Thursday, November 29, 2007

Christmas Recipes

With the Christmas Season well on it's way it's time to start baking. Today we are giving you 2 great recipes that are loved by everyone (young and old), are great gifts to give plus they freeze well so can be made well in advance!!!!

The first recipe is FUDGE from Belinda and it looks yummo!! The second is a CHRISTMAS COOKIE DOUGH recipe (those yummy sugar cookies) from Jo who is a great of thefamilyroom. I have to tell you, these sugar cookies are amazing. They are so good my children actually requested that I email Jo and ask her to send us the recipe. She has made them with my kids and they LOVE them.

Jo is an amazing cook/baker and I'll let you in on a little secret......She's given us a few other recipes to share and they are absolutely divine and I might ask her if she will spoil us and give us a recipe every 2nd month as a treat! Here's hoping :)

So, Christmas baking here we go:

Christmas Fruit and Nut Fudge by Belinda

Ingredients:
125g butter
395g can of NESTLE Sweetened Condensed milk
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups Nestle Melts dark
1 cup cubed sponge finger biscuits
1/4 cup roughly chopped roasted almonds
1/4 cup roughly chopped roasted cashews
1/2 cup halved red glazed cherries.

Method:
1. Place butter, NESTLE sweetened condensed milk and brown sugar in a pan.
Stir over a low heat until butter has melted. Bring to the boil,
simmer stirring for 3 minutes.
2. Add NESTLE melts dark, stir until combined and chocolate has melted. Stir
in sponge finger biscuits, nuts and cherries, mix well.
3. Spoon mixture evenly into foil lined 12cm x 23cm loaf pan, cool in
refrigerator until firm.
4. Turn out, cut into squares or slice to serve.

Christmas Cookie Dough by Jo

2 cups butter (softened)
2 cups icing mixture
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 eggs
5 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder

Method:
(Preheat Oven to 180'C (160'C fan forced))
1. Cream butter with icing sugar.
2. Beat in vanilla and eggs.
3. Mix together flour, salt and baking powder; add gradually to butter mix.
4. Chill for a couple of hours until mixture is firm enough to roll out.
5. Cook cookies on greased cookie sheets. Bake in a 180'C (160'C fan forced) oven for 8-12 mins. Remove as soon as they start to turn slightly brown on the edges. Leave on tray for 2-5 minutes, then onto cool surface.
(Do not leave on tray for too long, they will continue to cook.)

You can decorate them with icing (the kind with egg white in it to make it go hard) or they also taste great drizzled with a little chocolate. Get the kids involved and maybe buy some of those cute decorating bits from the supermarket ~ make them your own!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you, my kids have been asking to make Christmas Cookies but I didn't have a good recipe. We'll make them tonight and have some fun.
Lisa

Anonymous said...

So where would I get a recipe for icing that has egg whilte in it??

Will give these a go this weekend,
Jane

Susan J Sohn said...

Jane,
I think it's just egg white and icing sugar but I'll double check that with Jo.
I'm going to try them tonight. I guess Lisa and I will let you all know how they work out. Keep an eye out for Jo's reply.
Susan

Anonymous said...

Hey all here's the icing recipe for you. Enjoy!
Jo

Royal Icing Recipe
(Makes About 3/4 Cup)

This is enough for about 20 cookies. Make it in small batches if you only plan to decorate a few cookies, or double/multiply the recipe if you're making the whole batch of cookies.

Ingredients:
1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
1 egg white
3 or 4 drops of freshly squeezed lemon juice
Liquid or paste food coloring

Directions:
Mix the sugar, egg white and lemon juice in a small bowl until the mixture is smooth and creamy. It should have the consistency of heavy cream (you may need to add a bit more sugar). Add desired food coloring.
Divide icing into smaller bowls. Tint with small amounts of food coloring; mix well for even color.
 

Anonymous said...

Well it's now 9:31pm, the kids are finally in bed, the kitchen is free of all flour (we had it everywhere) and the cookies are on the countertop cooling ready for part two tomorrow night which will involve the frosting, decorating plus more cookies (we left some of the dough in the fridge). We would have done it all in one night but being a school night we thought it best we retire while we were ahead.

We did our fare share of taste testing along the way ~ who can resist raw cookie dough! And like any good baker we burned our tongues and lips on cookies that were straight out of the oven, seriously who really waits with the first batch.

So from the Sohn family we say a big THANK YOU Jo for once again providing us with some Christmas joy and a great night of bonding.

People always ask my why recipe's, why all this nitty gritty stuff on thefamilyroom.....my simple answer is that I am and will remain in awe of how something as simple as a Christmas Cookie recipe can bring people together. Life is good and tonight I will put my head on my pillow with a very satified smile on my face and peace in my heart!

Susan

leosatter said...

i will be trying these out this Christmas!!!!
Do you by chance, know of any quality online food services? I am starting to order all my food online because of various reasons. (Health being one of them) So far I have found 2 services, Fresh Dining (an LA company) and Celebrity Foods, but you have to call them so they can talk to you about your need. I would really like any suggestions that you may have, so I can widen my list of quality places online where I can order healthy food from.
Thank you and have a great night or day…depending on when you read this. LOL!!!!

Anonymous said...

leosatter,
Hey there I don't have any suggestions about ordering online. I guess my first and non-researched answer would be wholefoods however I'm sure there are other GREAT healthy options out there depending on your health requirements. Let me know if you don't get anywhere and I can try and do some research for you.
By the way, how did you happen upon our blog?
Susan

Anonymous said...

leosatter,
Hey there I don't have any suggestions about ordering online. I guess my first and non-researched answer would be wholefoods however I'm sure there are other GREAT healthy options out there depending on your health requirements. Let me know if you don't get anywhere and I can try and do some research for you.
By the way, how did you happen upon our blog?
Susan

Anonymous said...

Hey all the kids and I made these and they are GREAT! Thanks Jo for a super tasty and easy recipe. We made it, baked some, put the dough in the fridge and will bake more again today. I love those recipes.
Susan

Anonymous said...

Christmas sugar cookies were an absolute delight in the "true north strong and free"! We put on a Christmas CD while the weather outside was frightful (minus 20 degrees) and baked and decorated Christmas cookies. It was fun! Great recipe.

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