Well I thought it would be a nice idea for us all to leave some receipes for some delicious christmas treats for us to make
So I will start :-
MINT SNOWBALLS
1/2 Cup Icing Sugar
1/2 Cup Shortening
1/2 Cup Butter
1/2 Tsp Peppermint Flavouring
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 Tsp Salt
Cream sugar, shortning, butter, and extract thourghly. Measure flour WITHOUT sifting into wax paper, add salt and blend well. Now add dry ingredients to creamed mixture. Mix well. Form into one inch balls, place on cookie sheet and cook in 400F oven 8-10minutes. Cool on rack. Dip tops in icing, pink and green, then in coconut. Yield 4-4 1/2 dozen
Oh those sound delicious. I absolutely hate making anything that you have to roll into balls, which is too bad since they are all so good. They just take so much time for me, plus I am ball-rolling impaired lol so they are always different shapes and sizes when I do them. Ha! But I still do them anyway because they are so good!
Here's a sugar cookie recipe I've been making for years. They are the best I've ever had-the recipe came from one of those mini cookbook magazines in supermarket lines. It's a Pillsbury recipe.
Does anyone have a fruit cake recipe you could share with me? I would really like to try making my own and I was looking for a traditional, authentic recipe.
Heat oven to 160C/fan 140C/gas 3. Line the base and sides of a 20 cm round, 7.5 cm deep cake tin. Beat the butter and sugar with an electric hand mixer for 1-2 mins until very creamy and pale in colour, scraping down the sides of the bowl half way through. Stir in a spoonful of the flour, then stir in the beaten egg and the rest of the flour alternately, a quarter at a time, beating well each time with a wooden spoon. Stir in the almonds.
Mix in the sherry (the mix will look curdled), then add the peel, cherries, raisins, cherries, nuts, lemon zest, spice, rosewater and vanilla. Beat together to mix, then stir in the baking powder.
Spoon mixture into the tin and smooth the top, making a slight dip in the centre. Bake for 30 mins, then lower temperature to 150C/fan 130C/gas 2 and bake a further 2-2¼ hrs, until a skewer insterted in the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin, then take out of the tin and peel off the lining paper. When completely cold, wrap well in cling film and foil to store until ready to decorate. The cake will keep for several months.
the icing
Cover fruit cake with marzipan and ready-to-roll white icing
250g white ready-to-roll icing
1 quantity soft royal icing
edible silver lustre, edible silver balls and edible sparkles , fine writing tube and small piping bag
Knead the ready-to-roll icing until smooth, then roll out to approx 1cm thickness. Using snowflake cutters of various sizes, stamp out 3 snowflake shapes. Lay the snowflakes on baking parchment on a flat surface and leave overnight to harden. Keep any trimmings and wrap up in cling film.
Next day, make the royal icing. Drop a writing tube into a piping bag and spoon in a third of the icing. Spread the rest around the base of the cake to create a snowdrift effect. Pipe snowflake outlines over the cut-out snowflake shapes and pipe snowflakes all over the surface of the cake in different sizes and designs. Leave for 1 hr until the icing has hardened slightly, then sprinkle silver lustre over the cake, snowdrift and snowflakes.
Using the leftover ready-to-roll white icing, mould thimble-sized supports for your snowflakes to lean against. Position the snowflakes on the top of the cake. Finally, fix the silver balls to the icing with a little more of the royal icing. Finish by scattering sparkles over.
1 Cake compressed yeast; or...
1 pk -Dry yeast
3/4 c Milk; scalded
1/4 c Sugar
1 ts Salt
1/3 c Butter or margarine
3 c Sifted all-purpose flour
-- (plus more as necessary)
2 Eggs; beaten
1 c Quaker Oats, uncooked
-- (quick or old-fashioned)
1/2 c Diced mixed candied fruits
Soften yeast in lukewarm water. (Use warm water for dry yeast.) Pour
scalded milk over sugar, salt and butter. Cool to lukewarm. Stir in 1
cup flour and eggs. Add softened yeast and oats. Combine 1/4 cup flour
and candied fruits; stir to coat fruits evenly with flour. Add to dough;
mix well. Stir in enough more flour to make a soft dough.
Turn out on lightly floured board or canvas; knead until smooth and
satiny, about 10 minutes. Round dough into ball; place in greased bowl;
brush lightly wtih melted shortening. Cover and let rise in warm place
until double in size, about 1 hour.
Punch dough down; cover; let rest 10 minutes. Divide dough in half. From
one half, pinch off 17 pieces of dough; shape to form balls. Arrange
balls in the shape of a Christmas tree on greased cooky sheet. Brush
lightly with melted butter. Repeat with other half of dough. Cover; let
rise in warm place until nearly double in size, about 1 hour.
Bake in preheated moderate oven (375 F.) about 20 minutes. Decorate with
confectioners' sugar frosting and candied citron.
3 teaspoons chicken base or 3 bouillon cubes 1 (15-ounce) can LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin, (1 3/4 cups) 1 cup half-and-half
Melt butter in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in curry powder, salt, coriander and crushed red pepper; cook for 1 minute. Add water and bouillon; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 to 20 minutes to develop flavors. Stir in pumpkin and half-and-half; cook for 5 minutes or until heated through.
Transfer mixture to food processor or blender (in batches, if necessary); cover. Blend until creamy. Serve warm or reheat to desired temperature. Garnish with dollop of sour cream and chives.
Hungarian recipe known as Beigli. PASTRY
300g plain flour
200g butter
25g yeast
2 egg yolks
4 tablespoons milk
pinch of salt
FILLING
300-375g ground walnuts
5 tablespoons milk
250g sugar
4 tablespoons sultanas
75g butter
1. Crumble flour and butter together in a bowl. 2. Make a well in the centre, add to it the sugar, salt and yolks. 3. Dissolve yeast in 4 tablespoons of warm milk, add to mixture in bowl. Work the dough well until smooth. 4. Shape it into 2 loaves and let them rest for 30 minutes. In the meantime prepare filling; 5. Heat sugar and milk, add nuts, stir over low heat for a few minutes. Take it off the heat, beat in the butter and sultanas and let it cool. 6. Roll out the two leaves of pastry to knife blade thickness into a rectangular shape. Spread half the filling on each rectangle. 7. Roll up each piece like a swiss roll. 8. Place them on a greased baking sheet and let then stand for 10 minutes. 9. Brush them over with egg white. 10. Bake in hot oven for 30-40 minutes. 11. Cool rolls and store. 12. Serve sliced into 1 cm thickness.
it's not that hard and it's a lot of fun. This recipe proves it, as long as you remember the following points: (1) it will take all weekend (2) don't panic (3) have everything ready before you start.
Photo taken by me of my first attempt... (the chimney's on the other side) You will need:
one batch of gingerbread dough four to five batches icing glue cookie sheets aluminium foil room temperature butter flour rolling pin knives spatula cooling racks a plywood base on which to put the house six unopened pop cans (to hold up the roof while icing dries) pastry bags and tips (if you don't have them, use a knife and spread the icing) lots of candies (lifesavers make good stained glass windows; ginger snaps make great shingles) The Pattern
Cut from paper the following:
Dough
Day 1
Line Several cookie sheets with aluminium foil. Butter and flour the foil.
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars. Beat in the molasses and eggs.
In another large bowl, sift dry ingredients. Combine mixtures and knead into a smooth ball. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.
On a well-floured surface, roll out a small amount of the dough until it's 1/4 inch thick. Place one of the paper pattern pieces on the dough and cut around the edges. Gently, using the spatula, lift the dough and place it on the prepared cookie sheet.
Put all scraps into a bowl and cover. Save these for the kids to play with, or to make gingerbread men. To make windows and the door: Cut out a rectangle from the appropriate side. Cut the window in half to make shutters. Fill empty window holes with crushed life-savers to form stained glass windows. To make the chimney: Cut out a rectangle big enough to hold all pieces of the chimney. When the baked dough is still warm and soft, lay the pattern on top and cut out the pieces.
Preheat the oven to 325oF. Bake 15-20 minutes or until slightly firm. Let cool on racks until firm enough to handle. Peel the foil off the sections and set the pieces aside to dry thoroughly overnight. Icing Glue
Day 2
This recipe is for a single batch. You will probably need several, but if you make them all at once, keep them in separate bowls: it dries very quickly and is like cement. Keep it well covered: one piece of saran wrap touching the icing itself and another on the bowl.
In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until they begin to foam. Add the cream of tartar and beat until the whites are stiff but not dry. Gradually beat in the icing sugar, beating for about 5 minutes until it reaches spreading consistency. Keep it covered and refrigerated until needed. To Assemble
Day 2
Cover the plywood base with aluminium foil. Pipe (or spread with a knife) two straight lines of glue at a 90o angle from each other: one for a side wall and another for an end wall. Pipe glue on the side wall where it will meet the end wall. Place walls on base, touching each other. Hold them in place until they are dry enough to stand on their own (about 15 minutes, and you can use those pop cans as support).
Repeat with the remaining two walls, running a line of icing glue along the corners so that all the walls are glued together. Again hold walls in place until the glue is dry.
Let the roof-less house dry at least 30 minutes until the icing is firmly set. Banish small children from kitchen; find an extra pair of hands. Pipe a lot of icing along the tops of all the walls. Run a thick line along one long side of a roof. Stick the two roof sections together at an angle and sit the two pieces on top of the house. Make sure that the roof overhang is the same at both ends of the house.
Hold the roof gently in place until it dries (the pop cans should be the right height to support them). Let dry half an hour.
While the roof is drying, attach the door to the doorway by running a line of icing glue down one side and along the base. Make sure the door is open wide enough to slide a small flashlight inside later (so you can appreciate the stained glass windows). To attach the chimney: on one side of the roof near the peak, glue one angled piece to the roof. Glue the largest rectangle to the angled piece, then glue the second angled piece in place. Lastly, if there's room, glue the smallest rectangle to the other sections. Hide any mistakes under a "snow" of icing.
Let the house dry until completely solid, preferably overnight. To Decorate
Day 3
Remove the soda cans. Attach shutters to windows. Decorate by gluing candy to house.
Hey I thought this would be a cool crafty type project for Christmas. I'm sure everyone has made these at one point or another in their lives, and I'm going to make some and give them away as gifts. I hope that's not corny. Anywho, here's one of many articles I found using Google, with "salt dough ornaments" as my search phrase. I heart Google.
Your curry pumpkin soup sounds almost like mine. Isn't it wonderful on a cold winter night? To make mine a little more "diet" friendly, I use low sodium chicken stock instead of the water & bouillon and I use fat-free half and half to cut down on the fat content. I really can't tell the difference. Also, sometimes I add a can of black beans (drained & rinsed) to up the protein. Yummy!
Christmas Treats! 
I'll be back!
