Make your own Christmas Prezzies!

Eviledna

Spotted a recipe I just have to try this year, Nigel Slater made them on his show a couple of weeks ago. I'm a firm believer that there is nothing on this earth as good as the combination of salt and sweet!:)

Sea Salt Chocolate Snaps (Florentines for all the world!)

saraocallaghan

Oh I am so glad I found this thread! I'm going to go baking mad this Christmas Thanks for all the recipes everyone. Once I get started baking I'll take photos and put them up!

baby and crumble

Hey all! Looking forward to making a few of those recipes! I stuck up a thread yesterday about an old family recipe I found. I have (kind of) figured out a recipe from it, and someone said I should put it up in this thread. The original can be found on : this thread

Here is is though:

700ml Bushmills (Had a full bottle I got as a pressie and I'm not a fan of Irish whiskey)
rind of 2 lemons & 2 oranges
180g of caster sugar
pinch of safron
2 small lumps of sugar candy (found randomly in the Asia Market on Drury St! It's in a little green bag for like €1.50)

All into a 1.5 litre bottle, shook up til things are dissolved and here we go! Shake it every day for a month or so. Fingers crossed!

leahyl

Thanks for keeping the thread alive guys! I brought it back to life a few weeks back in one of my mad Christmas frenzies! I'm trying to lose a few pounds before Christmas though so it's torture looking at all the yummy Christmas recipes!:pac:

Note I am not the OP! Just came across it when searching for Christmas food or something!

Eviledna

I'm the OP, but I gotta say that this thread only exists because of everyones great attitude on this forum over the years. Back in 2009 I got the Chilli Jam recipe here along with many others, and it's the contributions to this thread that have made it brilliant. A real diverse range of treats!:)

It's fairly rare on the net to have a thread that has not been sp@mmed or tr0lled at all, that's simply a group of people coming together to make nice things as gifts and share ideas, out of kindness. Tis the wonder of boards, and of the Cooking and Recipes forum ethos in general.

Back on topic, this thread originally had a cost-saving aspect, where to source ingredients cheaply, so as to help everyone save in these hard times. So if anyone feels like it, please recommend places to get the ingredients for their recipes, and the prices.

For the florentines above I'd recommend getting Dark Chocolate from lidl for less than €2, and pistachios and almonds from aldi for ~€4.

MonGal

I love this thread! I made mango and apple chutney last year and have already received requests for more this year - it's particularly tasty with leftover turkey! The recipe is from BBC Good Food...I buy my mangoes/apples and as much of the other ingredients I can in aldi, to keep the cost down! this recipe makes approx 4 jam jars of chutney..

Ingredients
3 1⁄4 large ripe mangoes , about 1kg/21⁄4lb
2 tbsp sunflower oil
2 onions , halved and thinly sliced
thumb-sized piece fresh root ginger , peeled and cut into thin shreds
10 green cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick
½ tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp coriander seeds , lightly crushed
¼ tsp black onion seeds (Nigella or Kalonji are good)
½ tsp ground turmeric
2 Bramley apples , about 500g/1lb 2oz, peeled, cored and chopped
1 large red chilli , deseeded and finely sliced
375ml white wine vinegar
400g golden caster sugar
1 tsp salt

Method:
1. Cut each mango in half down the sides of the flat stone that runs through the centre of the fruit, so that you end up with 2 fleshy halves. Now take each mango half and cut into the flesh, making quite chunky diagonal pieces - take care not to cut through the skin. Turn each half inside out, then slice away the chunks of mango that stand proud from the skin. Cut the flesh from around the stones, trim off the skin and chop the flesh.
Heat the oil in a large, deep sauté pan, add the onion and fry for a few mins until starting to soften. Stir in the ginger and cook, stirring frequently, for about 8-10 mins until the onion is golden. Stir in all of the spices, except the turmeric, and fry until toasted.

2. Stir in the turmeric, add the apple and pour in 500ml water, then cover the pan and cook for 10 mins. Stir in the mango and chilli, then cover and cook for 20 mins more until the apple is pulpy and the mango is tender.

3. Pour in the vinegar, stir in the sugar and salt, then leave to simmer uncovered for 30 mins, stirring frequently (especially towards the end of the cooking time so that it doesn't stick) until the mixture is pulpy rather than watery. Spoon into sterilised jars.

leahyl

Eviledna wrote: »

I'm the OP, but I gotta say that this thread only exists because of everyones great attitude on this forum over the years. Back in 2009 I got the Chilli Jam recipe here along with many others, and it's the contributions to this thread that have made it brilliant. A real diverse range of treats!:)

It's fairly rare on the net to have a thread that has not been sp@mmed or tr0lled at all, that's simply a group of people coming together to make nice things as gifts and share ideas, out of kindness. Tis the wonder of boards, and of the Cooking and Recipes forum ethos in general.

Back on topic, this thread originally had a cost-saving aspect, where to source ingredients cheaply, so as to help everyone save in these hard times. So if anyone feels like it, please recommend places to get the ingredients for their recipes, and the prices.

For the florentines above I'd recommend getting Dark Chocolate from lidl for less than €2, and pistachios and almonds from aldi for ~€4.

Well done to you and everyone on a great thread! I might not actually get to make anything but I can dream:)

Eviledna

The microwave fudge earlier in the thread is a great twenty minute treat if you're stuck for time

Live your dreams!:p

ballymac676

A friend gave me a big bag of cherry tomatoes yesterday and I was wondering what to do with them. Googled recipes of tomato chutney didn't have great reviews but problem now solved with the tomato ketchup recipe. So thanks for that

I made the beetroot chutney and it is very very good would recommend it to everyone but alas my lemon curd was a disaster. Not sure what I did wrong but think I will have to give this a miss in future!

baby and crumble

On the money saving thing, I saw really nice jars downstairs in Kitchen Compliments off Grafton St when I was hunting for a few bits yesterday. They were pretty, smaller than the massive jars you end up getting mayo in or whatever, and less that €2.50 each. Your yield would go a longer way, but the jars still look really pretty.

They're also running free demonstrations the nest few weekends on cake decorating and cooking Christmas presents. Just an FYI.

shinikins

This year I'll be making the Lemon Curd again, and Chili jam(I hadn't enough vinegar last year, and substituted with some Balsamic and the result was gorgeous!) I've been surfing around my favourite sites and have come across Peppermint Patties, Peanutbutter Cups(nom), and Sweet and salted Roast Chickpea's.

Looking forward to Christmas!!

namurt

trackguy wrote: »

Got started on my presents for this year.

I'm making chilli jam, pomegranate vodka, tomato ketchup, mulled pears, rhubarb pear and ginger jam, cranberry and apple chutney, lemon curd, mango chutney and apple, cider and sage jelly.

Hi Trackguy. That jelly sounds lovely, will definitely give it a try. Do you have the recipe for the rhubarb, pear and ginger jam? Also, what are the mulled pears like?

trackguy

namurt wrote: »

Hi Trackguy. That jelly sounds lovely, will definitely give it a try. Do you have the recipe for the rhubarb, pear and ginger jam? Also, what are the mulled pears like?

Hi there. I went shopping for ingredients for the jam yesterday but couldn't find any rhubarb! I'll still be making it if I can find the ingredients! Here's the recipe anyway -

675g rhubarb, rinsed and chopped into 2.5cm pieces
2 pears, peeled, cored and chopped
800g granulated sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
Juice of half an orange
2 small balls of stem ginger, finely chopped
(Makes 1kg)

Put the rhubarb and pears in a large pan and add the sugar. Stir everything together.

Add the lemon juice, orange juice and ginger. Cook on a low heat, stirring to ensure the sugar completely dissolves.

Raise the heat and boil, cooking on a continuous rolling boil for 2o minutes until the mixture reaches setting point. Remove from the heat.

Ladle into your sterilised jars.


Yesterday, I settled for making plum and lime jam. €4 for 20 plums on Moore St!

ballymac676

Re recipe for Tomato Ketchup - Hi haven't been able to source ground mace from supermarkets in town. Is this an essential part of the recipe - can I substitute anything else in its place

WesternNight

This thread is amazing. I'll definitely be making some of these for Christmas. There are always people I find incredibly difficult to shop for, but there are some great ideas here

trackguy

ballymac676 wrote: »

Re recipe for Tomato Ketchup - Hi haven't been able to source ground mace from supermarkets in town. Is this an essential part of the recipe - can I substitute anything else in its place

You can also buy mace blades which you could add to the dish and remove before jarring.

Mace is the outer husk of the nutmeg, so you could use nutmeg instead.

xxxkarenxxx

Im loving this thread! Its given me lots of inspiration. Im so sick of trying to pick out presents for people each year hoping they will like and use them. So I definitly think this is the best way to go about it.

This will be my first year doing it. Going to get stuck into it this week I have decided on making...

Apple butter
Three fruit marmalade
Pomegranite vodka
Make your own cookies jars
Chilli jam

Hopefully they will all turn out ok :rolleyes:

xxxkarenxxx

I made the apple butter tonight. Turned out really well!! Though I didn't quite get the 3 full medium jars like the recipe stated. I got about 2 and a bit. Still very happy with how it turned out

trackguy

Made Nigella Lawson's Cranberry & Apple Chutney last night. It looks promising!

Take 750g finely chopped cooking apples, 250g dried cranberries, 1 finely chopped onion, 350ml cider vinegar, 200g caster sugar and 1 tsp each of ground ginger, turmeric, cumin and coriander and add to a large pan. Add 2 tsp of salt and give everything a good mix. Bring to the boil and simmer for 45 minutes.

Spoon into 2 x 500ml sterilised jars (I increased the quantities by 1.5 times to make 3 jars, rather than 2)

Lola92

I have just been inspired to do foodie Christmas presents this year I did truffles about 3 years ago and they went down a treat, now to decide what to do this year....

Bride2012

fitzcoff wrote: »

I have nothing to do with this company but have heard from someone in a business that these guys http://www.doyledist.com/ are very reasonable for gift baskets. Just looking at the site and it doesn't say if they sell to the public but the photos on the site look like it is laid out as a shop, so if someone needed baskets etc, this might be the place.

I personally are not going to use baskets etc for my stuff as I have picked up a few dinky jars in shops over the last while but someone might be interested

They're only business to business, pity!

Merrilady

Woooo hoooo am soooo excited about my foodie Xmas presses this year.

I made Lorraine Pascals chilli jam last night, was more of a sweet chilli sauce though, but my goodness .. Massive

I also found a really old book for food gifts in a charity shop, some are out there, but some would give you food for thought ( yikes, I'll close the door on the way out)

Jars are my concern, as I bought one in Ikea recently and it's waaaay too big, so I'll be on the hunt.

Was hoping to include - jams/ chutneys, salad dressings, home made lemonade ( depending on shelf life ) pesto/ tapenade, preserved lemon slices, rocky road bites,

Thanks so much for this thread, I'm soooo excited.

I'll be making cookie today

xxxkarenxxx

I got around to doing the second thing off my list... three fruit marmalade.

It turned out really well and I got three medium kilner jars and two regular jam jars full. Thats part of 5 presents sorted!

Its a mixture of orange, lemon and grapefruit and tastes delicious. The recipie is a little tedious but its worth it in the end. If anybody would like the recipe for this or the apple butter, just let me know

biddywiddy

xxxkarenxxx wrote: »

I got around to doing the second thing off my list... three fruit marmalade.

It turned out really well and I got three medium kilner jars and two regular jam jars full. Thats part of 5 presents sorted!

Its a mixture of orange, lemon and grapefruit and tastes delicious. The recipie is a little tedious but its worth it in the end. If anybody would like the recipe for this or the apple butter, just let me know

I would love this recipe please!

xxxkarenxxx

senelra wrote: »

I would love this recipe please!

No problem Here it is

Three Fruit Marmalade
Ingredients:
1 grapefuit, washed
1 Orange, washed
2 lemons, washed
1.35(3lb) granulated sugar

Half the fruit and squeeze to extract the juice, strain this into a large saucepan, reserving the pips.

Scrape out any soft flesh from the shells and add to pan. Scoop out the membranes and some of the white pith and add to the pips. Put the pips and membranes and pith in muslin and tie with string to make a bag.

Thinly shred the fruit peel or finely chop in a food processor. Add to the pan with 3 pints of water and the muslin bag. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 1 and a half hours until the peel is really soft and the liquid has reduced by half.

squeeze as much juice from the muslin bag as possible then discard. Add the sugar and stir over a gentle heat until it has dissolved. Bring to the boil and boil rapidly for 15/20 mins until the setting point is reached.

Skim off any scum from the surface. Leave to stand for ten minutes then stir well to redistribute the peel evenly. Ladle into warm sterilized jars, seal and label and store in a cool dark place.

*I picked up a handy reusable muslin bag in kitchen compliments. It was great for this!

Faith

I can't remember if it was posted already, but I'd love the apple butter recipe!

curly from cork

Enjoying this thread ! Excuse this ignorant question but what do you do with / use with lemon curd ? Everyone seems to love it !

biddywiddy

curly from cork wrote: »

Enjoying this thread ! Excuse this ignorant question but what do you do with / use with lemon curd ? Everyone seems to love it !

I usually use it to sandwich together a plain sponge cake, just as an alternative to jam/fresh fruit. Nice with freshly whipped cream.

I always give my aunt a jar of lemon curd at Christmas and she spreads it on scones I think.

I may have also eaten it straight from the jar.

xxxkarenxxx

Faith wrote: »

I can't remember if it was posted already, but I'd love the apple butter recipe!

Sure thing

This recipe makes approx 2 1/4lb about three medium jars. You need:

900g cooking apples, roughly chopped. No need to peel.
Juice of 1 orange
Pinch or all spice
Pinch of cinnamon
625g (1 1/2lb) granulated sugar

Put the appled in a large saucepan and pour in 250ml of water. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 10 mins until the apples are soft.

Sieve thr fruit in batches and collect the juice and puree, in a clean bowl. Put this mixture back into the saucepan and add the orange juice, allspice, cinnamon and sugar. Cook on a low heat stirring until the sugar has dissolved.

Bring the mixture back to boil and simmer gently for two hours until the mixture thickens. Stir ever so often so it doesnt catch the bottom of the pan.

The butter is ready when it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon without running off, or a wooden spoon drawn across the bottom of the pan leaves a clear trail. It should now ne a soft, moist, spreadable paste.

Ladle into warm sterilized jars. Seal, label and store.

Ophiopogon

I my apple butter with cider...ends up with a shocking amount of sugar I'd say but its so yummy.

1.5kg apples (windfalls are great)
600ml cider and 600ml water
sugar
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon

Cook the apples in wate and cider till soft, don't peel or core. Push the mush through a seive and weigh the pulp. Add 340g sugar to every 600ml of pulp. Add spices and boil till the mixture begins to splutter and is creamy.