Essential Christmas baking ideas

[Custardslice3]

I love doing some Christmas baking, and this year I'm trying to pace myself to enjoy the treats and the baking process over the whole month rather than cramming everything in at once over Christmas week and actually having way too much food at once. So I'm planning in one thing to make with my DS each week.

This week we made the Christmas cake, next week we will do gingerbread, and another time we will do mince pies. What else should we make? Ideally needs to be fairly simple and not too extravagant. I'll do sausage rolls/cheese straws too, but probably will do those while we are away staying with family rather than just with my son.

Please share your favourite seasonal bakes to make!! Thanks!

This might count as too extravagant but I make a spiced chocolate orange tart every year for Christmas:
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chocolatetartwithwhi_87928
I add the zest of 2-3 oranges and use Green and Blacks Mayan Gold chocolate (or normal dark chocolate with some cinnamon and mixed spice added).
I don’t bother with the white chocolate drizzle but it did look good the year I had some edible gold glitter to scatter on it.

It’s so delicious- I’m excited just thinking about it now!

Yule log! Basically chocolate Swiss roll slathered in choc ganache. Yummy!

For something more child friendly I’d suggest basic sugar biscuits baked into the shape of Christmas trees and/or baubles and then getting lots of different sweets and cake decorations so he can ‘decorate the Christmas trees’.
I used to do it with the children I nannied for when they had friends over in the run up to Christmas (it’s pretty easy to do with a group of kids if the biscuits are already baked and cooled)

I usually make a load of my very very cheesy cheese straws - they always go down well.

Mmm, just reading these is making my mouth water!

Yule log/choc orange tart but I suppose I'm thinking more of smaller individual things - there's only the two of us in the house so we'd have a very unhealthy month eating all of that, whereas if we bake a big batch of gingerbread shapes then DS will take some to the grown ups that work with him, or we'll drop some round to neighbours etc.

I have just remembered that last year I made monkeybread for Christmas day breakfast though - that's definitely going on the list to be made again this year! I think that was an idea I got from MN too

Since the beginning of lockdown we’ve been getting bake boxes from here - amazing value and always very successful. The Christmas one is brilliant, I’m not sure how they do it for the price, but it’s all you need!
shop.haighsbakery.co.uk/

Stollen, far nicer than the bought stuff. Hairy Bikers recipe is good.

Yule tide cake
Mince pies
Sweets
Biscuits
Cheese and fruit platter
Fondue
Trifle
Sausage rolls
Stewed fruit

This is easy, if a little fiddly, and looks really effective once baked…
Christmas tree 🎄

Cinnamon buns
We make cheese stars using a biscuit cutter instead of cheese straws
I think Nigella Lawson did a recipe for festive rocky road
Cranberry and orange cupcakes

Stained glass biscuits? Dead easy. I googled a recipe last year and it was just a basic cookie recipe with a hole in the middle and a crushed hard sweet. I believe some of them you can hang on the tree and lights will shine through the sweet bit. The sweet did nearly break my partner's tooth though 😂 and cheese marmite straws

@CoffeeChocolateWine Love the Christmas tree!

I've just seen some reindeer cupcakes on fb also, with choc covered pretzels for antlers, so I might add those to the list. If I time it right on baking those then DS can take them round to some of our friends to drop off with Christmas cards.

I usually do Nigella’s gluten free chocolate brownies.

Oh yes, we’ve made the reindeer cupcakes with the chocolate pretzels and smartie noses lots of times! They’re really fun!

Along the baking lines but a bit of a cheat, I ordered a couple of these rolling pins earlier to make some pretty biscuits or mince pie toppers!

www.costco.co.uk/Grocery-Household/Nuts-Snacks-Confectionery/Novelty-Confectionery/Cadbury-Dairy-Milk-Chocolate-House-Kit-900g/p/373873

This kit has instructions on how you can make a chocolate house at home. It's not really baking, but there you go!

On the baking front:
www.jamandclottedcream.co.uk/search/label/christmas

thegoddesskitchen.blogspot.com/2009/02/cranberry-and-white-chocolate-cookies.html

www.effortlessfoodie.com/no-bake-terrys-chocolate-orange-tarts/

princesspinkygirl.com/hot-chocolate-cookie-cups/

I am looking forward to making these adorable hot chocolate cups :) I won't be using premade dough and pudding mix though, I'll make home made cookie dough and chocolate ganache, and will probably use a pretzel half for the handle

Another vote for stollen. I made one last year for the first time and it was lovely far nicer than shop bought.

Me and DD always make star bread as well which looks really impressive but is very easy. She likes it with cinnamon and sugar whereas my sister likes it with Nutella.

Recipe for star bread:

cafedelites.com/star-christmas-bread/

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/christmas-crinkle-cookies

These! They taste so good. We sometimes add mint in too. Super easy for DC to make too.

Not baking really but I usually make a tiffin/fridge cake/rocky road type thing and slice it up into squares. It always goes down a treat and takes only a few minutes plus chilling time. I use dried cranberries and macadamia nuts but you can throw anything you like in.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/easy-rocky-road

I always make the peppermint bark from here and give it to family, always goes down really well!
orangette.net/2008/12/look-at-that/

DS always enjoyed making peppermint creams half dipped in chocolate, fudge made with marshmallows and Rockie road.

What a lovely lovely thread!

We are doing....
Decorating ready bought star cookies
Making mince pies
Making sausage rolls for Christmas eve
Toasting panettone on the fire pit outside for the winter solstice
Possibly slow cooker fudge for presents for teachers etc
Slow cooker hot chocolate for film afternoon. Did this kast year it was amazing I need to dig out the recipe, think it was whole milk, cream, actual chocolate and Nutella
Also have a gingerbread house we usually do this in between Christmas and New year

@Plantsandpuddlesuits thanks! I'm getting super excited about all the baking. Might add fudge to my list for the my son to gift to people. Do you have a tried and tested recipe? I know I did a white choc and lemon curd one in the SC a few years back, but can't remember where the recipe was from.

I love stollen, but don't really want to bake a whole one for us - but I found this recipe which I might try www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/stollen-muffins

[quote Custardslice3]@Plantsandpuddlesuits thanks! I'm getting super excited about all the baking. Might add fudge to my list for the my son to gift to people. Do you have a tried and tested recipe? I know I did a white choc and lemon curd one in the SC a few years back, but can't remember where the recipe was from.

I love stollen, but don't really want to bake a whole one for us - but I found this recipe which I might try www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/stollen-muffins[/quote]
Sorry no I did the fudge a few years ago. I'm on a slow cooker group on FB and have just searched and found my pic of the fudge but I didn't write the recipe with it! There's loads of recipes online though, think it's a mix of chocolate, condensed milk and butter. Sorry can't help more!