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CHRISTMAS RECIPES
All of these recipes are part of my Christmas time in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney, Australia. You can make these for gift-giving; use clear cellophane and tartan/Christmas ribbon and devise your own Home-Made By label. Australian standard measuring cups and spoons are used in these recipes. In Australia, cookies are called biscuits.
Ingredients
Method
Melt chocolate; cool. Mix in egg yolk, cream and alcohol. Cool until stiff enough to roll into balls (if it's a hot December day, you may need to place the mixture in the fridge). Place coating (eg cocoa) in a small plastic bag and shake truffles in this, a few at a time.
Keep in an airtight container in a cool place - the fridge if yours is a summer Christmas. How many does it make? Depends how large you make the balls.
Variants
*if you do not wish to use liqueur, you can substitute citrus juice/zest or (these won't taste as good as the real thing) artificial flavourings or essences.
Ingredients
Method
Cream butter and sugar, add zest/oil, beat, add egg, beat, add flour, beat. Kneading the mixture (turn it out onto a lightly floured board) will improve the texture. Line a baking sheet with nonŠstick baking paper, or grease it lightly with butter. Roll out the mixture and use Christmas cutters - stars, hearts, sheep, angels - to cut out the biscuits. Bake in a 160 degrees (Celsius) oven for about 20 minutes. Cool on the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a cake rack to cool completely. You may decorate these with royal icing and silver cachou balls. (See the Royal Icing recipe below).
Variants
(Reminder: these are oils for cooking, not aromatherapy)
For use with the gingerbread and/or the shortbread
Ingredients
Method
Put egg white and icing sugar into a small bowl of an electric mixer. Beat the mixture at the lowest speed for about 3 minutes or until the icing is white and stiff enough to form soft peaks. Add a little more icing sugar if necessary. You can mix it by hand: put egg white into a small bowl, gradually add icing sugar and beat with a wooden spoon or flat wire whisk.
IMPORTANT: Royal Icing sets very quickly when exposed to air so, when being used, it must be kept tightly covered with food plastic or a damp cloth.
To ice the shortbread or gingerbread: use an icing bag fitted with a writing tube (fine) or alternatively, cut a cone of baking paper or a small plastic freezer bag and snip off the end with sharp scissors to create a disposable icing bag. Make the cut fairly small - you can always enlarge it if necessary.
Gift ideas: ice the biscuits with swirls, dots or stripes; or monogram them with the recipient's initial. You can put silver cachou balls on the icing before it sets, but take care with these around small children. You could also experiment with colouring some of the icing in Christmas green or red, or other colours.
Ingredients
Method
Grate the rind from three lemons using the fine holes on the grater. Squeeze the juice from all six lemons. In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar and citric acid in the boiling water. Stir in the lemon rind and juice. (You may choose to include one pip for authenticity.) Allow to cool before bottling.
Unlike many lemonade recipes, this makes a concentrate, like ordinary cordial, and should be diluted in the same proportions (usually 1 part cordial to 4 parts water). In hot weather, diluting it with 1/2 soda water and 1/2 plain water is very refreshing. It should be kept in the fridge and used within two to three weeks. My sister uses lemons from her tree in season, preparing the rind and juice and freezing these in correct amounts to use later in the year when her tree has no fruit and lemons are expensive.
This recipe was on the internet for Christmas 1996 on the ABC Radio 2BL recipe site and was devised by Maureen Simpson. I haven't yet found it back on the internet, so I have put it here because it is such a good recipe. Find Maureen's currently available recipes by clicking here. Use Back to return to this site.
Ingredients
Method
Put butter, golden syrup and sugar into a saucepan, beat to dissolve, then cool to lukewarm. Sift plain flour, SR flour, soda and spices intoa mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle. Add egg, egg yolk, vanilla and warm syrup mixture. Mix thoroughly.
Take about 1/3 of the mixture at a time and knead lightly using a little flour (not too much flour) then roll out onto a lightly floured surface. Cut out with Christmas cutters - hearts, stars, angels, sheep).Place on greased baking trays lined with baking paper and bake in a moderate oven (180 to 190 degrees Celsius) for 8 to 10 minutes. Watch carefully, as they burn quickly after this time, and if overcooked the flavour will be spoilt. Remove from trays and cool.
Store in an airtight container. Serve them perfectly plain or decorate with Royal Icing. These biscuits keep for weeks and weeks in an airtight container. They're delicious with coffee or icecream and especially popular with young children. The recipe makes about 30 gingerbread people or 50 to 60 small hearts or stars.
Fun to make and decorate with (the help of) children. This recipe is adapted from a recipe in the Australian edition of Family Circle dated 12/97.
Ingredients
To ice:
Method
Melt the butter and chocolate together in a bowl over very hot water. While it is melting, crumble the fruit cake into a large bowl. Add the rum/Grand Marnier/brandy/orange juice and mix it through. Stir the melted butter/chocolate mixture until it is combined and pour it into the cake mixture. Mix well until all is combined.
Prepare two swiss-roll size baking trays with greaseproof paper. Take one teaspoon of the mixture and roll into a ball, place on trays and continue until you have used up all the mixture. This size will make between 70 and 80 tiny Christmas puddings. Alternatively, divide the mixture into a dozen and make 12 larger puddings (the smaller mouthful-size ones are nicer). Put the trays into the refrigerator for 1-2 hours to allow them to set.
Prepare the white glace icing or melt the dark chocolate. Ice the tiny puddings, allowing the icing/chocolate to trickle down the sides of the puddings. Put a small piece of glace cherry or a silver cachou on top of each one and return to the refrigerator to set - a day or two gives the flavour time to develop. You could also use the Royal Icing on these tiny Christmas puddings.
Store in the refrigerator (especially in the heat of an Australian Christmas!). These make excellent presents.
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These recipes all work and all taste good, but I can't take responsibility for your versions, or any legal liability associated with the recipes or their use. Except as indicated, this material is copyright and is not to be reproduced in any form or manner without permission from the copyright holder. The image at the top of the page is from this Christmas site at geocities. Please do not steal. You are welcome to put a link to this page on your site.
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This site is maintained by Ruth Buchanan. All content is copyright Ruth Buchanan 1998 with all rights reserved; copyright not held by Ruth Buchanan is acknowledged where known (refer individual pages and Acknowledgements page). Pleae advise re any discrepancies.
Page most recently updated 3 January 1998. Why hasn't it been updated since then? Well, the recipes still work, and I've been making quilts... so I've left this to fend for itself, and it's managed pretty well. Christmas 2000, and the recipes still contribute to a spiffing celebration.
