HM Sweets for Xmas Presents - cheap recipes?

I've got a book somewhere, just with sweet recipes in ;D I'll have a look for it and post recipes tomorrow

peppermint creams are a doddle have you looked on the tate and lyle website?
or get marzipan and roll it into balls, then dip it in chocolate
theres a recipe on here somewhere for honeycomb, someone bump it up cos id like to try it too and im too tired to trawl thru the threads
try indian sweets like barfi or halwa for something different (madhur jaffrey book has recipes)
i had some pink skinned bananas once and they were bery nice - and i suppose a sweetie really - deep fried in slices

Posted this on RiverCottage a few weeks ago - its been successful for me in the past and someone else from there tried it and loved it:

It's from Sonia Allison's Sweet Book.

Makes 2lb (or 900g but I can't be bothered with these new fangled metric conversions)

1 1/2 lb granulated sugar
1/4 pt water
1 large can sweetened condensed milk (so the soup tin sized one, not the little squat one)
2 oz butter
2 tsp vanilla essence


Grease a 7 inch square tin.

Put sugar, water, milk and butter in to pan and stir over low heat until sugar dissolves.

Bring to boil over medium heat, cover, boil for 2 minutes, uncover.

Continue to boil, uncovered, for about 20 mins, stirring often to prevent sticking, until a little dropped in to very cold water forms a softish ball, and you are able to roll the ball between finger and thumb without it disintegrating.

Draw pan away from heat and leave to stand for fifteen mins.

Add vanilla essence and beat until the fudge loses its gloss and starts to thicken. This, if I remember correctly, takes ages, is really tiring, and best done by the man of the house. I'm not sexist, just really lazy.

Spread in to tin with a knife, mark in to squares and cut up when set, which should happen fairly quickly. Store in an airtight tin. Yes, like it's really going to last long enough to go off.

The person who tested it also dipped it in to dark and milk chocolate. Hmm. For scientific testing purposes I might have to give that a go myself!

And finally....

not very cheap, but comparable to something really really expensive.

Get dried cherries (Waitrose do own brand or you can find Whitworths in some supermarkets and sometimes buy them from dried fruits stalls in the market). Soak in alcohol of choice - brandy is nice or no doubt cherry brandy/kirsch would be good - either way, something you'd drink rather than use to clean the bath with. Not sure how long for.

Drain.

Drink the alcohol.

No, wait, put the alcohol to one side and drink later or you might mess up the next bit.

Melt some dark chocolate, dip cherries in, remove and place them individually on greaseproof or baking parchment and leave to set.

They lasted a good week or two last Christmas. They might have lasted longer but they didn't get the chance.

Absolutely utterly lovely.

gotta try the cheeries too. yum.