christmas treats help please

JIL

I made cinder toffee the other day. I followed a recipe from Nigellas website. http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/hokey-pokey-36

i did not use caster sugar. It was really nice. You could even cover it in chocolate.

westcoastscot

hokey pokey, although it doesn't last as slowly crumbles - impressive to make though with your grandkids - chemistry!!. Coconut Ice is easy too - have a vegan recipe if you want it. Looks pretty wrapped in cellophane for christmas.
Otherwise spice biscuits in christmas shapes and decorated with those icing pens/small tubes of coloured icing.
Jam bango biscuits are lovely but very moorish :-)
WCS

meritaten

I discovered when making old fashioned fudge that the hand mixer with the dough hooks attached - saves a lot of wear and tear on the arm! for the final 'ten minutes beating' that is! but don't do this in a Teflon coated pan - turn the fudge out into a hot bowl first!

lushlifesaver

Some bits from my list of homemade goodies/treasures for Christmas are:
Fudge/tablet
Coconut ice
Peppermint creams
Ginger/spiced biscuits
Mince pies
Rocky road
Classic cupcakes
What I think are called maids of honour; pastry cases with a smidge of jam in the bottom and topped with an ground almond mixture and baked
Shortbread
Jam/lemon curd tarts

mardatha

Awesome - thanks everybody!

ginnyknit

http://premeditatedleftovers.com/recipes-cooking-tips/homemade-candy-round-up/

here you go Mar, the peanut butter fudge is very easy by the looks of it, am determined to try it out this week, just an experiment of course. I havent a clue what I will do with it as it will go off by Christmas........

mardatha

Well of course you really owe it to your family to do a test batch first!! They might get poisoned if you don't!

suzybloo

WhAt about a batch of macaroon? Madevusing A boiled tattie, no salt, mashed And beat it with a whisk adding in icing sugar, until thick and right consistency, one half you could colour green and put a drop on mint essence. Roll into balls, Chill and then drop in chocolate, and then roll in toasted coconut. Lovely! Just like Lees macaroon bars of the 70's

Reminds me off this wee rhyme ;-)

Lee's, Lee's, more if you please.
All of us beg on our bended knees.
For piccaninnies and grandpapas,
It's Lee's for luscious macaroon bars.

mardatha

I used to love them, sook off all the coconut and see how long I could make it last. Never made one though.. Asda is coming on Sun with all the ingreds for sweeties. Bet I make them all then eat them all then order the ingreds all over again

angeltreats

I make meringue mushrooms to decorate a chocolate yule log, but I make lots of spares so we can nibble them! They're dead easy and look so pretty. And they keep really well. I don't really have a recipe, but there's one here:

http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipe/meringue-mushrooms/12537/

Also I have a recipe that I only ever make at Christmas for cranberry and macadamia nut fridge cake. It's very rich so I cut it up into little squares and put it in cellophane bags as presents for people - it's so full of golden syrup that it keeps for a week or more. If you want the recipe let me know and I'll post it for you.

Oh and I also have a white chocolate and dried cranberry fudge recipe, it's dead easy (uses evaporated milk and no thermometer needed). It's also very nice with dried raspberries if you can get them. I found it on a Tesco leaflet years ago and it's my absolute favourite and completely foolproof, fantastic for presents and everyone loves it. If you fancy that let me know and I can post that too.

I bought this book in The Works the other day for £4.99. I make sweets every year for a charity stall at work and for gifts for family and friends so I'll be trying out lots of the recipes in this - there are absolutely loads and they all look lovely.