Christmas food gifts

Homemade Parmesan Crackers

Recipe:

Makes approx 72 crackers 

Equipment:

Medium size mixing bowl

Sieve

Rolling pin

Knife

Cheese grater

Baking sheet

Wire rack

6 Jam jars with lids

Dollies, small x 6

Labels

Ribbon

Ingredients:

250 grams self raising flour

Large pinch of salt

Pinch of cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon of black pepper

250 grams unsalted butter

3-4 tablespoons of water

160 grams of freshly grated Parmesan

Method:

Sift the flour into the bowl, add the salt and spices.  Rub in the butter and add enough water to give a firm dough.  Knead the dough on a floured surface and roll out into a rectangle.

Divide the Parmesan into 6 equal amounts. 

*Sprinkle one portion over 2/3 of the rectangle.  Fold the 1/3 that has no Parmesan on it over onto the middle 1/3, now bring the remaining 1/3 of dough over onto the middle 1/3.  Press the sides with the rolling pin to seal them.  Turn the dough by a quarter turn and now press the rolling pin onto the dough 3 times thus forming air pockets.**

Repeat from * to ** until the Parmesan have been used.

Roll the dough out into a rectangle of about 1 inch thickness.  Cut the rectangle into 1 ¼  strips.  Cut each strip into crackers of approx. ¼ inch thickness.

Place the crackers onto the baking sheet and chill for 30 minutes.

Whilst the dough chills put the oven on; Gas mark 7 (220° C).

Cook the crackers on the centre oven shelf for 5 minutes, then remove from the oven, flip them over and put back in the oven for a further 4 or 5 minutes.

Allow to cool completely before putting them into the jars, stick on your label and pretty up the jar lid with the dollie and a nice colourful piece of ribbon. 

 

Homemade chocolates

Recipe:

Makes approx 72 buttons in total.  This equates to 6 bags of chocolates, each bag containing 4 white, 4 milk and 4 plain button chocolates.

Equipment:

Medium size saucepan

Large heatproof glass bowl

Stirring spoon

Silicone chocolate button mould (purchased from Lakeland)

Teaspoon

Wire rack

Cellophane bags (purchased from Lakeland)

Labels 

Ribbon

Ingredients:

150 gram bars of cooking chocolate: 1 x white, 1 x milk, 1 x plain (350 grams total)

Small bag of miniature marshmallows

50 grams dried cranberry’s, cut in half

50 grams of flaked almonds

50 grams crystallised stem ginger cubes, cut up into thin strips

Method:

Sit the large bowl over a pan filled with a couple of inches of simmering water.  NB: the base of the bowl should not touch the water. 

Break up 70% of the white chocolate bar into the bowl and keep stirring until the chocolate has melted.

Remove the bowl from the pan.  Break up the remaining 30% of white chocolate and put it into the bowl of melted chocolate.  Stir the chocolate until it has melted and has a smooth consistency.

Put the mould onto the wire tray and fill each button recess with 4 or 5 marshmallows.  Now using the teaspoon, spoon chocolate into each button.  Once filled I tend to poke the marshmallows around in the chocolate with a cocktail stick to make sure the chocolate get to all the areas of the button shape.  Now carefully lift the mould off the work surface by about 4 inches and drop it, this should bring any air bubbles up to the surface to disburse.

Place the filled mould in the fridge to set. 

Repeat the above using:

milk chocolate with cranberries and almond

plain chocolate with ginger

Once the chocolates are thoroughly set push them out of the mould and pop into the cellophane bags and seal with the wire twist.  Stick on your label and pretty it up with a nice colourful piece of ribbon.