What yummy home-made delights are you planning to make this year? As gifts or just to scoff?

[Greensleeves]

I am planning on making homemade yule logs for teachers, peppermint creams, marzipan fruits/penguins/robins, Christmas pudding shaped truffles with white icing and little icing holly toppers, Turkish delight, mini mincepies, Christmas tree cupcakes...

I am a nutter and I LOVE Christmas!!!

[SantasComingFace]

Christmas cake
Mince pies
Rocky road

Want to do some sweets and stuff but never done them before

[Greensleeves]

DS2 and I have been feeding melted brandy butter into our cake for the past three weeks

How do you make rocky road?

[Greensleeves]

.

[SantasComingFace]

I kind of make my rocky road recipe up as I go along but it's loosely based on the one in nigella xmas.

400g of dark chocolate
175g butter
4tbsp golden syrup
Few big handfuls of mini marshmallows
About ten shortbread fingers broken into chunks
Half a tub of glacé cherry halves
Couple of smashed up crunchies

Melt chocolate with butter and syrup put all other stuff in a big bowl and mix up, pour in about 2/3rds of the melted stuff, mix, put in a square silicon cake pan and spread out. Pour over rest of chocolate and set in fridge. Once set cut into squares and dust with icing sugar.

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES WORK OUT THE CALORIFIC VALUE

[FermezLaBouche]

Love the idea of the yule logs!
I'm going home to my parents for a few days at Christmas and will be monopolising their kitchen. My mum is an ex chef and I still learn loads from her. I will be making some 8 strand plaited loaves and some hand raised pies for Christmas Eve. (Bake-off fan!)

[cleoismycat]

nigella chilli jam - so easy
onion chutney
toffee vodka made in the dishwasher

[fakeblondie]

We`re making salt dough gingerbread tree decorations all personalised for teachers ect. Practice ones look fab and ive a few good tips now for saltdough if anyone is having a go and is a newbie like me ! Ive just outlined them with white paint and put gorgeous red organza ribbon through the top x

[Binfullofgibletsonthe26th]

Just baked at the weekend:

Sausage rolls
Gingerbread
Ginger cookies

All in the freezer.

I made homemade mincemeat. It is immense. I will never go back to shop bought again!

Can't wait to use it.

Have made 3 Deliah cakes for home, work and school play night.

I am going to make Nigella's Christmas muffins as a trial this weekend.

DS will give home made biscuits as gifts this year. Last year we scrambled around finding small nice gifts for his closest friends, but it was a bit ott as everyone seemed to just hand round home made cookies. (Switzerland)

[hurricanewyn]

I have a board on pinterest full of things I'm planning on making - I'm mostly excited about melting snowman cookies & salted caramel brownies. I usually make nigella's version of reese's pieces too.

I'm also planning on making a mincemeat jalouise (can't spell it) & sausage rolls with chutney inside.

I've been low carbing, so haven't been baking in months - can't wait

[SantasComingFace]

Fakeblondie, I'd like some tips please I made some and it doesn't seem to be drying out!!

[PrattingAroundTheChristmasTree]

I've already made the Christmas cakes. I've got the ingredients today for mincemeat, Nigellas chilli jam and fruit jam. Going to make them tomorrow. Then I'm going to make a variety of biscuits, mince pies, truffles, mars bar vodka, snowman soup and probably loads more!

We're having a party mid December (buffet) and I will be making most of the food myself. So far only thought of cheese twists, pie pops, a cheese board shaped like a Christmas tree, 3 different sweet trees (sweets with cocktail sticks, stuck into a cone shaped oasis) massive vats of hot chocolate, mulled wine, baileys trifle, gingerbread house sausage rolls, quiche...

[Greensleeves]

snowman soup?

[Convert]

I am planning to make white chocolate and Bailey's fudge, peppermint lollies, white chocolate and custard biscuits and almond biscotti.
We don't do presents for the adults in the family so I like to make things and give them a little selection!

[JackieLanaTurn]

I'm gonna make Bang Bang Vanilla Meringue cheesecakes for pud after Christmas Dinner. I got the recipe from Come Dine With Me . It looks so good and it's got popping candy on and, most importantly, it's not made with chocolate, so it'll be o.k. for my migraineous motherinlaw.

[PrattingAroundTheChristmasTree]

Snowman soup

There's different ways of doing it. I'm putting cocoa in a disposable piping bag and sealing it. Then putting it in another piping bag and adding some sort of chocolate, then marshmallows and sealing it. Then adding a candy cane tied to a ribbon around the bag (to stir the hot chocolate.)

I've remember something else I think I'll make as it went down well last year, peppermint bark

I blame pinterest for making me go mad!

[EnglishGirlApproximately]

frootshoots shared her eggnog muffins recipe with me and they sound lush so will be making them. Other than that it'll be cranberry and dark chocolate shortbread, parma ham cheese straws, amaretto cake and good old mince pies.

[cushionpad]

I have just made two christmas cakes, and will do mince pies, I have also been pinning away and fancy doing peppermint creams peppermint bark, rocky road, fudge, gingerbread men, not doing a house this year they drive me crazy trying to assemble with a a 3yr old helper. Just need to give all this away or
I will be size of a house.

[Thefoxsbrush]

I'm making my own individually wrapped chocolates ,white chocolate and baileys fudge and Seville orange marmalade. Also making gingerbread tree biscuits and attempting homemade mini pies a la m&s

[Thefoxsbrush]

Ooh and also made my own mincemeat, cannot wait to try it!

[marriedinwhite]

I'm not a baker but some Xmas things that are my very own are:

Christmas Kebabs (good for the week or two before Xmas when Grandma and grandad come and I can't face the whole works).

2-3 turkey steaks (cubed or sliced and folded)
interweaved on a skewer with cocktail sausages and stuffing balls all marinaded in warm cranberry sauce.

Pop in the grill and serve with roasties, poultry gravy, sprouts, other veg, bread sauce, poultry gravy, etc., for a taste of Xmas

Boxing Day Soup Starter:
I always make giblet stock on Xmas Eve - the giblets and an onion, stick of celery, carrot, bunch of parsley.

This make the base for Parsnip soup. Essentially any left-over parsnips, carrot, sput go in. Add a tiny bit of curry powder, turmeric and/or saffron and whizz in the liquidiser and swirl creme fraiche on the top. A warming start to cold meat, "italian potatoes", - (sliced spud, salt, pepper, oregano, parmesan, olive oil - about 90 minutes in the oven), pickles and salad on boxing day.

27th Dec.
Turkey and ham pie

in a pan - handful of shallots, spoon of flour, stock (you will by then have made stock from the carcass) turkey, ham, brandy or wine or sherry, slug of cream, pepper (be careful with salt depending on ham), fresh herbs to hand, Packet of puff pastry. Pop the meat mixture in the middle of the pasty and bring up the sides and seal to make a massive stand alone pie. Brush with beaten egg. Serve with veg and mash potatoes.

Oh yes, Boxing Day also requires Delia's traditional English trifle. sponge, sherry, raspberries, banana, home made custard, whipped cream, almonds.

[KateShmate]

hurricane Salted caramel brownies and D-I-Y reeses....
If you could grace me with the recipes I would be eternally grateful

[yummymummytobe1]

Christmas Cakes
Mince pies
Christmas Pudding
Ginger Bread
Stollen
Christmas Chutney
Peppermint Creams
Chocolate

There is also the house to deck.

[sparkle12mar08]

For gifts so far I've decided on:
Christmas Pudding Chocolate bon bons
Parmesan Shortbreads
Christmas Spaghetti Spice
Chocolate & Cointreau fudge
Biscotti
Sugar Scrubs

For us at home we will have:
Mincemeat & Mince Pies
Cranberry relish
Damson Chutney
Christmas Butter biscuits

[RaspberrysAndIcecream]

Chocolate Truffles - for us and also for friends as small gifts. I'm doing extra this year as dm wants some to give to her friends!!

Cupcakes for friends visiting - we have lots of people dropping in so I like to have something to offer other than mince pies! (found some brilliant bits to go on top of them in sainsburys the other day)

We had a Mary berry cake mix thing from tesco last year - was awesome so I'd like to get something like that again!!