Anyone fancy a luxury larder challenge?

[WaitingForMe]

If we started on Monday we could do twelve projects prior to December. I'm thinking flavoured sprits, cakes, puddings, mincemeat etc.

Does anyone fancy joining me?

Disclaimer: I'm a poncetastic lunatic who can't wait until 25th Sept

I'd be happy to post the recipes I'll be doing.

I'm marking my place. We live abroad so I'm going to make all the Xmas stuff this year.

Did Xmas pudding vodka last year, my Grandad drank it all (1l) in two nights. He didn't realise it was alcoholic!

Liking the sound of ginger whiskey and chili jam (though not together).

Hardcore Grandad!

My sloe gin is already brewing, they were ripe really early this year (south London).

I still have mincemeat from last year left.

What I would like to make is a perfectly round Xmas pudding.

Last year I made the mumsnet Christmas Pudding Vodka as family gifts ( we have a £10 adult limit) and got several requests for the recipe later. This year I am trying pink elderflower vodka, it's been steeping since June. I'm going to strain it and taste it in the next couple of weeks it may need some lemon peel and sugar adding.
I'm wondering about doing something with blackberries too, they are quite good this year. Did someone mention a mandarin curd? That sounds right up my mums street so off to google recipes for that.

stairs Those are very difficult (unless someone's invented a special mould!? ). They used to make them in pudding cloths and all the liquid pudding ingredients came out into the water that it was cooked in. .

The idea's lovely though

Stairs - Lakeland do a round mould to make round puddings :-)

People making alcohol, I have a question? Maybe a silly question, but how do you serve it?

How do you serve damson gin, or sloe gin or christmas pudding vodka? Neat?

I love like a drink and enjoy cocktail but most of my family are a bit basic with their drinking and I hadn't considered these recipes much because I know they won't just drink sloe gin. Is there some fabulous way of serving these things? Also is there one I can make for the sweet toothed people, they don't generally like gin.

Aah I knew someone would know notapizza

Mamapain Don't they serve it over ice cream or in a trifle? Sometimes dh (the alky of the family) will have a drop in champagne. !

Marking place. I aspire to Christmas poncetasticness!

Oohhhhhh, yes that would make more sense. I thought they were just necking the stuff. I clearly do not belong on poncey threads.

Loving this thread and have arrived early for the school run so I can sit and read it all

I can't touch gin at all normally but sloe gin is sweet and lovely. Sip it like you would port or brandy. Same with the other fruit flavoured vodkas etc as they have had sugar added so don't have the alcohol burn. Careful they go down easily and are a little addictive

Sloe gin and tonic is nice. Or neat on the rocks.

Off to Google pudding moulds, thanks both!

Hmmm, Lakeland don't do them anymore but amazon and eBay have them.

Ineverydream - no recipe, last year leading up to Christmas we were just slamming random things into Kilner jars with whatever alcohol we picked up cheap. I just put a whole bag of the economy Sainsburys frozen mix in with a bottle and added a bit of sugar, maybe a handful? I do prefer things tart though so maybe more if you prefer sweeter just add more. Then let it sit for however long you've got - we only started doing all of ours in November so weeks rather than months. We'd jiggle it about a bit every day if we remembered but not sure if that's necessary really.

zgaze thanks for that, that's really helpful. Can't wait to get started on some forest fruits vodka now. Am also planning on making limoncello and came across a recipe last night for making your own amaretto.

Obviously these will all require extensive quality control testing before being unleashed on the rest of the family

I also fancy a poncetastic Christmas - this thread is brilliant. I've made apricot jam, plum jam, plum chutney and piccalilli so far. The piccalilli is really promising, but not quite matured yet. I normally do mincemeat and Christmas cakes, but also fancy some homemade chocolates this year, and the alcohol sounds really good. I have raspberries, blackberries and apples in the garden at the moment, so I will try some blackberry and raspberry vodka, maybe. I wonder if we could make homemade cream liqueur? I will also try some apple chutney and apple jelly, and maybe some blackberry and apple jam. I love some of the recipes on here - I think Christmas chutney may be in order and also caramelised red onion chutney. I am also intrigued by bacon jam.... Looks like a busy few weeks coming.

Had a good look this morning at berries can anyone please identify these 3? Pics to follow

Can't seem to add pics on the mobile app!

Can anyone identify these 1,2 & 3?

Rosehip (you can make a syrup) elderberry (wine) and snowberry (ornamental not edible). :-)

Has anyone had any joy with rhubarb jam?

Thank you stairs.

Oh dear. I already have lots of craft type christmas projects planned and now these tales of Xmas food and drink are turning my head......

Cold, rhubarb is best as a packer fruit as it doesn't go well on its own at all, we made blackcurrant and rhubarb jam in July and that was really nice, you couldn't taste the rhubarb at all though.