Make your own Christmas Prezzies!

Faith

Wurly wrote: »

Oh yeah - jaysis. Forgot about the squares. I'll make them on chrimbo eve or the day before.. all the others, i think ill make this week.

Thanks for all the help. STARS!! The lot of you!;)xx

Just remember that they'll take a few hours to set and harden completely, so factor that into your timings

Wurly

Faith wrote: »

Just remember that they'll take a few hours to set and harden completely, so factor that into your timings

Indeed. I made that mistake the last time.:o I can't wait to give them a go again. They were gorgeous. Everyone thought so. And I used gluten free flour. They turned out perfect. Epic recipe, Faith. Thanks.;)

annie.t

Just tried my chilli jam and wow it is soo good and its not too hot at all, yummy
Tomorrow before work im making trial batch of caramel squares

NiCiarain

Wurly wrote: »

Indeed. I made that mistake the last time.:o I can't wait to give them a go again. They were gorgeous. Everyone thought so. And I used gluten free flour. They turned out perfect. Epic recipe, Faith. Thanks.;)

Hi Wurly, can you let me know how you made these using gluten free flour? I have the Doves Farm gluten free plain flour, would that work? Did you have to add extra butter to the mix? I need to make some christmas treats for a coeliac and would love some help. Thanks

Loopy

Tried a few recipes over the last few days for my hampers.

Fudge and Biscotti.


And Nigella's chocolate chip cookies.

The cookies were sensational!

leahyl

Loopy wrote: »

Tried a few recipes over the last few days for my hampers.
And Nigella's chocolate chip cookies.

The cookies were sensational!

Dear God those cookies look AMAZING! Is that recipe in her Christmas cookbook? I have it at home but don't remember seeing these! If you have the recipe that would be great!

livinsane

Hi all,

Just a few more suggestions for food gifts.

I made sticky ginger cake this week. It is divine and I think it has a festive taste. I used this recipe from BBC food. It's very easy to make (Supervalu stock Epicure stem ginger) and should last a while in an airtight container.

I've also made this tomato and chili jam which looks and tastes great (I've already gotten through a jar of it). I left my veg slightly chunky so it looks more like a relish than a jam.

I also have a great banana loaf recipe (taken from Ballymaloe cookery book) that keeps well and is a great alternative to fruit cake (tested on my bf who hates any fruit cakes but loves the banana loaf). I have attached the file with a copy of the page.

Wurly

NiCiarain wrote: »

Hi Wurly, can you let me know how you made these using gluten free flour? I have the Doves Farm gluten free plain flour, would that work? Did you have to add extra butter to the mix? I need to make some christmas treats for a coeliac and would love some help. Thanks

Hey there. I had to add a bit more butter alright. Just keep adding little bits til the mixture is quite wet and will hold a shape without crumbling. The rest of the recipe is the same.

NiCiarain

Wurly wrote: »

Hey there. I had to add a bit more butter alright. Just keep adding little bits til the mixture is quite wet and will hold a shape without crumbling. The rest of the recipe is the same.

Thanks! I'll definitely have to try this at the weekend.

Loopy

leahyl wrote: »

Dear God those cookies look AMAZING! Is that recipe in her Christmas cookbook? I have it at home but don't remember seeing these! If you have the recipe that would be great!

Not sure tbh, this is the recipe.
Only made them last night and they are all gone
Definitely going to do them for the hampers.

Wurly

I'm having a big grrrrrrrrrrrrr about my hampers at the moment folks!!!

The jars I bought in Ikea were small enough, I thought. However, when I made the lemon curd and the chili jam, I ended up with 5 scabby portions in the jars - about halfway up, if even.

I've to make a second batch of both. I haven't done my marmalade yet either. Did anyone else have this problem with portion sizes?

Faith

I had a similar problem last year, as far as I remember. I definitely only got 2 and a bit small jars out of the lemon curd. It's a pain!

Honey-ec

I made the red onion marmalade and the chili jam and got almost 1.5 litres out of both.

NiCiarain

Yeah I had the same problem. I made double the lemon curd recipe on page 1 of this thread and only got two Ikea jars out of it (1L total). I was hoping to get more. I suppose the safest thing to do is to make sure you start by filling the jars up one at a time so you're not left with a loads of half full jars, then at least you'll get a couple of full jars and won't have to re-sterilize the jars again! I also only got 1.25L out of the chutney recipe and was hoping to get at least 2L. I've had to remake almost every recipe I've tried since starting this little project so I could get my full hamper quota.
Oh well, by the time my hampers are made I'll have had a lot of preserve making practice :rolleyes:

Wurly

NiCiarain wrote: »

Yeah I had the same problem. I made double the lemon curd recipe on page 1 of this thread and only got two Ikea jars out of it (1L total). I was hoping to get more. I suppose the safest thing to do is to make sure you start by filling the jars up one at a time so you're not left with a loads of half full jars, then at least you'll get a couple of full jars and won't have to re-sterilize the jars again! I also only got 1.25L out of the chutney recipe and was hoping to get at least 2L. I've had to remake almost every recipe I've tried since starting this little project so I could get my full hamper quota.
Oh well, by the time my hampers are made I'll have had a lot of preserve making practice :rolleyes:

Can i not just make the second batch and pour into jars that are half full? Please god tell me that I don't have to start again..

What's making this worse is that i've an infected finger which is bloody agony and it's on my good hand... making the hampers even more difficult.:(

annie.t

I got my baskets off ebay, unfortunately they are too small (was hoping 10" would be enough), now i have to do everything else in smaller jars, not happy.

Wurly

annie.t wrote: »

I got my baskets off ebay, unfortunately they are too small (was hoping 10" would be enough), now i have to do everything else in smaller jars, not happy.

How annoying... I decided against buying baskets. They were far too expensive. At the moment in Aldi, they have turkey roasting trays. Im using these as the bases for my hampers. They are silver foil and are sturdy enough so can cope with the weight of the full jars. They also double up as a present as they can be re used along with the jars. Win win I say.

NiCiarain

Wurly wrote: »

Can i not just make the second batch and pour into jars that are half full? Please god tell me that I don't have to start again..

What's making this worse is that i've an infected finger which is bloody agony and it's on my good hand... making the hampers even more difficult.:(

If it was me I'd pour whatevers in my half full jars in with my new batch of lemon curd (when my new batch was almost done) just so its reheated again. Then I'd re-sterilize the jars and pour in my new batch. Im probably a bit fanatical about sterilizing jars though. If you've sealed your half full jars then you could probably get away without re-sterilizing. If you havent sealed then you wouldn't get away with just pouring the new batch on top.

Pity about your injured finger

Wurly

NiCiarain wrote: »

If it was me I'd pour whatevers in my half full jars in with my new batch of lemon curd (when my new batch was almost done) just so its reheated again. Then I'd re-sterilize the jars and pour in my new batch. Im probably a bit fanatical about sterilizing jars though. If you've sealed your half full jars then you could probably get away without re-sterilizing. If you havent sealed then you wouldn't get away with just pouring the new batch on top.

Pity about your injured finger

they're kilner jars and haven't been opened since. i'm just going to pour the new batch on top - feck it. hopefully none of the recipients are reading this. ha!! thanks for your help.;)

Honey-ec

I'm having trouble finding something to put my biscotti in. Went to Heaton's looking for the snowman bags someone mentioned but couldn't find them.

Anyone any other suggestions? I was half-tempted to ask the chick at the Sweet Factory stand in the Square to flog me a few of her stripey paper bags!

ElleEm

What about wrapping it in greaseproof or brown paper and tying it with twine. I do that with my fudge.

Eviledna

Honey-ec, Kitchen compliments have festive baggies if you are so inclined, with santys on them. However they are expensive, and the brown paper & twine idea sounds lovely too! Even a pocket of clingfilm tied into a bunch with some curling ribbon would work.

My Christmas baking has begun! Chilli Jam made last night (Watching the geminid shooting stars all night made it extra special ), Christmas cake today, Lemon curd tomorrow. I'm thinking of making senelra's lemon curd into spiced orange curd too! I'll report back with a recipie if successful

I'm also planning on making a ring of cinnamon buns and icing them to look like a christmas wreath for breakfast on the morning! Have a great cinnamon bun bread machine recipe from here.

shinikins

Eviledna wrote: »

I'm also planning on making a ring of cinnamon buns and icing them to look like a christmas wreath for breakfast on the morning! Have a great cinnamon bun bread machine recipe from here.

You could do this rather than making individual buns!

greeneyedspirit

Can I just say how much I LOVE this thread??
Some great stuff on here.
I've made the lemon curd - without ever having eaten the stuff before, I was just curious... so far made 3 batches, gorgeousness abounds!
Made some peanut butter fudge, too, who'd have thought it's THAT easy :eek:
And caramel sauce because I'd bought cream, thinking I'd need it for the fudge... nope... what to do? Caramel sauce! YAY!

Caught

Donal Skehan [BEAUT] showed how to make chilli jam on some show on RTE this morning. Great way to start the day with his beautiful face. ;D

Thought it's coincidental that Eviledna had posted it too.

LostinKildare

Here's an easy recipe for homemade Bailey's:

1 cup single cream (or mix cream and milk)
1 1/2 cups Irish whiskey (more or less)
1 can (397g) condensed milk
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons Hersheys chocolate syrup (got this in Dunnes)

Chuck it all in a blender and blend. Sin-é.

I make a half recipe and keep it in a pint glass in the refrigerator, on hand in case people stop by for a coffee. A full recipe makes about 1 liter, which looks nice in a bottle like this (2.39 from Ikea) with a ribbon and tag.



P.S. Tell recipients to keep it in the refrigerator (for up to 2 months, though I've never made it that far!), and shake before using as sometimes it separates a wee bit.

Loopy

Honey-ec wrote: »

I'm having trouble finding something to put my biscotti in. Went to Heaton's looking for the snowman bags someone mentioned but couldn't find them.

Anyone any other suggestions? I was half-tempted to ask the chick at the Sweet Factory stand in the Square to flog me a few of her stripey paper bags!

I actually froze half of my mix.
Not sure how it's gonna turn out but there are going in the hampers regardless.
Want to have a relaxed enough Christmas eve and somehow, now I'm committed to these bleedin' beautiful hampers I can't see it happening.

hootietootie

Finished my 2 batches of fudge, one vanilla and one baileys. They will go with the marshmallows, will probably make more of them tomorrow(seeings as they are slowly getting eaten by everyone)

Might try some turkish delight over the weekend if I get trapped in the house with the weather!

Eviledna

Caught wrote: »

Donal Skehan [BEAUT] showed how to make chilli jam on some show on RTE this morning. Great way to start the day with his beautiful face. ;D

Thought it's coincidental that Eviledna had posted it too.

Well since the chilli jam was the first post on this thread a year ago, tis not so coincedental, maybe donal's copying us eh?

deejam

Hi guys, I have had the same problem with the jars being to big, i made the chilli jam and the kinler jars are only half full.. I made it about two weeks ago and i was kinda thinking would it be too late to attempt it again.. does it need time flavour/settle... it is also runny so i think i'm goin to label it chilli sauce:D

i'm also goin to make mince pies, does anyone no where i could get the little silver trays, i have searched everywhere..!!