Recipes that are usually associated with Christmas
Christmas deserves something extra special. So a shortbread biscuit flavoured with clementines, so readily associated with that time of year, are just perfect. They taste great and have that special shortbread crunch. Although I made shortbread just a few weeks ago I decided that a slight variation, adding the zest from some clementines, would make […]
Pandorini, the perfect individual little Christmas Bread. I have always been fascinated with yeasted Christmas bakes that are so popular in many countries. One such is Pandoro from Italy. Made in a special star shaped mould it is a tall bread with small slopes around the top, somewhat resembling a mountain perhaps. It is sprinkled […]
Bite-sized little treasures that are a taste sensation in the mouth. I thought a lovely treat for Christmas would be a popular Italian cookie/biscuit known as Baci di dama, which translates as Lady’s Kisses. These are tiny little biscuit sandwiched together with some chocolate. The weight of each biscuit, before baking, is 5 grams so […]
Rich and fruity with lots of booze. Perfect for Christmas, or at anytime at all. I saw a lovely recipe on Delia Smith’s wesbite for a Creole Christmas Cake. It was a rich, fruity cake, with lots of different alcohols in it. I couldn’t fathom why it was ‘Creole’, but I was certainly intrigued by how […]
It was suggested to me that Norwegian Christmas Bread, known as Jukekake or Julekage would be a great addition to my Christmas baking. So I checked out a few recipes and read up a little on the bread. It is very similar to some other Christmas breads, such as Panettone from Italy, and several other […]
One of my subcribers on Youtube asked if I might be able to make a Bûche de Noël à la vanille, which very roughly translates as a Vanilla Yule Log I think. I decided to give it a try, using a Joconde type sponge as the cake base and a custard and butter cream to […]
This year I haven’t made my usual Christmas Cake or a Dundee Cake so, with just a week to go until Christmas I have decided to use a trusted recipe from Delia Smith for a last-minute Christmas cake that has mincemeat in it. I actually came across a few other recipes using mincemeat in Christmas cake […]
As Christmas approached, with some rapidity, minds turn evermore to what needs to be baked. Mince pies are always fairly close to the top of the list. Of course they are readily available in the UK in all the supermarkets. In fact it is claimed that 300 million are eaten in the UK over Christmas […]
I discovered a lovely little cake(or very soft cookie) which in Italian is Rame di Napoli. In English Copper of Naples. These little cakes which actually probably originate from Sicily when Sicily and Naples were united in the 19th century. They are usually enjoyed at Halloween, but for me I think they are perfect at […]
One of my Youtube subscribers asked me if I had ever made Panforte. The simple answer was no. In fact I hadn’t really heard of Panforte so I looked it up and watched a few videos. Panforte is a type of dense, chewy, cake which is made with nuts, normally almonds and candied peel. There […]