Cooking sweet and savoury for xmas gifts - help please!

djstar80

Hi - As we are really struggling for money this xmas I am wanting to make some homemade food gifts that hopefully cost very little - any ideas would be really welcome.


Also I have a chocolate mould that I brought last year but I'm wondering what I could actually make with it other then just buying some chocolate and melting it into the moulds lol!

Finally I was hoping to make some chutney but I'm wondering if I've left it to late? Also I am finding that any xmas type recipes that I find seem to be adding up to rather a high price, for example I found one on the bbc good food website and then I went onto a supermarket website to see how much it would cost and it's coming up as over £9 to make 2 small jars which seems quite expensive to me or is this the norm?


Any help would be really great as I feel like I've left it all a bit too late and I'm starting to panic lol!

roxiegriff

if you buy tesco alue ingrediants it will proberly be cheaper than the prices listed, but it could be worth doing th math before commiting


what are the moulds made of? if they are oven safe
you could bake boiled sweets to make xmas shaped boiled sweets

other food gifts you could do are things like hm shortbread, truffles, chocolate slabs, fudge, reinder poop, snowman soup

scaredy_cat

re the moulds - you could make a truffle gananche and line the moulds with a couple of layers of chocolate, when they have set, fill with a bit of the ganache then spread chocolate across to make the base - ta daaa truffle filled chocs!

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/sweet/home-made-chocolate-truffles.html

also, you could make chilli jam as that doesn't need to mature.

djstar80

Thanks for the ideas

popularfurball

175g flour, zest of one orange and 100g butter chopped in cubes, teaspoon of finer (ground)

blend into crumbs

add 1 tbsp milk, 50g golden sugar

blend

*freeze if needs be here for one month*

roll out on floured suface wrap in cling film and refrigerate for half hour

roll out and cut into shapes - leaving a window in the middle

part cook

crushed boiled sweets and fill window in middle - continue to cook

I've made and frozen dough so just a quick cook near xmas

esmer

Ingredients

225g Plain Flour

75g Caster Sugar + more for dusting

a pinch of salt

1 Tsp of Vanilla Essence

150g Butter (cold)

Method

Preheat the oven to 155 degrees Fan oven. Line your trays with baking sheets.

In a large bowl sieve the flour, sugar and salt add the butter (cubed) Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the dry ingredients until blended and you can form into a ball of dough.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface, until you get it to the thickness you want. I went for about 10mm, I don’t have a ruler so not that precise. Cut out whatever shapes you have, I used stars. Lift them onto your lined baking trays, and put in the fridge to allow the dough to harden. Leave in there for 15mins.

Take out the fridge and put into your oven. I put the timer on for 12 mins and then look at them, and if they are a nice golden brown remove from the oven, if not leave for a few minutes.

Once they are out the oven, sprinkle with caster sugar and leave to cool on the tray for 5mins and then put them onto a wire rack to cool through

esmer

Ingredients

400g (14oz) dark
397g can Carnation Condensed Milk
25g (1oz) butter
100g (3½oz) icing sugar
55g Pistachios Shelled and crushed (this can be any flavour of your choice)
55g White chocolate chips (again any flavour you want)
Method

Break or chop the chocolate into small chunks and place, in a bowl over a pot of simmering water, when melted add in the condensed milk and butter. Melt the ingredients gently over a low-medium heat, stirring occasionally until smooth and silky.
Sieve in the icing sugar and mix thoroughly, you have to work quick here as it start to get thick, and hard to stir.
Press the fudge into a 20cm (8in) square tin, smooth over the top with the back of a spoon.
Press the nuts and choc chips into the surface, if using.
Chill in the fridge for 1 hour until set, cut into squares.

esmer

Ingredients

3oz Butter
3oz Granulated sugar
3oz Muscovado Dark Sugar
Tsp Vanilla Extract
1 egg
6oz Self Raising Flour
Pinch of salt
4oz of choc chips or raisins or dried apricots or whatever you want to add.
Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4.
Cream butter and sugars, once creamed, combine in the egg and vanilla.
Sift in the flour and salt, then the chocolate chips.
I then dropped them on baking trays covered in greaseproof paper, leave room for them to expand.

Bake for 8 to 11 mins, depending on how gooey you want them, i cooked them for nearer the 11 mins…….. They are to die for.

Leave them to cool on the tray, and then transfer to a wire rack, if you try and take them off too soon, they will just stick to the tray.

djstar80

Thanks for all the ideas.

Esmer - Some great ideas there. Do you know how long these will last for once made and can you freeze them? I would like to make some but I don't want them to go off before people open them on xmas day lol!

mansemum

I'm in the same boat this year!

I have made some chilli jam for my brother using Nigella's recipe - I just did a search for it. Really easy (I'm not a natural cook) but it's looking good. I've just got to dress the jar up now.

HTH

Well_Preserved

If anyone has an Aldi near, their current booklet contains 5 recipes for gifts: mincemeat biscuits, amaretto & walnut truffles, chocolate truffles, irish cream fudge, lebkuchen. The leaflet is free instore.