November/December cookery book club - getting ready for Christmas!

[HuevosRancheros]

The regular book club has lapsed a bit recently, we are all busy, and I'm guessing we're only going to be busier as we head towards Christmas.

So here is an idea to avoid any new book purchases and start planning for Christmas - will you join me?

Two options, please join in whichever you fancy :)

1. Felicity Cloake's "How to cook the perfect..." series, from the guardian, but all available online

and/or

1. Digging out your tried and tested Christmas books and sharing your favourite recipes. Or try something new and report back :)

Today I'm going to do Felicity's rice pudding.

In the next couple of weeks I plan on trying her cinnamon buns, to see if they are as good/better than my go-tos for Christmas morning.

And in December I'm going to make her red cabbage (freeze for Christmas) and her Yule log

Everyone welcome, please join in :)

Oh, and I should add, I follow her advice re: subbing whole eggs for egg yolks, it works fine. But I guess if you were making e.g. a pavlova you wouldn't mind the spare egg whites :)

Think I'll omit the apples too. Not because my kids are fussy but because I love the simplicity of a cinnamon bun! Don't know if I can wait till Christmas though!

You owe it to yourself/your family/your guests/humankind to do a trial run.

Can you imagine the horror if you made them for the first time at Christmas and they weren't perfect??

Huevos - Are you in cahoots with ds? - He has suggested we do half apple half cinnamon - cake and eat it!

Marking my place, I have managed to stay away from the Xmas books so far but I did buy Jamie's Xmas magazine

Higge, you know it makes sense
That boy will go far!

verypunny do you have delia Smith's complete cookery course? I have a feeling there is a good recipe in there. Failing that you could try the recipe from the FC blog:

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/dec/01/how-cook-perfect-cheese-straws

macaronipony - yes, I do, should have thought of Delia! That said I do rate most of FC's recipes.

Huevos you need to report back

When I was growing up Christmas dinner was always Spiced Beef, which in Ireland you can just order from your butcher. Am toying with the idea of doing it myself.

Do you have Dan Lepard's Short & Sweet? No cheese straws but some lovely savoury cheese biscuits...

Might need to do a cinnamon buns trial run

Have managed to persuade dh to not change our cooker until after Christmas. I reckon it will be a bit cheaper then and I don't want the stress of working out a new cooker or having to wait in for it to be delivered in the busy run-up. Am I crazy? My current cooker has no working grill and one oven that is either off or freakishly hot. It is at least 15 years old and will cost a lot to fix hence buying a new one (I have my eye on a smeg opera range cooker).

ScienceRocks TBH I'd replace it now. It took me all of 30secs to get to grips with my new oven, mainly because the temperature I set it to was the actual temperature grin That said, I haven't heard good things about Smeg ovens (mainly reliability issues) so I might consider something else

Huevos - can get Short and Sweet out of library, if a Google doesn't produce a recipe (IIRC he wrote a lot for the Guardian). Had a cull of unused cookbooks lately so am trying to avoid replacing them!

VeryPunny I have short and sweet on the kindle. That way, I can keep adding to my virtual pile without feeling guilty about bookshelf space

Sciencerocks I'd replace the oven too - I have 2 Miele but they aren't great, heat distribution is poor and they are not hot enough, would love a Neff but I've made my choice now.

I agree the cinnamon buns need a trial run, in general main complaint about British cinnamon buns is that they lack gooeyness and there's not enough icing - dcs loved cinnamon buns in the US!

Have decided on my third sweet gift for the Christmas eve hamper - Oreo white chocolate fudge - not something I'll eat - I don't get the Oreo love but the dcs go crazy for it and it's very, very quick, easy and keeps for a month - fat chance!

Higge Wow, I thought Miele ovens would be amazing! We looked at them for our kitchen return but couldn't afford them (I wanted two ovens or a decent double) - we went for a Siemens double which I love at least as much as my children grin

There's always the Pioneer Woman cinnamon rolls although the recipe quantities as given make six dozen or some other insane amount. You could also try combining a Chelsea Bun recipe (IIRC they have a syrup poured over them when cooling) for added stickiness.

Good point:re Kindle cookbooks. Also easier to avoid the "not another cookbook" conversation....

All I can say Punny is that I chose them partially on their reputation and mostly on their looks, they are very slick looking. They replaced a very, very old Electrolux and they don't come anywhere close to its performance. I have two slightly different models and neither impresses much.

I'm surprised to hear Miele aren't good either. The one I really want is the Neff slide and hide. They look so good on GBBO. The only reservation I have is how easy would it be to clean the 'slide in' bit.

DD1 loves oreo too. I have made a orea brownie from Lorraine Pascal a few times, and it always get eaten up very very quickly.

www.food.com/recipe/cookies-and-cream-fudge-brownies-lorraine-pascale-450238

Our Siemens has telescopic rails so the shelves just glide out. Not quite as neat as a hide and slide but I think a bit better as you don't have to reach into a hot oven cavity.

Oh no! I agonised over my choice of smeg :-(

Anyone got a dual fuel range cooker they would recommend? Not the huge, eight burner type, but a six burner one. I want a double oven as opposed to a four oven aga style affair if that helps.

ScienceRocks Rangemaster have the best reputation - the people on the Property/DIY board have lots of good advice. I got a bit obsessive about cookers/ovens/hobs!

Yes we have a dual fuel rangemaster, double oven and separate grill, and huge wok burner. Love it!

I normally make the cinnamon buns from Falling Cloudberries but those SK ones look good, will have to try.

Science we have a Canon double oven/duel fuel cooker, it's std size with only 4 burners but one is much larger for woks. I'm really pleased with it, cooks well. If I had the room I'd be tempted by their larger one but probably plump for a Rangemaster. The Smeg is too small for my baking trays, mermaid ones, and after some googling reviews I was put off.

Penny is the new JO xmas mag a rehash of previous years or all new?

Ooh can I join? I have a shelf specially for Christmas recipe books and magazines, I keep the good ones; there was a fab Delia Smith one with some good recipes for GF foods, the chocolate puddings I made , were better than normal ones and dead easy!

Question all -is there one good book that will cover all food Christmassy that I could get hold of that will see me through? What would you recommend?

Yes there's Delia Smith's Christmas which is fab. with a chapter about different types of Xmas cakes. I don't make a trad. one now like other posters because no one eats it, and it's terrible for my digestion .