Your Christmas Recipes

The Hill Billy

Let's be having your Christmas recipes...

Here's one of my favourites that I bake for my nearest & dearest every year:

Stollen

Ingredients
400g plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
10g packet dry yeast
125ml warm milk
50g caster sugar
220g butter (preferably unsalted) melted, plus 4 tablespoons, melted for basting
1 tablespoon brandy
2 tablespoons dark rum
120g blanched almonds, chopped
250g raisins, chopped
100g cup mixed candied citrus peel
1 tablespoon grated zest of lemon
sifted confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

The distinctive oval shape of this traditional German Christmas cake is said to represent the Christ child wrapped in swaddling clothes.

Step 1:
In a large bowl, sift 300g of flour with the salt.
In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in half the milk.
Make a well in the center of the flour and salt mixture; then add the yeast and milk, sugar, 220g of butter, vanilla extract, rum and brandy.
Mix well to combine, adding enough additional flour (or milk) to form a smooth, elastic dough.

Step 2:
On a lightly floured surface, turn the dough out and knead for 3 minutes.
Lightly oil a bowl and place the dough in it, turning to coat well with oil.
Cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and let stand in a warm place for about 1 hour.

Step 3:
On a lightly floured surface, turn out the dough.
Knead in the almonds, raisins, citrus peel, and zest.
Allow the dough to rise once more until almost doubled in bulk.

Step 4:
Remove the dough from the bowl and shape it into a 10-inch round.
Sprinkle the ground cinnamon on top.
Fold the round almost in half, flatten, and shape to form an oval.
Place on a greased baking sheet, cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap, and let stand in a warm place for 30 minutes.

Step 5:
Preheat the oven to 190°C.
Brush the stollen with milk & melted butter.
Bake, brushing with butter every 10 minutes, for 45 to 50 minutes or until a tester comes out clean when inserted.

Step 6:
Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.
When cooled, wrap in several layers of foil and store in the refrigerator--the cake will keep for 3 to 4 weeks.
To serve, slice thinly, wrap the slices in foil, and warm in a moderate oven for 15 minutes, or toast the slices.

The Hill Billy

Bump. No takers last year. Any this year?

The Sweeper

That stollen recipe looks goooooood. It looks like it might be a nice alternative to a 'traditional' Christmas cake too. I for one adore Christmas pudding, but I find that Christmas cake has a tendancy to be dry on the outside and just right in the middle, but never perfect all the way through. Plus it's a damn expensive recipe to get wrong...

My only Christmas favourite is sprouts, par-boiled and then wok-fried with bacon bits and garlic and a splash of white wine to steam them.

The Hill Billy

Give it a lash MAJD it is certainly worth it. Go heavy on the rum.

kenco

Always do up a bit of spiced beef every christmas but that not really a recipe

Do up some roast onions (red).

Cut a cross from the top to nearly the bottom (dont want them to fall apart).

Then push butter mixed with various herbs into the gaps and roast for approx half and hour.

Not sure on more details but I think its a Jamie Oliver one

Minder

Cranberry sauce with port and orange. Stew the cranberries until cooked down, add a glass of port and the juice of one orange. Continue to cook until a thick consistency. Taste and add sugar as required.

tSubh Dearg

2. BRUNE KAGER (VARME) - Brown Biscuits (Warm) aka Delicious Danish Delicacies
(pronounced Broon Kayeh)

500g golden syrup

250g brown sugar

125g butter

650g flour

ca. 10g potaske, This appears to be potash or calcium carbonate.

cloves (crushed)

all spice

cinnamon

Heat syrup, butter and sugar to boiling point and then blend in the other ingredients to a dough which is left in the cellar for 8 days.

A dough like this can stand a long time if it is kept in a cool dry place. It pays to make a large amount and bake a portion according to how much is needed.

When preparing to bake, one must roll the dough very thin. If brune kager are thick they don’t taste good. They seem to lose their crispness. So the dough is rolled very thinly and can be cut out in diamond shapes (with a kagespor![translation = cutter]) or with a round form/glass. When they are placed on the tray they should be coated with water and garnished with a skinned half almond in the middle.

There's another recipe for these which has hjortetaksalt in it, but I've no idea what that is, only that it sounds like Heart Attack Salt!

The Hill Billy

Bumpety-bump!

I started this ol' thread a couple of years ago & am still looking for some decent Christmas recipes. Any of the newcomers who've joined over the past year care to share?

If I get 5 new recipes for seasonal fare in the next week I'll post my super-secret Glühwein recipe.

xxdilemmaxx

Ooh, interesting, I want that recipe!!

This chutney is tasty gorgeous with cold meats or cheeses, made a huge batch to put into jars and give as gifts to my family on Xmas day. Having 7 for dinner in my apartment this year (first time) so could probably do with some nice tried and tested Christmas recipes myself...

http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/573902

Malari

On the preserve-style theme, I made this simple cucumber pickle for my mum last year, just as something nice to bring home on Christmas Eve.

http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/516747

I hate the stuff but my mum and aunt always get it from country markets at huge cost and love it. I gave her two jars, so that she could give one to my aunt but she ended up keeping both for herself! Beware if you are making it, the stink from the fridge was so strong last year I ended up storing it on the kitchen window sill...on the outside.

Dizzyblonde

I make these mince pies: http://www.odlums.ie/Recipes1/R_EasyPeasy.html

They're quite er, 'rustic' looking but they're really gorgeous.
Tip: If you're using jar of mincemeat as filling, grate in an eating apple and the pies won't bubble over

xxdilemmaxx

Minder wrote: »

Cranberry sauce with port and orange. Stew the cranberries until cooked down, add a glass of port and the juice of one orange. Continue to cook until a thick consistency. Taste and add sugar as required.

Hi Minder,

I'm going to make this will it keep until Christmas if I make it this weekend? What quantity of cranberries (roughly) should I buy?

Thanks!

Minder

About 250g of cranberries to one glass of port and the juice of one orange, but if it's a 300g bag - use them up. Add a little water at the start to prevent the fruit catching. I'd wait until next weekend to make it - then keep in the fridge until Thursday.

MattKane

Go to Channel 4's website for recipes from Gordon Ramsey's Christmas themed cookalong. Fantastic tucker.

xxdilemmaxx

Seeing as it's Christmas and all, I think you should post the secret recipe Hillbilly

Deki

This is what I'll be going downstairs to make as soon as I quit fooling around online. It's a U.S. recipe so I hope it converts (math is not my strong point so you're better off doing it yourself, plus I never really measure anything exactly anyway.) I found the recipe in an old newspaper from the sixties. It sounds worth a try and I have exactly three over-ripe bananas ...

Banana Bread

1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine or butter
1 cup granulated sugar (caster sugar)
2 eggs
3 large very ripe bananas
2 cups all purpose flour (plain flour)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) dissolved in
2 Tablespoons of buttermilk
1/2 cup of finely chopped nuts

Cream margarine and sugar, add eggs and mashed bananas. Blend well. Mix flour and salt, then add to mixture. Add the soda dissolved in the buttermilk and mix till well blended. Stir in nuts. Bake in greased and floured loafpan in preheated 325*F. oven (according to this chart that's gas mark 3 or 170*C. or very moderate) Bake for 50 minutes. I'm going to beat a little bit of honey and some orange juice into cream cheese and spread it on the hot bread . Hope someone besides me tries this at any rate MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL !

jos28

I always bake the Christmas ham and do the usual honey/mustard/cloves thingy for the last 20 mins. Now here's the nice bit....
Do not throw away all the stuff in the roasting dish from the ham, throw in a couple of lbs of cocktail sausages and bung them in the oven for 20-30 mins.
I serve them on Christmas morning when everyone calls for drinks. Grown men have been known to fight over them.