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Christmas

From present ideas to party food, find all your Christmas inspiration here.

Christmas Cooking

56 replies

Travis1 · 15/08/2018 09:40

What treats does everyone make at Christmas? I see mentions of sausage rolls, cookies, cakes etc but I normally buy all these things. This year I'm having all the family to us so would like to do some proper cooking.

Any ideas? Recipes would also be gratefully received! TIA x

OP posts:
Fstar · 17/08/2018 22:31

Gingerbread and banana loaf go down well here

Idontmeanto · 17/08/2018 22:51

Would love the clementine sorbet recipe please?!

ItsAlwaysChristmas · 18/08/2018 03:15

@TwitterQueen1 I’d love a recipe for the jelly!

Alanamackree · 18/08/2018 07:11

With no dc and time off, it is well worth making your own pastry from scratch with real butter. It’s incomparable to shop bought. You need a cold surface (a marble work top is ideal or a glass counter-saver that you can pop in the fridge along with your utensils. Run your hands under the cold tap too. If you grate the butter (Chill the grater too) it comes together easily.
From there you can make sausage rolls, cheese straws, mince pies, festively spiced apple pie, cinnamon swirls etc.
I don’t bother with the faff these days since having dc, and just use shop bought. But I might have just convinced myself to try again this year.

MsSquiz · 18/08/2018 07:48

I always make:
Gingerbread or shortbread biscuits
Fudge
Nigella's rocky road

Definitely need to make more savoury foods tho. Cheese straws sounds good

lostlalaloopsy · 18/08/2018 08:23

Wow these ideas sound amazing! I only ever really make home made sausage rolls and thought I was doing well!!

CanineEnigma · 18/08/2018 08:38

I make:
mini Christmas cakes from Delia’s recipe to give as gifts to DH’s aunties.

  • Lebkuchen (the dough can be frozen in two lots so I defrost some overnight to make cookies to take when we go visiting)
  • Baileys fudge
  • Dark chocolate and cranberry nut fudge (modifying Nigella’s cranberry pistachio fudge)
  • chocolate orange fudge
  • maple roasted carrots and parsnips to take to PILs for Christmas dinner
  • Mince pies

I might try making sausage rolls with the DC this year. DS might eat one if he’s made it himself...

madvixen · 18/08/2018 08:51

I make:
Mince pies (usually made in September and frozen)
Yule log
Sausage rolls (hubby is glutenfree so it's easier to make my own)
Christmas brownies
Gingerbread men
Truffles
Tiramisu trifle
Some form of Christmas cake

My favourite part is my leftover cookathon on the 28th though. If I play my cards right, I can make a fortnights worth of meals and snacks from Christmas leftovers. 😀

dudsville · 18/08/2018 09:02

Has anyone made a Christmas cake with gin soaked damsons and is willing to share the recipe? I'm searching for a recipe but struggling to find one. I keep finding suggestions to do it but no actual recipes, which I want because I think it's important to take into account the fact that this bitter fruit has been soaking in heavily sugared gin already. Any recipes?

madvixen · 18/08/2018 09:06

Oh I forgot about the chicken liver and gin pate. And sparkly clementine and Cointreau marmalade.

cedartree12 · 18/08/2018 17:55

I always make:
Yule Log for pudding on Christmas Eve (Mary Berry)
Sausage rolls
Christmas Cake (Delia)
Florentines (great to take as a gift to Christmas drinks) (Delia)
Mince pies
Cheese straws
Gingerbread men/stars.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 19/08/2018 12:42

I always make my own mince pies, dozens of them, starting 1st December (first carol CD on at the same time!) , thin pastry and loads of filling. Also 2 large Christmas puds, old GH recipe and much nicer, less dense and heavy, than bought ones. Don't make them much in advance, have done them just a week before.

And lots of very very cheesy cheese straws, with loads of extra mature cheddar, English mustard powder and a little cayenne pepper. I often make these for any occasion anyway - there are never any left. Have also given a tin of these as a present to someone who particularly loves them.

Christmas cake with no marzipan or icing since they would nearly always be discarded. Just covered with assorted nuts in a nice pattern, glazed with warm apricot jam, and a tartan ribbon tied round. I'm not at all artistic but it always looks really nice and people often think I've bought it.

Brandy butter! Lots. V easy esp. if you have a mixer.

QuoadUltra · 19/08/2018 15:58

Devils on horseback. No Christmas is complete without.

AnotherShirtRuined · 21/08/2018 19:49

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER Do you have a recipe for those cheese straws? They sound yummy Xmas Smile

WhyDoesItAlways · 21/08/2018 21:31

This thread is brilliant! Definitely doing the rocky road as DS can help.

Can I get the recipe for the brie and cranberry parcels?

Battenburg1978 · 22/08/2018 15:05

This thread is making me feel so festive and nostalgic.

Those of you who make mince pies ahead and freeze, do you bake them first, then take out and heat up in the oven when you want to eat them, or do you assemble uncooked pastry/filling and freeze?

I had great hopes of making my own pastry / pies last Christmas, but with a 1 year old at the time I managed one batch! freezing ahead sounds like a great idea.

Fstar · 22/08/2018 15:13

We always have comfort food as a treat, french toast, waffles, cheese and crackers, gingerbread, banana loaf

madvixen · 22/08/2018 15:21

Re mince pies, I bake mine before freezing and then defrost them when I want to serve them. They freeze brilliantly.

MinecraftHolmes · 22/08/2018 16:01

Love this thread. I do a lot of things PPs have mentioned, but I use up some of the left over glace cherries and mixed peel from making my Christmas cake to make festive rocky road.

Half a pack butter
2-3 tbsp golden syrup
200g of dark chocolate
Half a normal sized packet of digestives (smashed)
couple of handfuls of mini marshmallows
some chopped up cherries
half a handful of mixed peel

Melt the meltables together, chuck in everything else, give it a mix and put it in a lined 20cm tray and put it in the fridge to set, but take it out and score it with a knife after 30 mins so it's not too hard to chop up.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 22/08/2018 16:07

I make some of the things that have already been mentioned - especially Delia’s Christmas cake - I make the marzipans too, and Delia's recipe is the best I have found.

I also have to make Nigella’s Parmesan shortbreads - there would be a mutiny if I didn’t!

thismeansnothing · 22/08/2018 16:25

I make red cabbage (Jamie Oliver recipe) about a month before a freeze.

Xmas pud which is my grandmas recipe on stir up Sunday. No candied peel or nuts in it but tri colour cherries are a must!

Xmas cake with Mary berrys fruit cake recipe.

DH makes nigellas gingerbread stuffing the day before. Yum!

Youvegotafriendinme · 29/08/2018 11:40

Some lovely ideas here. Christmas was practically cancelled last year so going to full hog this year!

BiddyPop · 29/08/2018 14:04

I like the Hairy Bikers' mincemeat from their Christmas cookbook - I have some left in the cupboards from batches in 2015 and 2017 that I will use up this year (last year, I found a jar from 5 years back, and it was just soooooo lush!! Really keeps and matures well, I keep it in a cool dark cupboard). The pastry in their book is nice because it has orange peel in it - but I also use a mince pie pastry that DM got at a cookery course in a hotel years ago (hotel chef's own recipe).

For sausage rolls (what we don't buy at M&S), I get a pack of Jus Roll puff pastry for the skin (I am not great at shortcrust, and useless at puff, from scratch!). The stuffing is made with sausage meat from Supervalu (the old Superquinn sausages recipe) and I add thyme, and sometimes some caramelized onions or some chilli to that.

DD used to make Spiced Christmas Cookies before going to primary school, which were lovely. I must make those again - the recipe is handwritten in a book at home so I'll try and rummage it out. Nowadays, she makes a kind of cookie that you slice off cookies from a roll of dough - the basic recipe can be tweaked to make orange and lemon, chocolate chip, double chocolate chip (chocolate dough and chips), or just plain. And the roll of dough can be frozen - so handy to make a large batch and only cook half, keeping more for later when guests arrive at no notice or if we have no time to bake properly for Santa on Christmas Eve.

We also sometimes make a Christmas Pudding - but a sort of rocky road version. This is so popular that we've made it as a Communion and a Confirmation cake at other times of the year in the family as well. Use plenty of layers of cling film to line the bowl, but it is really effective with the dark chocolate base and then white chocolate "custard" flowing down over it!

A couple of years, I made candied peel (back in the days I had time!). I'd love to make Orangette chocolates doing that. But chocolate truffles are great when you have less time - I tend to roll them in cocoa powder to finish (and use a pair of plastic gloves for the rolling of the balls to save the mess).

A favourite "using up leftovers" recipe is a Ham and Stilton gratin from Good Food (maybe 2000 or 2001 December edition - not Christmas prep but Christmas leftovers). Basically, shred your ham, crumble your stilton, thinly slice your potatoes, strip thyme of its leaves - in a well buttered serving dish, build up layers of ham and stilton seasoned with pepper and thyme, then potatoes, then ham and stilton again....pour on hot turkey stock, bake in a hot oven until done (about an hour) and eat.

I'd love to make my own cheese straws, and do various other bits. But most of my other cooking is the basics - turkey stock, proper roast dinner, turkey sandwiches etc. And we don't have to entertain too many.

QuoadUltra · 29/08/2018 19:00

That gratin sounds so good.

Does anyone have a foolproof Christmassy baked ham recipe they can point me in the direction of? I love ham but always mess it up.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 29/08/2018 21:02

I boil my ham in either cider or ginger beer, then take off the skin, glaze it with a mixture of whole grain mustard, ginger jam and brown sugar, then pop it in a hot oven to caramelise the glaze. I do this on Christmas Eve, and it is Boxing day’s dinner, cold, with baked potatoes and home made coleslaw