I have just made 5 christmas puddings

[ClaudiaWankleman]

And my biceps are aching from all the mixing!

Last weekend I made my mincemeat. Still to come are a couple of Christmas cakes, some mincemeat fudge and Nigella's christmas pudding chocolate truffles (and of course the mince pies).

I really love Christmas cooking and I'd love to expand my repertoire. What are you making for the big day?

I've made the Christmas cake and Christmas puddings. Actually you've reminded me I need to give the Christmas cake another feed.

I've made some pork, sage and onion stuffing balls and frozen them. I made twice the amount of stuffing I needed and used the excess to make sausage and stuffing rolls (also now in the freezer.)

I’ve made 2 puds, 3 dozen pigs in blankets and a load of stuffing, all to take to dd where we’ll be spending Christmas.
Only the brandy butter still to do.🎄

Something that hasn’t been mentioned yet is Christmas cookies. A lot of them can be frozen as dough and cooked freshly in small amounts, as and when needed. Many can be cooked straight from frozen so even if you have unexpected visitors, you can have some fresh home baked treats to offer.

I make a lot of traditional German Christmas cookies but also other Christmassy flavours like chocolate and peppermint or orange, Turkish delight/almond/walnut/hazelnut cookies etc I also make cheddar and Parmesan shortbreads to freeze that are delicious with a glass of wine.

If you have DC or DGC, they usually enjoy cutting out the cookie dough with Christmas cookie cutters. It’s a bit of a Christmas tradition in our house 🎄😀