It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Other than snowing like there's no tomorrow Scotland had a lot going for it this weekend.  In particular, Glasgow's fabulous Christmas market, awesome lights display and wonderful street performers.  We went up for an annual Christmas party - which was fab and we sampled two different kinds of mulled wine - Gluhwein (German) and Glogg (Danish).  I have never really enjoyed mulled wine at Christmas because well Christmas in the southern hemisphere is too warm for it - I loved going to the Christmas market being freezing and it warmed me up delightfully so I have found some recipes for you to share to keep you warm.

Gluhwein

4 bottles of red wine

600 mls brandy

1 cup of sugar

6 cinnamon sticks

12 cloves whole

1/8 tsp allspice

1/8 tsp mace

2 oranges, sliced

1 lemon, sliced

Put all in a pot simmer for an hour.  Drink.

Glogg

250ml water

4 tblspns of white sugar

1 cinnamon stick

3 or 4 cloves

5 or 6 cardamom seed pods, peeled

small piece of ginger, peeled

peel and juice of 1 lemon, 1 orange

1 bottle of red wine

90 gm dried fruit

90 gm blanched almonds, chopped

Quarter of a cup of port

Boil cinnamon, sugar, cloves, cardamom, ginger and peel in the water for about 10  minutes.  Remove the peel and spices.  Mix in the juices, fruit and nuts and heat to almost boiling. Take off the stove and mix in the wine.  The port gets mixed in just before serving.

S.

So this is Christmas...

And what have I done?  Well Santa John I have been quite productive I think.  I made sloe gin and raspberry gin, apple and hawthorne jelly (hawthorne's I picked myself), hawsin dipping sauce, apple and red pepper chutney, chocolate christmas cake balls, cranberry and spiced squash christmas muffins and I just put up the christmas lights :).  Christmas lights always make me feel good.  I brought some lovely fresh cranberries when I was at borough market, which went into the freezer and I used in the muffins, but now Im thinking I want to make some fruit bread for christmas morning.   Lots of lovely fruity toast with drippy marge yum!  Am searching for the right recipe as we speak - I'm looking at this one but with some major tweaks - no saffron or almonds - I want it a bit more like hot cross buns with a heap more fruit.  Actually I have found this one which will just be made into a loaf but with lots more fruit.

S.

Cranberry and Spiced Squash christmas muffins

I found this recipe but tweaked it to give it the Christmas Goddess touch :)  You will need to bake one medium size butternut squash split in half for about an hour and a half at 180C.  Cool the squash and remove the flesh, removing excess fluid.   I also sprinkled a little sugar on the top of each muffin before cooking.  Have also been taste testing the chocolate balls I made the other week - they are improving with age - yum!

Cranberry and Spiced Squash Muffins

2 cups flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons Baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup baked squash flesh

1 cup of fresh/frozen cranberries

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup of milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

Directions

1.      Cream brown and white sugar with butter.

2.      Combine egg with creamed sugar.

3.      Add remaining wet ingredients and mix.  

4.      Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, mixed spice and salt.  Make a well and add to wet ingredients.  Mix to a smooth batter.

4.      Generously grease a 12-muffin tin and dust with flour or line with paper muffin cups.

5.      Fill muffin cups about 2/3-full with batter.

6.      Bake muffins in preheated 180C oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until nicely browned.

S.

Chocolate Christmas Balls and Sloe Gin

So I have shaken my Sloe gin (Left) and Raspberry gin (Right) today - the raspberry red colour is gorgeous and will make a nice pressie for someone.  I also made chocolate christmas balls which are currently in the fridge setting and when I pull them out I will cover them in more chocolate -yum!  

Chocolate Christmas Balls

800gm christmas cake
200gms dark chocolate
120gms unsalted butter
3-4 tablespoons of Brandy (or 2 of orange juice)
2 tablespoons of finely chopped glace cherries or citrus peel

Crumble christmas cake into large bowl, add brandy and set aside.  Melt chocolate and butter in double boiler or glass bowl in hot water, when melted add to christmas cake/brandy mixture.  Mix well, then using a teaspoon make small balls, rolling them around in your hands.  Place on lined tray and put into fridge to set for 1 - 2 hours.  Then ice with more chocolate and return to fridge until icing set.  Makes 30 - 40 little balls.

You can use white chocolate on top of dark chocolate and use glace cherries or jelly lollies to make them look like little puddings.  Yummy!!!

S.