Christmas & Holiday Baking Miss_Chrys: So the holiday season is well and truly upon us now. What with 5 days to go until Christmas, are there certain items that you make only at this time of the year? Do you get together as a family and bake family favourites or traditional items and what are the family favourites you look forward to? Does your Aunty Sue make a to die for Turkey, Nannas plum pudding or something thats a regional speacialty? I'm spending Christmas solo this year however in the past I come from a huge Greek family so my grandma starts baking and making the week of all pastries, desserts and marinating meat. It's Lamb on a spit that day. For me I always bake for my friends. Always a request are my spiced honey cookies, chocolate coconut truffles and apricot balls.. They never last in my house and go down a treat. Feel free to share recipes. pjt1965: hi Miss_Chrys.....My mom is greek. She and I always made a couple of pans of Bacalava...for the holidays. We had to make alot cuz it was eaten up, so fast!!! She had an old family recipe...i will have to steal it from her and list it fr u!! Miss_Chrys: I seldom make Baklava I always find it's too sweet for me.. I make coconut balls and apricot ones.. so easy but always in demand.. will post the recipe shortly.. Yeah would love a good baklava recipe.. It's good with ice cream too if your feeling super naughty.. lol pjt1965: I knew i spelled it wrong?? lol..i would love those recipes? I dont think hers was very sweet...she toned it down..a bit from the original.. i love ice cream with everything...i am always naughty that way?  Kaotic_J: 2 things my family always have at x-mas time... Prawns marinated in sweet chilli and garlic (overnight) before being cooked on the bbq for x-mas lunch.. And trifle for desert,though i dont like the ones with fruit in them so mum makes me my own (sponge cake,a splash of sherry,jelly,custard,whipped cream topped off with crushed nuts)  •♥**❤Moscato❤**♥•: Well I asked Mum how her baking was going.... I was told she was soaking the mixed died fruit for the Christmas cake in 2 cups of rum !! One cup of this will be then be poured off after a day & that liquid will then soak the dried fruit for the Christmas pudding overnight the following day. Sometimes she will make these up to 6weeks in advance for a maturing of flavour, but its fine if they are made only 3 or 4 days before. Will try get a recipe here... she now bakes a lot of these in a gluten free form now. Her traditional recipe was liked well by members of the family who really didn't like fruitcakes, but always asked if she would bring one of hers, when we attended different family gatherings over the past 15 years. She is marinating fresh stone fruit & drained canned fruit in port from Friday night ready for the trifle she will make on Saturday evening. There is a nice twist on trifle that can be made with either a chocolate cake or brownie recipe & drizzling the cake part with brandy or cherry brandy & adding brandy or "Kirsch" liqueur to lightly sugared fresh cherries or jarred or canned cherries & plums to make 'black forest' trifle, with either vanilla or chocolate custard , lashings of whipped cream & dark chocolate curls or gratings on the top for garnish. Yes quite decadent. [ I prefer making a very light creamy custard thickened with a mixture of very fine rice flour & corn starch but bought custard will suffice] Will post more recipes later...a lot of our foods are northern european as my mothers family background is german/danish and my sisters mother-in-law is Finnish. I should try & post the "cheeseball" recipe as its a really easy savory item to have with nibblies & the quantities can be halved to make a smaller one. The recipe I have makes 2-3 ,balls with a circumference of 10cm & a height of roughly the same. they can be made up to a week ahead & frozen or made the day before or the day of, depending on the time you have. Making them a day before helps the mild flavours to permeate the cheese. Happy cooking & eating..  cheers! •♥**❤Moscato❤**♥•: P.S for the trifle, you can either "jelly" the fruit or make a tray of jelly & cube cut it. I find for most trifles, "port wine" jelly is the most suitable, but "cherry" jelly will work with either trifle. If your local supermarket doesn't sell cherry jelly, you can usually buy it at middle-eastern or persian food stores. If the cherries I've used are quite sweet I prefer a 'sour cherry' jelly with a little tang to it such as the one made by ChocoPars brand from Iran. Miss_Chrys: Sounds delish mossy.. I love a good Christmas Pudidng and a trifle.. Our next door neighbour used to make a really boozy one as well.. I've never had a shot at making them..All sounds so good ya'll got me lol.. I love a good triffle too I have never made one though.. I'll have to give it a go one day.. I had to make another 2 batches of coconut balls today as they didnt make it as gifts. My brother got into them so gone.. heres the recipe ptj. Chocolate Coconut Balls: Ingredients: 1 Packet Marie or Arrowroot Biscuits 2 Tbsn Cocoa Powder 1 Tin Sweetened Condensed Milk 2 Tablespoons Coconut Extra Coconut Margarine Method: Blitz Biscuits(Cookies) in food processor until they are fine crumbs Mis cocoa, coconut and crumbs together. Add in condenced milk and mix well. In a seperate bowl have 1 cup or there abouts of coconut to coat balls in. Use some margarine to coat your hands with. This will stop the mix from sticking to your hands and help the coconut stick to the balls. Roll mix into small, medium or large balls then toss in coconut. Refrigerate and voila. To make the apricot ones all I do is omit the Cocoa Power and substitute with Icing Sugar and add 1 Cup chopped dried apricots.. Enjoy | Food Chat Room Similar Conversations |
