Christmas baking with kids

Easy chocolate chip cookie mix!

Christmas is a busy and expensive time. Like I said in the last post, there is nothing better than a (good) homemade Christmas present. When you have kids, there are many presents to buy, not just for them but for their teachers, daycare staff and friends.
My son loves to get involved in anything I am doing and cooking is no exception. Its always messy, pretty hectic and fingers crossed what we cook works out!
These cookies are really easy, in-fact I would say "no-fail". They are also the sort of cookie you can adapt and add what ever you want.

Really easy to make - Chocolate chip cookies 

I bought chocolate buttons instead of chips because they were the cheapest at the time, in hindsight next time I would go for the chocolate chips as they look better. We did try crushing them up with a rolling pin but doing this with a nearly 4 year old boy - wasn't that successful!
Another tip is to make the cookies small, just a teaspoon full is all you really need. You will probably have to bake a few batches but they don't take long at all.

A great gift for daycare or kindy friends or even the teachers! 

Now for the credits, the recipe came from "Allyson Gofton, BAKE". The only change I made was adding real vanilla paste. You could add dried fruit, spices, nuts or white chocolate - really anything would work! It seems a really forgiving recipe meaning if you get the exact amounts a little wrong, it really shouldn't make a huge difference. If you have baked with kids you will know what I mean!    
I plan to wrap them in cellophane with a ribbon and a hand stamped swing tag with either a name or Merry Xmas. I saw on Facebook that "OFFICE MAX" has the entire alphabet for about $30. I am going to hunt them down.   

The book 

    

Allysons Goffton toll house cookies

What you need 

175 grams butter
¾ cup brown sugar
¾ cup caster sugar
2 eggs
2¼ cups flour (I used self raising and NO BP - worked fine) 
1 tsp baking powder

2 cups chocolate chips

How to make 

Beat the butter and sugars together until light and creamy.
Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.
Sift the flour and baking powder evenly over the creamed mixture. Sprinkle over the chocolate chips and fold together.
Place heaped tablespoonfuls of mixture onto a greased baking tray, leaving room for the biscuits to spread.
Bake at 180ºC for 20 minutes or until the biscuits are beginning to lightly brown and are firm to the touch. Transfer to a cake rack to cool. Store in an airtight container.

Happy Baking 

Vanessa 

Christmas Fudge

Christmas is for giving FUDGE!

I am a fudge fanatic, I love the stuff. Its strange because after dinner I am usually the one who opts for the cheese board BUT when it comes to fudge, I can't help myself.

I think it all started at intermediate school when I showed an interest in cooking. I would come home from school, raid the pantry for sugar, turn to the back of the Edmonds cookbook and make batches of chocolate fudge. Unfortunately it took a long time to perfect. There were many occasions when it didn't set and frustration would set in however I usually went back for round two if there was enough sugar left. Of course Mum would arrive home and the 1kg bag of sugar would be non-existent and there would be no fudge to show for it either...

Russian and chocolate fudge

Because of my fudge fascination, school fairs and street stalls would ignite my appetite. I would hunt out the homemade packages, buy a few and scoff the lot! Now I am a teacher at a school that has a regular school fair. The first year I jumped at the chance to make and sell the homemade sweet treats. I encouraged the students to make fudge and even sent home recipes. Pity though, many families are too busy to attempt making homemade sweets or deemed it too difficult. I was disappointed as lots of shop bought sweets rolled in!
The Russian fudge I made came from a friend Johanna who bought it along on a camping trip. OMG it was so good sitting outside on a balmy evening tucking into the huge chunks of heaven! She of course passed on the recipe which comes from another food blogger. Its a microwave fudge and probably the best no fail recipe I have tried. 

Parcels of joy!

The other fudge recipe I made was a random one I found on the Internet but had chocolate and peanut butter for a change. It was the traditional one, made on the stove and had more bite ability than the creamy Russian one. Either way they both worked and tasted great. I ended up taking it all into work so I wouldn't be tempted... 

Its important to keep a jar at home! 

So the reason of this post of course is making edible gifts to give for the festive season.
The glass jars came from the warehouse ($2.99 each - so cheap), the clear bags and netting (wedding favours) came from spotlight as did the red noodle boxes.
Get creative and make some sweet fudge for your loved ones - its such a nice personal touch that is seriously dying out!


Russian microwave fudge
You will need

100g butter

1 cup white sugar

1 can (400g) sweetened condensed milk

1 tbsp golden syrup

2 tsp vanilla essence

How to make
In a microwave proof bowl (very large as the mixture rises up) add everything except the vanilla essence.
Microwave on high for 1 minute then stir, then for a further 2 minutes and stir.
Repeat this process until 10 minutes is up. (I actually did it for 12 minutes).
The mixture will darken in colour, if it hasn't  zap it for a bit longer. Be careful as it can burn! 
If you use a candy thermometer, it should be 120 degrees or you are looking for the soft ball stage when you drip it into cold water (I have never used a candy thermometer and the soft ball concept has never really worked for me)
When its done  add the vanilla and beat with an electric beater for about 4 minutes. (It should lose its shine and start to thicken)
Pour onto baking paper that is in dish (anything will do, I used Tupperware)
Cut into cubes when nearly set and leave to cool. 


Recipe from http://www.thinkingaboutfood.com/2008/02/fudge-and-coffee.html


Chocolate Peanut Fudge

What you need

2 cups white sugar

2 tbsp cocoa
1/2 cup milk
30g butter
2 tbsp peanut butter

How to make
In a med saucepan, stir together the suger and cocoa, combining so there are no lumps. Add milk, butter and peanut butter. Heat genlty, stirring constanly until ingredients have melted. Boil to the softball stage (about 7-10 min). 

Stand to cool for a couple of minutes, then beat with a spoon until thick.Pour into a well greased sponge roll tin and set in fridge.

Recipe from http://www.chelsea.co.nz/baking-and-recipes/966/peanut-choc-fudge.aspx

Vanessa 

Christmas sweet wontons

I love Christmas mince pies! It almost an addiction, I'm always on the search for a good one - (Pandoro's Italian Bakeries, have the best one, in my opinion) and I eat them in a most peculiar way. I love them frozen! The pastry goes nice and hard and crunchy, whilst the fruit mince remains sticky (I suspect due to the alcohol content?). And I eat them, the same way each time, biting around the edges of the crust, taking the top off and eating it, before getting stuck into the sticky centre.

I've never had any inclination to make them, sometimes the process, especially a long one, can ruin my appetite - and I doubt I would have the patience to get through to the end. But I wanted to be creative and try out a new twist on my all time Christmas favourite. I'm also aware, at this time of year, that everybody seems time-poor! So this post is intended to be easy and all about the assembly.

Everything can be bought from your local supermarket (wonton wrappers from your local asian supermarket). However I did make the sauce from Boysenberry and Rhubarb Jam that I had made a little while ago but you could use store bought jam also. But the jam sauce is optional, they were delicious just as is.

What shape? I couldn't decide which shape worked best so I tried them all out - Triangles turned out the best, the stars weren't as successful - the fruit mince oozed out of the star shape. To make the stars work, I needed a bigger star cutter.

I love how Christmas and New Year gets everybody thinking about resolutions and new challenges for the coming year, so I thought it would be a nice touch to have some paper fortunes scattered around the plate.

I used brown parchment paper, and wrote wishes on them - I'm not a crafty person, so everything needed to be super easy. But you could go all Martha Stewart with this idea, using crinkle cut snips to cut the paper edges or cut the fortunes into Christmas shapes.

For the next five weeks, Vanessa and I are going to bring you all sorts of Christmas ideas - all simple and easy to make or assemble, and I promise nothing will be frozen! I'll keep that quirk to myself. Enjoy, Ingrid

Christmas fruit mince wontons
Makes 24
What you need
24 wonton wrappers (bought from your local asian supermarket)
200g Fruit mince (store-bought or homemade)
50g melted butter
icing sugar (to dust)

How to make
Preheat the oven to 180C and line a tray with baking paper.

Have a bit of fun and try out different shapes by laying out each rectangle of wonton wrapper, place a teaspoon of fruit mince, and see what shapes work out for you. An easy place to start is folding the wonton wrapper diagonally into a triangle, brush edges with melted butter and fold edges over pressing to seal in the fruit mince. Then brush the entire wonton with melted butter. Bake in oven for around 10mins or until golden and crunchy. Dust over with icing sugar to serve. 

Jam sauce (optional)
1/2 jar of Store bought or homemade jam (any type)
water


How to make
Put the jam in a saucepan, add a tablespoon of water and simmer adding water until it becomes a sauce consistency.