your glasses or cups are heatproof, pour, sit back and relax
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Spiced apple cider
This recipe is great as it can be made with apple juice or cider and both are equally as tasty!
Ingredients:
- 8 cups of apple juice or cider
- 2 tsp of cinnamon or 2 sticks of cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp grated nutmeg
- 4 whole cloves
- 1 orange sliced
- 8 cinnamon sticks
- 1 cup of whipped cream
Method:
- Heat the cider or juice along with all the ingredients other than the 8 cinnamon sticks and cream. Ensure the liquid does not boil. Take off the heat after 5 minutes
- Pour into heatproof glasses or cups , top with whipped cream and enjoy!
Eggnog
Ingredients:
- 6 eggs
- 150g golden caster sugar
- 150ml whole milk
- 400ml double cream
- 350ml rum or bourbon
- Freshly grated nutmeg
Method:
- Whisk the egg yolks and 100g of the sugar together until pale yellow and thick
- Use a clean bowl and whisk the egg whites until foamy and opaque and the remaining 50g of sugar and whisk until soft peaks form
- Stir the milk, cream and rum into the egg yolk mixture
- Fold the whisked egg white into the eggnog mixture
- Ladle the eggnog into glasses, sprinkle with nutmeg and serve
Make and bake your own treats
Who doesn’t look forward to all the delicious snacks and nibbles at Christmas! We all have our festive favourites Christmas wouldn’t be the same without - look no further if you’re are looking for some inspiration to brighten up that buffet, a family activity or homemade gifts! Here’s a few of our favourite goodies to get you started:
Stained glass window biscuits
Ingredients:
- 150g butter softened
- 100g muscovado sugar
- 1 large egg
- 250g plain flour
- 1tsp baking powder
- Pinch salt
- 1 tbsp mixed spices
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 pack boiled coloured sweets
Method:
- Line a baking tray with greaseproof or parchment paper and pre heat the oven to 180* or gas mark 4
- In a large bowl whisk together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy and then mix in the egg
- Sift in the flour, baking powder, salt spices and extract and mix with a wooden spoon
- Once you have a dough consistency, turn out onto a floured surface and roll out to 1cm thick
- You can use any shape cookie cutters but it you have festive ones such as stars or trees, even better
- Once you’ve cut them all out, place them on the tray and use a small cutter or knife to cut out the middle of each biscuit. Place a boiled sweet in the hole of each biscuit
- Place in the oven for around 15 minutes until golden brown with the sweet melted
- Carefully remove from the oven, if you have children helping, be very careful to keep them away from the biscuits until they have cooled – melted sweets/sugar can cause serious burns. If you wish to hang the biscuits on your tree poke a hole out of the top of the biscuit with a straw or similar
- Once cool, thread string or ribbon through and hang on your tree so the lights can shine through. Just remember if you have pets to hang them out of reach!
Reindeer cookies
You can use any biscuit recipe but we’ve chosen gingerbread. The joy of these is that they are created using a gingerbread man cutter, so if you're not a baker, or you don’t have the time you can buy a carton of gingerbread men from most supermarkets and just decorate them!
Ingredients:
- 125g unsalted butter
- 100g dark muscovado sugar
- 4 tbsp golden syrup
- 325g plain flour
- 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- White icing, small amount of black icing and red smarties or similar
Method:
- Line baking trays with parchment/greaseproof paper
- Melt the sugar, butter and golden syrup in a medium saucepan, stir occasionally, once the sugar has melted fully remove from the heat
- Sieve the flour, ginger and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl and stir in the melted ingredients until a dough is formed. At this point you can refrigerate for a period and this will help stop the gingerbread from spreading in the oven
- Lightly flour a surface and roll out to 5mm thick, use a gingerbread man cutter and place biscuits on the baking trays, bake for 9-10 minutes until golden brown
- Remove from oven and allow to cool on tray slightly before moving to cooling rack
Once cool turn the biscuits around so the legs are up the top and head at bottom. Take your white icing (either homemade and now in an icing bag with narrow nozzle or shop bought in a tube) and draw antler patterns on the 'legs' two dots for eyes level fairly central with the “arms”. Outline the shape of the arms, these become ears. Then in the middle of the 'head' put a blob of icing and stick a red smartie on, this now becomes the Reindeers nose. Finally, add two dots of black icing on top of the white eyes and a black smile below the red nose and your reindeers are complete.
Santa hat strawberries - Fruit Bouquets
Ingredients:
- 20 strawberries
- Melted white chocolate
- Shredded coconut
- 20 mini marshmallows
Method:
- Rinse Strawberries and place on kitchen roll to dry
- Remove the green stems
- Dip the stalk end of individual strawberries into the white chocolate up to about a third of the strawberry
- Sprinkle the coconut flakes over the melted chocolate on the strawberry and place the strawberry on greaseproof paper, dipped side down
- Dip a mini marshmallow in white chocolate and stick it on top of the strawberry
These Strawberry Santa Hats could make excellent gifts! There is something special about giving and receiving gifts that are handmade and/or homemade - from cards, decorations, calendars, food and drink the options are endless, they can be as inexpensive as you like and all will be unique and heartfelt! Look out for our article on gift wrapping to add the finishing touches.
(Fruit Bouquets)
Hot chocolate stirrers - BBC Good Food
These are so simple, easy for children to get involved with, they make great stocking fillers, gifts or even added as extra decoration to the outside of a gift! You could even gift this with a voucher to give that extra special touch.
Ingredients:
- Sunflower oil for greasing
- 300g dark, milk or white chocolate broken into squares
- To decorate, a selection of chocolate buttons, hundreds and thousands, mini fudge pieces, mini marshmallows
- Equipment, 6 cupcake cases, 6 wooden lolly sticks, 6 empty washed and dried fromage frais pots
- If gifting, cellophane, string or ribbon, 6 gift tags and a pencil
Method:
- Push a small hole in the centre of the cupcake cases with the pencil and put to one side for later
- Use a pastry brush to brush a thin layer of oil inside the fromage frais pots
- Put the squares of chocolate in a microwavable bowl and heat in the microwave 30 seconds at a time until runny stirring each time. Alternatively melt in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water until melted
- Carefully pour or spoon the chocolate into the fromage frais pots put a lolly stick in each and decorate with the toppings of your choice
- Sit a cupcake case on the top of each so the stick pokes through the hole you made earlier. Let them set in the fridge overnight
- Carefully remove the cupcake case and gently lift out of pots. If you are gifting them wrap in cellophane and tie with a ribbon and gift tag labelled 'Simply stir into hot milk'
Scotch tablet
Ingredients:
- 55g Butter
- 250ml Semi skimmed milk
- 900g granulated sugar
- 397g condensed milk
Equipment:
- 20cm square cake tin lined with baking parchment
Method:
- Melt the butter with the milk in a non-stick pan. Slowly add the sugar and boil briskly for 4 minutes
- Gradually stir in the condensed milk making sure that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Bring back to the boil for approximately 20 minutes, stirring regularly, until the mixture is thick and a honey caramel colour. Take care while the mixture boils as the tablet will be very HOT
- To test to see if the tablet is ready drop a small amount into a bowl of ice cold water - if you can pick up some of the mixture and form a soft ball in your fingers it’s ready. Just be careful it will still be quite hot
- Remove the pan from the heat leave to cool for 5 minutes, then beat until set. Pour into the tin and leave to set fully then remove from the tin and cut into squares. If gifting why not recycle a glass jar, tie a bow and decorate the lid with a sprig of holly!
Gingerbread everything!
There is no better smell than that of freshly made gingerbread at Christmas! It’s such a versatile biscuit - from iced cookies, to tree decorations to gingerbread houses and even scenery, you can even create a table centre piece or gift your baked goods!
You may already have a favourite gingerbread recipe but if not here is one for a light gingerbread, from the book 'Gingerbread wonderland' by Mima Sinclair.
Ingredients:
- 140g light molasses, golden syrup or honey
- 200g soft light brown sugar
- 200g unsalted butter
- Zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
- 4 teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 500g plain flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 lightly beaten medium free range egg
Method:
- Pour the light molasses into a large saucepan with the sugar, butter, zest and spices and melt over a low/medium heat, stirring frequently until the sugar has dissolved
- Increase the heat to bring the mixture to boiling point. Remove from the heat and beat in the bicarbonate of soda. The mixture will froth up at this point as the bicarbonate reacts - mix briefly until combined, then leave to cool for 15 minutes
- Sift the flour and salt, then fold into the mixture in batches, using a wooden spoon or a stand mixer, until just combined. Do not overwork the mixture, or the biscuits will spread during baking
- The dough will be very sticky to begin with, but do not add any flour. Scrape out of the bowl onto a clean surface and knead together until just smooth. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 1 hour
Gingerbread tree decorations/cookies
- Preheat the oven to 180*c, 160* fan assisted, gas mark 4
- Line your baking trays with greaseproof paper
- Roll out your dough to 5mm thickness
- Use any shape cutter you want and transfer the biscuits to the baking tray allowing space between each in case they spread a little as they cook
- Use a skewer to create a hole in the top of the biscuit if you are wanting them to hang on the tree, then place the tray in your freezer for 5 minutes until the dough is hard
- Bake in the oven for 6-10 minutes until golden brown, check the holes are still large enough, if not pop the skewer back through while the gingerbread is still warm and leave to cool for 5 minutes on the tray before transferring to a cooling rack
- At this point you can decorate with royal icing, this is a great bake to do with your children, make up a selection of coloured icing and allow their imagination to go mad
- Allow the icing to set and if you are making tree decorations thread the ribbon and hang on the tree!
Gingerbread house
If you are short of time or don’t feel confident there, are plenty of DIY gingerbread houses in supermarkets and delicatessens! The gingerbread is already made - it’s just a case of assembling the house using royal icing or melted sugar (if using melted sugar do not allow children to help – melted sugar can cause serious burns)
If you are up for the challenge of making your own gingerbread house, it's really rewarding and the style is only limited by your imagination! This is the method for a simple house:
- You will need two batches of gingerbread
- Create templates for the front and back of the house from paper, dimensions; base 18cm x 27cm height. Measure 11cm up on both the long sides, this will be the height of the house walls. To create the eaves that the roof will rest on, mark the middle way across (9cms) the top of the template line this up with the 11cm mark on each side and draw lines, this template should look like a basic house shape
- Create the two house side templates 18cms x 11cms and two roof templates 22cm x 19.5cm
- Pre-heat oven to 160*c, fan assisted 140*c or gas mark 3
- Roll out the gingerbread to 8mm thickness and cut out the front and back templates, two sides and two sides of the roof, transfer to the freezer for 10 minutes
- Bake in batches for 10-20 minutes depending on size, once golden brown remove from oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to the cooling rack
- Once make your royal icing or melt your sugar in a pan over the hob (or get recipe for caramel glue)
- Carefully construct your house, icing or sticking one side at a time at 90* angles and hold together a few moments, you may need a few supports as it sets or dries (use jars or tins) Leave the four walls of the house to dry completely before adding the roof, hold them in place while they dry
- Make some more royal icing and pipe the shape of a door, windows and roof tiles, add sweets, chocolate and candy canes to decorate your home – this is the bit children enjoy getting involved with!
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