Do you want to share your special Christmas recipes?

[VillageFete]

I have certain recipes I make every Christmas. They are indulgent, special and Christmas wouldn’t be the same without them.

Do you want to share yours?

I don’t have much time at the minute but i’ll update later with my sage and chestnut stuffing, epic hot chocolate and Bailey’s balloons...

Can you share some of yours with me?

I really like the sound of that epic hot chocolate

Unfortunately I don't have any special recipes of my own as I like trying new things every year, but I'll be following with interest.

I like Jamie Oliver's left over turkey and leek pie. It's soooo nice (infact last year we bought our own turkey having been with family, just so we could make the pie...)

Nigella's gingerbread stuffing.
Delia's creole christmas cake with added spices, different fruit and different alcohol. DO NOT leave out the angostura bitters.
White hot chocolate with mint syrup.
Everything else is negotiable, more or less, but it's not christmas without those.

I just came onto this topic to start a thread just like this!!

I like to make Delia smiths butterscotch sauce and pour it on vanilla ice cream/fruit/directly down my throat. It’s amazing stuff!

All sounds gorgeous! What’s the recipes? Here’s my (Jamie Oliver’s ) Epic hot chocolate...

2tbsp horlicks
2tbsp cornflour
3tbsp icing sugar
4tbsp Cadbury's hot chocolate
100g grated milk chocolate
Tiny pinch cinammon

Mix the above all together. Heat a pint of milk in the saucepan, add approx 5tbsp of the mixture to the milk and whisk until bubbling. It goes lovely and thick and is ideal to dip strips of waffles in. My DD loves to do this on Christmas Eve morning whilst watching Raymond Briggs “Father Christmas”

Not a great photo, but here’s the recipe for Bailey’s balloons. Perfect for an after dinner Christmas cocktail.

Add a shot (or 3 ) of Baileys, a drop of double cream, a cupful of milk and a shot of espresso in to a cocktail mixer. Shake like mad [santa] Then pour over ice, add squirty cream on top and a dusting of coco powder.

If no espresso, you can add a shot of Kalhua instead.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/butterscotch-sauce-hgt8rs6626k

There’s nothing underneath the firewall but you need to read. I like to sprinkle some sea salt flakes on top....

Nigella's rocky road is one of ours.

And a fruit sponge cake with cinnamon icing (that I've lost the recipe for..will have to dih it out)

And slow cooker fudge. But made with Slattery's chocolate (no palm oil, so not waxy)

I don’t really have recipes as I just eyeball it.

I do an indulgent hot choc with about 100g of grated choc, whisked into milk and heated in microwave with occasional stirring. I often use the end of a bottle of milk for this just for the convenience of pouring it back in the bottle with a couple of spoons of cream and shaking it like mad. The result is a thick, creamy chocolate that reminds me of the rich chocolate served in Parisian cafes with a glass of water.

I add a couple of pinches of cinnamon and mixed spice and a generous splash of vanilla to a normal batter recipe to make pancakes or waffles, or to the egg if I’m making French toast, substituting the bread for thick slices of brioche or a similar sweet bread.

Gravy for the turkey
Fry streaky bacon, onion, garlic, tomato, salt, pepper, parsley, rosemary and bay until Carmelised. Deglaze with a glass of red wine Add turkey juices (you can get a special jug with a low spout and strained to remove the bits and the fat) and chicken stock (homemade or a jelly cube but not powdered kind as it has an aftertaste). Add a spoon or two of apple cider vinegar to taste and reduce. Strain in sieve and push through with back of spoon.
You could easily make this in advance and freeze but it’s easy enough to make on the day too.

after trying the Nigellas famous ham cooked in coke, I’ve reverted back to my old granny’s recipe. She didn’t write much down so this is what I remember from watching her as a child. The ham is slowly simmered in water with a generous shake of brown sugar (the thick sticky kind), a teaspoon of mustard and a couple of cloves.
We eat slices of it on Christmas Eve with fresh bread and bowls of Delia’s leek and onion soup. On Christmas Day I cut diamonds into the fat, stud with cloves and slather it with a mixture of brown sugar, a small bit of mustard, and maple syrup (sorry Granny!) and put it in the oven to heat. It’s not the prettiest ham when it’s done but it’s absolutely yum.

Does anyone have a good recipe for mincemeat?

Christmas pudding ice cream. Large tub of vanilla ice cream, leave out to soften. (Not melt) cook pudding allow to cool. Break up pudding and stir through the ice cream. Only way my children will eat Christmas pudding.

Here’s my mincemeat recipe. We are a bit allergy-ridden so no nuts and no mixed peel because it is VILE

8oz Bromley Apple chopped
4oz suet
6oz raisins
4oz sultanas
4oz currants
4oz dried apricots chopped (think this is substitute for candied peel)
6oz soft dark sugar
Zest and juice 2 lemons
2tsp mixed spice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Good pinch freshly grated nutmeg
3tbsp brandy

Mix all together except brandy. Leave 12 hours. Cover bowl loosely with foil and cook at 120 C for 3 hours. As it cools, stir to cover everything with fat (I think you put the brandy in now). When cold pack into sterilised jars.

This is copied from my mums recipe book, hence the slightly vague instructions!!

How do you make slow cooker fudge?

Chocolate Slow Cooker Fudge

White Chocolate Slow Cooker Fudge

And then when I turn it out to cool I chuck smashed up crunchie, smarties, marshmallows, pretzels, anything really in as a variation (not all together though, bet that would be quite nice though, rocky road fudge!)

I do the slow cooker fudge but one time I was in a hurry so I bunged the same ingredients on a pot on the hob at a high-ish heat. Some of the sugar crystalised from the heat so it tasted like there were teeny, tiny chewy toffees in the fudge. I always do it that way now.

trancepants that's sounds delicious! The stuff of cooking dreams where accidental toffee happens!

@PersisFord Thanks for the mincemeat recipe

@EyUpOurKid
not all together though, bet that would be quite nice
That reminds me: the dc melt choc into a silicone mould and add random combinations of sweets (usually Halloween leftovers), crunchies, sprinkles and cookie chunks. We call it chocolate compost. Turns out beautifully because of the moulds, and they get requests for it every year. Not a recipe as much as an easy peasy kids’ activity.

@trancepants sounds yum, I’ll have to try that.

I swear by BBC Good Food’s buttered toast bread sauce and Nigella’s gingerbread stuffing. I also cook my red cabbage in mulled wine.

Paul Hollywood's Boxing Day pie is a favourite here - basically just a pie made up of layered leftovers but it's lovely and uses up everything.

Ooh I think I have found my thread!!
My Christmas pudding recipe is to die for. And shall look it out to post as will need to be made soon!

Oh this is a lovely thread!

Mine is just a leftover pie that my mum used to make. It's never quite as good as hers but I wonder if that's just because I wish she was here to make it.

wilbur

I always buy a packet of veggie suet to make the Christmas pudding with (Delia’s) but only need half. For years now, I’ve made a spotted dick (from Mark Hix’s book, British Food, quantities halved) and boiled it in the pan while the pudding steams on top. We don’t eat it at Christmas but slice it up and stash the portions in the freezer to eat with tinned custard on cold nights in January or February. The making of the spotted dick has become a pre- Christmas tradition, even though we don’t eat it until after.

These Boxing day/leftover pies... any recipes?

Here’s my sausagemeat stuffing recipe. It’s to die for.

Good quality pork sausage meat from butchers
A peeled white onion
A peeled green apple
Ready made breadcrumbs
Vacuum packed chestnuts
A bunch of fresh sage
1 egg
Olive oil.

Pre heat the oven to 180. Mix your sausage meat in a bowl, grate the onion and apple in to it (time consuming, but worth it) Add some breadcrumbs and crumbled chestnuts, snip in some sage, season with salt/pepper, crack the egg in and give it a good scrunch together.
Place in oven proof dish, top with a few sage leaves, drizzle with olive oil and bake for approx 50 mins.

https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/hand-raisedboxinggday84945