HM Sweets for Xmas Presents - cheap recipes?

ShelBell

Chocolate Mint Crisps

50g granulated sugar
50ml water
oil of peppermint
225g plain chocolate
7g vegetable fat
65ml double cream
cocoa powder to dust

Oil a baking sheet. Line a small cake tin, about 6inch square with parchment.
Put the sugar and water in a small, heavy saucepan and heat very gently until the sugar has dissolved, stirring continuously.
Bring to the boil without stirring. Add 2-3 drops of oil of peppermint, and boil the syrup rapidly to a rich brown caramel.
Pour it on the prepared baking tray and leave to harden. When really hard, crush roughly with a rolling pin.
Break the chocolate into a bowl and melt it over a pan of hot water. Add a little vegetable fat to make it really smooth and remove from the heat.
Put the cream in a small pan and bring to the boil. Pour on to the melted chocolate and beat until well mixed. Add the crushed peppermint caramel and beat for 2 minutes more until the chocolate mixture is really smooth and the caramel evenly distributed.
Turn into the prepared tin and smooth the surface. Leave overnight until firm.
Turn out the slab and peel off the parchment. Dust a sharp knife with cocoa powder and carefully cut into square or diamond shapes
Post to me.

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ShelBell wrote: »

i have an ace book on fudge, toffee, creams, truffles and sweets etc, so if anyone is looking for any particular recipes just shout and I'll type them out.

Please remember not to infringe copyright. See here for more details.

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freyasmum

Can't believe I almost forgot macaroon bars - I've just made the tablet from earlier, and am now off to make these

4 oz, cold mashed potatoes (no butter, milk, etc!)
16oz icing sugar (approx, really depends on potatoes)
8oz dark chocolate
4oz desicated coconut (toasted)

1. Boil the potatoes until soft, then drain and mash well. Cool.
2. Gradually mix in the icing sugar until it becoes very stiff and hard to mix - you may use ever-so-slightly more, or less than stated above, but it is ready when you can roll a ball of it in your hands and it's only slightly sticky.
3. Dust the work surface, and hands with icing sugar to stop the mixture sticking.
4. Roll the mixture into thin 2-3" sausages.
5. When you have used all the mixture, the first ones should be set - easy to pick up, and quite stiff.
6. Dip into some melted chocolate and cover with the toasted coconut.
7. Sit on some greaseproof paper to set.

caledoniaquine

Im on a diet so I will be waiting until I have lost some weight before I do any of these lol, cant stop thinking about tablet and truffles now :rotfl:

bigsmoke

hi folks

i'm thinking about trying to make some of the cherries that feature at the beginning of this thread for a friend's birthday over the weekend - has anyone tried it?

do the cherries come on stalks? i don't think i've ever seen dried cherries - do you think they're unlikely to have them in asda?!

~*Plushroom*~

Afternoon all!

This year for Christmas it's looking like I'm going to have to give my OH's friends gifts, now that's fine, they're great people, but I can't really afford to with everyone else in my life so I'm planning to make a hamper for each couple with lots of english sweeties in that I'll make (They're all american you see).

But I'm finding it hard to find any good recipes that aren't too tricky, I've got one for sugar mice and another for coconut ice, and I know how to [accidently] make tablet . Does anyone have any ideas on what else I could make, or even better, some tried and tested recipes that I can use. Google is driving me insane coming up with recipes for trifle!

Thank you in advance!

Fen1

Just stick in some bars of really good chocolate. American chocolate is vile. It's so bad they won't even tell you the cocoa content.

Chocolate covered brazils - grandma's favourite.

Turkish Delight. You should be able to find recipes on the web.

Fudge. Ditto.

livalot

How about making some fudge, or toffee or even some honeycomb. I use this web site for traditional English food, have a look you might get some ideas for other recipes

http://thefoody.com/sweets/index.html

Livalot

oops sorry not honeycomb as that needs to be eaten asap!

Pink.

Hi Plushroom,

There's an earlier thread with lots of recipes and links that may help so I've added your thread to it to keep the suggestions together.

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Triggles

Plushroom - as I used to live in the states, I can attest to the fact that the chocolate here is infinitely better!!! i think that is a stellar idea of making sweets for them - they'll love it.

If you're looking at putting it into a basket type gift - check the Special Occasions and Celebrations section of the forum - they have a number of threads about gift baskets that are really helpful and may also have some good recipes for you!