Ideas for Christmas nibbles...

[HappyYoni]

I'm having a christmas party and want to make some festive nibbles, I will do mince pies and gingerbread, but does anyone have any ideas for other things I could do? Ideally they need to be reasonably simple, I am not a brilliant cook/baker, and also would prefer sweet rather than savoury although happy to consider both :)
Thank you!

I know you said sweet, but cheese straws/biscuits are always good. An old family friend used to make cheese triangles with extra parmesan on top that were amazing and always seem like Christmas to me.

oh both good ideas - thank you :)

If you're having alcohol, think you definitely need savoury stuff.

Sausage rolls. Get pack of sausage meat & add some finely chopped onion, bit of sage (fresh if poss but dried fine) & pinch cayenne pepper.
Buy some puff pastry sheets. Place sausage meat on pastry length ways, roll, seal with egg, chop into bite size rolls, prick, brush with egg & cook at 200 degrees for about 20-30 mins (depending on size) til golden.

Beats bought ones any day. You can do the same but use cheese & onion mixed with an egg to fill the rolls.

Place some grease proof on baking tray before you cook otherwise the trays are a bugger to clean!

Baked Brie it Camembert. Get the round ones in the box (take them out if wrapper & bake & serve in the box). Bake the Brie & serve with cranberry sauce & prick the Camembert with garlic & rosemary before baking. Serve both with crusty bread or aforementioned cheese straws

I was going to say home made sausage rolls, always go down well and v simple

Baked Camembert with crusty bread is yummy.

I would do crusty bread topped with cheese and onion chutney. It's lovely. Really simple and easy.

Homemade mince pies - really cute if you put the base and topping into round tins and star shaped pastry on top

These are all good, thank you. The only thing is I really don't like cheese so probably won't go for a lot of cheese based nibbles, I could definitly do cheese straws and sausage rolls. I will do mince pies as well but will be using ready made pastry!

Ok this might be a silly question but with the sausage rolls, can I make them up the day before and keep them in the fridge, so I can cook them just before people come and serve them warm at the party? Or would I be better to cook them the day before and just reheat for the party? Also is the 200 degrees for a fan oven?

mini blinis with smoked salmon and creme fraiche. cute quick and easy :). warm the blinis, mix creme fraiche with a bit of horseradish, blob it on the blinis, pop a bit of the salmon on top and squeeze a drop of lemon on it. always a winner in our house

Yes, 200 fan oven. They need cooking quite high. You could make them now & freeze them if you wanted to save time. Cook them as above, cool & freeze, then just reheat from frozen at about 160 (fan) for 20 mins (again, depends on size)

Or you could keep them in fridge go couple days like you said & just reheat at 160 for 10 mins or so.

Not good on food miles, but blanched asparagus wrapped in Parma ham (or bresaeola) is lovely (Lidl or Aldi have great value cured meats)

Oh, and I am currently addicted to Waitrose stollen bites - they are delicious, v small but rich

Christmas rocky road-dark chocolate melted, mix in crushed ginger nut biscuits, dried cranberries and mini marshmallows. Spoon small spoonfuls onto baking paper and leave to set. Can decorate with glittery stuff before they set too. No idea on quantities, I just trial and errored it and I think hard to go wrong. Yum.

If I were attending a Christmas party, if alcohol was involved I would not eat any sweet nibbles, but would love savoury ones.

If it was a no alcohol event, I would probably eat one or two, but would still much prefer savoury. Even crisps!

oh see I had (wrongly) made the assumption that everyone was like me, with an incredibly sweet tooth and no time for savouries but its definitly lloking now like I should go more down the savoury route. Loving the ides of blinis. Could easily be tempted to do rhe rocky road bites too, they sound fab!

Chocolate truffles are easy to make and taste great. I normally make them into a ball shape, freeze them for twenty minutes then dunk them in melted chocolate - the freezing time sets the chocolate.

I saw some really cute mini gingerbread houses that go on top of cups, on Pinterest.

What about cranberry vodka jelly shots

Nigella's Parmesan shortbreads are good - and easy. I will dig out the exact amounts, if you want - but you put grated Parmesan, butter, flour and eggs in a food processor, blitz to a dough, roll into a cylinder, wrap in cling film and chill, then slice into fairly thin slices (a bit thicker than a £1 coin) and bake - they are delicious and crumbly.