Christmas Food Gifts

I am really great at planning, if I do say so myself. However, my performance on the follow through leaves a lot to be desired. Starting last year, my extended family decided that we would give an edible gift for each family and just buy gifts for the children. I'd been pushing for this (or KK's for the adults) for quite a few years now, as it seemed a bit crazy buying for each of my aunts and uncles etc. Everyone usually ended up getting little gifts which generally weren't that great. Not that they weren't appreciated, it was just that when buying for so many people, on a strict budget due to the number of gifts required, it was hard to find something truly useful or that would really be loved.

This year, i'm planning some super lovely hampers. Time will tell whether all of the elements get completed and they come together in time. Let me share the Christmassy goodness that I hope will get into each of the four hampers I need to create:

Raspberry and Lemon Cordial: image from http://yummy-books.com/2010/09/21/anne-of-green-gables-raspberry-cordial/

Almond Bread: Picture and recipe from http://www.cathyskitchen.energyaustralia.com.au/recipes/almond_bread

Peach and Vanilla Jam: picture and recipe from the lovely My Tartlette, http://www.mytartelette.com/2010/08/recipe-peach-vanilla-jam.html

Bejewelled Chocolates: picture and instructions available at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial who has oodles of fantastic ideas, http://figjamandlimecordial.com/2009/12/15/bejeweled-chocolate/

I'm also thinking of making quite a few extras to give as small gifts to people like the staff at the daycare centre that my girls go to. I think they'd look great wrapped in cellophane and tied with a ribbon. They'd also look very christmassy if you used cranberries and pistaccio's as your "jewels", like in the nougat below.

Dulce De Leice: This is also from the very clever Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, http://figjamandlimecordial.com/2010/02/26/dulce-de-leche-from-scratch/



Pistaccio and Cranberry Nougat: This picture and an accompanying recipe are from http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipe/3636/Pistachio_and_cranberry_nougat/search/true, although I will be using Donna Hay's recipe from her "Christmas" book.

Poached Pears Infused with Cinnamon, Cloves and Star Annise: Picture from http://www.achefshelp.info/article/302/poaching-and-preserving-fruit-and-desserts-chefs-tips


One of the most difficult things so far has been sourcing the packinging (ie. bottles and jars etc). I bought a whole bunch of what I believe are preserving jars at the Reject Shop for $2 each, which is not too bad. I still need a whole bunch of smaller jars and smallish brown glass bottles for another Christmas project (more info to come shortly).

I have found a lovely idea for a gift basket that you can make from card.

Picture from the ever inspiring Fig Jam and Lime Cordialhttp://figjamandlimecordial.com/2009/11/13/origami/ and instructions are at: http://www.craftideas.info/html/origami_basket.html

These boxes would look lovely filled with Christmas treats and wrapped with cellophane a lovely ribbon.

Hope that I've inspired you!

Have a great weekend, Mary xxx

P.S. Stay tuned for another post coming shortly which will show all of the lovely non-edible gifts that I hope to make in time for Christmas.

Part II

Above are the chocolate waffle cups filled with creme patissiere and topped with a) sour cherries and b) strawberries and grated chocolate. Next time I would fan the strawberries. Also above is a place of pink lamingtons. If I was to ever make these again I would make the pink slightly darker. I found the lamingtons to be a big pain. They were time consuming and messy and I don't think that lamingtons are that great! They also have a huge fat content (seriously, next time you're ad the supermarket check out the saturated fat content). I'm not a huge heath nut (although it might be about time for that to change), but if i'm going to have something high in fat, it better be yummy.....like those chocolate cups.





I also made profiteroles dipped in white chocolate which you can just see on the back right of the above picture. Although I made a few mistakes they were suprisingly easy to make. Next time I would use the dough hook on my kitchen aid to mix the choux pastry when adding the eggs rather than a wooden spoon, I'm sure this would reduce the chance of blisters induced by use of wooden spoon, ouch. Also, I reduced the temperatures slightly as the recipe I used didn't state if the temperatures were for a fan forced over or a non fan forced oven. My profiteroles were quite soft and didn't have that crunch that you expect. They were however still very yummy. I also had a very tough time filling the shells with creme patissiere as my piping tip kept going back into the bag and the creme patissiere just spilled everywhere. I recall once having a piping tip that kind of screwed on to the top of the piping bag. I will look into this before I make these again. Details of the recipe that I used for the profiteroles can be found at this website, which features some amazing creations, http://raspberricupcakes.blogspot.com/2010/05/cupcake-croquembouche-daring-bakers-may.html










Above we have the bonboniere. I think I can safely say that I will NEVER do these again. I was wrapped with the way that they turned out but they were so incredibly time consuming! I did all of this by hand, every single thing from covering the boxes with white paper to cutting the chocolate into the neatest squares that I could. I also included a little note listing some details of the event and of the saint that is my daughter's namesake. All up I made about 70 of these little gifts, with a little help from my sister.

Finally, for the moment, I also made rosewater lemonade, which I didn't get a chance to take a picture of. I bought glass bottles from our local $2 shop and made up the mix, which was suprisingly easy. I had planned to make it a lovely pink colour, however, when I saw that it was so yellow, I realised that adding pink food colouring would make it go orange. I decided that the natural yellow colour was a much better option. The lemonade was very popular and I will be sure to repeat it for future parties.

My inspiration for these bonboniere came from the following website, which also has loads of other great ideas, as well as free downloads http://www.freeprettythingsforyou.com/

Hope you've enjoyed this post and perhaps gotten some inspiration for a new project or party.

Mary