Christmas cookbook recipes - the good, the bad and the ugly

[BabblativeBean]

I've just eaten Nigella's girdlebuster pie and inspired by its awfulness, I thought it would be nice to hear about other people's Christmas cook book experiences.

The biscuit base was a hard mass of not very nice. The ice cream was okay, but that came out of a tub. The sauce on top was so sweet it hurt the back of my throat, and that's after 2/3 of it had slipped from the top of the pie, escaped its packaging and slithered into the bowels of the freezer (enrobing several packets of frozen veg and a packet of quorn sausages on its way).

For balance, DH really liked it and he's scuttling round the house in a state of excitability, chanting 'ahh, that was so nice, that was so nice.'

Jamie's onion gratin was also bad - it didn't look nice and it tasted worse, although that could have been down to my crap cooking, evidenced by the curdling of the creme fraiche.

Delia's tomato tart was fantastic, although it took 30 minutes to reheat from frozen, not 10 as the book says. Her sausless rolls (filled with a cheesy, sagey mix) were also great.

Anyone else?

Well we went totally mad and decided to deep fry the turkey in the garden (thanks Food DIY by Tim Hayward). It was amazing! Delicious, juicy, savoury. I'll never roast one again.

Then we had Mary Berry Christmas cake, yum or Nigella's Yule log.

For Christmas cook books I really enjoyed the Hairy Bikers and GBBO.

I’m a Jamie Oliver Christmas fan.

I did his get ahead gravy which is a lot of faffing but the loveliest gravy ever. It makes enough for 2/3 dinners so I froze it into portions.

I’ll be doing his turkey and leek pie tomorrow which I’ve done for the last few years. This is great to use up leftover bits like the turkey, streaky bacon, chestnuts and sage. I do a simplified version using chicken leftovers after a Sunday roast as it’s a family favourite (even the toddler enjoys it!).

I love sweet stuff but find most of Nigella’s recipes to be too sickly sweet for me.

I did Nigella’s red cabbage from Feast, I’ve just polished off the rest of it with cold turkey — it was fabulous.

I bought Joceline Dimbleby's book as a nostalgic treat as it was what my childhood Christmas was cooked from.

While some recipes now look totally dated, I'd strongly say the book is a winner.

And this chocolate Christmas pudding is to die for:

app.ckbk.com/recipe/cook37207c01s001ss002r004/chocolate-crunch-christmas-pudding

I woke up on Christmas eve to the viral three ingredient Christmas cake using choc milk.

I’m df, gf and I wanted to divide the volume by four and then slow cook it.

I had various scraps of dried fruit and nuts -enough to make up the volume so gave it a whirl.

I cooked it in my 1.5 litre cooker and gave it four hours instead of the planned two but it is really good! I am immensely pleased with myself.

Place marking

I love Nigella and have made many things from that book very successfully, but completely agree OP that the girdle buster pie is the stuff of nightmares. I couldn't eat for approx 24hrs after trying it (years ago now).
I always make her Christmas cake and use her turkey timings and potato/parsnip. And the chocolate log is lovely too.

Also agree Delia's tomato tart is gorgeous.

@WisestIsShe

Well we went totally mad and decided to deep fry the turkey in the garden (thanks Food DIY by Tim Hayward). It was amazing! Delicious, juicy, savoury. I'll never roast one again.

Then we had Mary Berry Christmas cake, yum or Nigella's Yule log.

For Christmas cook books I really enjoyed the Hairy Bikers and GBBO.

Deep frying a whole turkey sounds like a terrifying undertaking! I imagine I would end up setting fire to the garden.

Which Delia book is the tomato tart in please?

www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjumeGpsPHtAhXHOcAKHc7oDuMQFjAAegQIBRAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.deliaonline.com%2Frecipes%2Fcollections%2Fsavoury-tarts%2Ftomato-tart-with-swiss-cheese-and-rosemary&usg=AOvVaw3iJJzpDIEifAK5HDtxftlP

This one?

Sorry, that is the link to the Delia tomato tart. Might try it over the next few days 🙂

Hmmmmm. Or maybe not! It's online anyway !!!!

That is the very one! It's in the Delia Christmas book. The recipe doesn't look that amazing, but it's so easy to make and surprisingly tasty.

@TheSandgroper

I woke up on Christmas eve to the viral three ingredient Christmas cake using choc milk.

I’m df, gf and I wanted to divide the volume by four and then slow cook it.

I had various scraps of dried fruit and nuts -enough to make up the volume so gave it a whirl.

I cooked it in my 1.5 litre cooker and gave it four hours instead of the planned two but it is really good! I am immensely pleased with myself.

I haven't heard of this magical three ingredient slow cooker cake (I'm feeling very behind the times) I'm going off for a google!

It's not in my Delia Christmas book circa 1998! I will brave the internet!

Nigellas double sprouts (bean sprouts - just discovered tinned ones and sprouts) with ginger, chilli and pineapple. Served with leftover ham and a fried egg.

I have the original delia christmas book and thought i was going mad because I didn't remember the tomato tart (looks amazing but absolutely guaranteed gastric fall out for me, these days, sadly) I've cooked about a third of the book successfully, over the years. This is the first year I've not done the onion and cranberry confit as I'd run out of cardamom, which really makes it.

I find just the very idea of a get ahead gravy (looking at you Jamie) utterly ridiculous. Gravy takes two minutes to make and the whole point is that you use the roasting juices from the meat you've cooked. It fills me with rage every time I see or hear of it.

I found a fabulous recipe for cinnamon buns online so we made them Christmas Eve and baked Christmas morning, will def do those again.

Had chicken instead of turkey this year - will def do that again. Bought M & S sprouts w bacon and chestnuts that you meecrowahve and they were incredibly good.

Did a Yule pavlova instead of Yule log - went down a storm.

BBC good food sausage rolls using Dorset puff excellent too - brushed w egg yolk for a fabulous burnished colour.

@BabblativeBean. I have just found your reply. I hope you found the recipe but, just in case, allow me to quote what came up on my fb page.

1kg mixed fruit
650ml choc milk
2 cups sr flour.

Soak the fruit in the liquid for 24 hours. Fold in the flour. Line your slow cooker with two layers of baking paper. 6-8 hrs on low or 2 hrs on high with a tea towel under the lid.

I used tea with a slosh of sherry. Gluten free flour and an egg. A couple of spoons of sugar and some vanilla as the choc milk has sugar, fat and flavour so I had to make up for it. And I divided the recipe by 4 and cooked it in a 1.5 litre slow cooker. As I said above, I was very impressed with the result.

I forgot. And some allspice and ground cloves.