What are you baking/cooking today?

[Lex345]

For the first time in a long time I don't have to make a last minute dash to the shops for a forgotten item so have the whole day to bake and cook. What goodies are you rustling up today? I thought I might make some Christmas muffins, some little tarts, some vol au vents for the buffet later. Anyone cooking something lovely I can shamelessly copy?

It's dd's 7th birthday today and she has requested a gammon roast, so have a massive gammon to cook with leftovers for the boxing day buffet. Might also do some other prep for it if I have time/can be bothered!

Cooking the gammon, prep some of the veg & parboil the potatoes to save some time tomorrow!

I have sacked off baking this year. I'm determined to have a non stressed Christmas! Any baked goods, I have bought for the first time. No one appears to have cared or noticed so far...

I'm currently cooking the ham. I will also make stuffing, pigs in blankets, red cabbage and prep all the other veg later.

DH and I always have ribs and red cabbage on Xmas Eve so making those first as they need an 8 hour cook. Coffee and black treacle marinade this year.

And then proper gingerbread, the sticky kind. I use a mix of my grannies recipe and Nigella's - a mix of rye and white flour and lots of fresh ginger and black pepper for fire. Needs a long low bake so can go in with the ribs.

I have a spare packet of puff pastry. Is there anything I could make (savoury) that’s easy and wouldn’t necessarily mean going to a shop? I have lots of cheese, onions, pesto, Marmite, lots of herbs and spices.

I’d roll it out cut in half, pesto and grated cheese sandwiched between two layers and then slice and twist so it looks like cheese twists.

Nothing sadly, just Christmas dinner prep. Would love to make cheese scones but do not have enough flour and I would not venture near a shop today. I follow Delia Smith's recipe on YouTube but double the amount of cheese 🧀 😁

Roasting a ham
mini quiche
cranberry sauce
gingerbread cookies
icing the cake

putting the gingerbread house together (although I’ll leave that to DC as it’s a shop bought kit rather than made this year)

😮think I may have been a little ambitious. Thought we might get out for a walk somewhere this afternoon but not so sure now!

better get on with it!

Baking red velvet cupcakes and small cake (wanting to test out the cake function in my rice cooker) with homemade cream cheese frosting.

Broccoli already in steam bags so they can go in the microwave.

Roasted cauliflower depending on if they need to be used up (going up to the in-laws on Boxing Day) so we don’t come home to moldy veggies.

Mostly whatever needs to be sorted before we leave on Thursday because I don’t want to do too much on Christmas Day.

Roll it out, spread marmite and cheese and whatever else, slice into thin long strips, bake for cheese straws. Or roll for cheesy whirls, or whatever.

Thanks @Jellycatspyjamas and @olderbutwiser I’ll have a play around.

We have gingerbread and stollen and tomorrow I'm planning on making eggnog pudding (the alcohol-free kind).

Gingerbread men. Well, biscuits. I make the dough and give my LO a selection of cutters then he chooses.

turkey, pork, sage & onion stuffing and potatoes

I mean cheese onion pesto and herbs sounds like a fab puff pastry tart

Yesterday about 5pm I decided to make some mince pies instead of today ( 3rd batch )
Today will prep the veg for tomorrow , and planning a make a spag bol for dinner today . That's it .

Why I'm putting myself through it, I don't know, but I'm attempting mince pies. I am absolutely hopeless with pastry, even the ready-made stuff. But my husband has eaten all the shop bought ones, and I don't want to go to a shop today.

I am also making (not sure if it counts as baking) a Parsnip, Cranberry and Chestnut Loaf, for a bit of something new for my vegetarian son.

Then I will make some gingerbread, although it really needs a couple of days to get properly sticky.

Cooking the gammon, probably won’t start on it till Boxing Day though.
More mince pies (Delia’s homemade mincemeat 😋) pastry ready in a plastic bag in the fridge.
Re mince pies, a few years ago I found that they end up more reliably tidy-looking with pastry stars on top, rather than lids. Uses less pastry, too. 🙂

We are about to have Santa pancakes for breakfast but that's the limit of my culinary skills today. It's party food for dinner that just needs shoved in the oven!

I'm baking a special bread we eat on Christmas morning. It's a bit like a cakier version of Panettone. It contains raisins, sultanas and 13 egg yolks! It's baked in a savarin tin so it's round. You eat it with Edam or Gouda cheese and it's delicious.

Or you could spread those ingredients over the whole rectangle of pastry and then roll it into a 'Swiss roll'. Slice it up and make pesto/ cheese pinwheels for lunch. Yum.

All I am cooking is the Christmas ham in the slow cooker so one less job for tomorrow and I’ve peeled the potatoes.

when the ham is cooked I’ll then make mulled wine in the slow cooker. But that’s it. Totally intend on having a chilled Christmas and bought the desserts etc

I just made my first ever trifle. Thrilled with how it turned out, hopefully it tastes nice

Fruit sourdough bread for the cheese board.

This is a really easy sweet pastry recipe @HurdyGurdy19, especially if you have a food processor. It's from Bill Sewell's 'Food from the Place Below' cookbook.

Lasagne for boxing day, a baked lemon and raspberry cheesecake for tomorrow, and some veg soup for lunch!