Christmas Cookies

 It's Christmas Eve! You've got to have spiced cookies at Christmas to leave out for Santa! You can also poke holes in the biscuits and hang them on the tree. I got the recipe from the book of 'Ultimate Christmas'. 
Ingredients - Makes 12
150g Plain Flour
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2tsp ground ginger
70g unsalted butter, diced
3 tbsp honey
To decorate - White icing and decorations


1. Sift the flour and spices into a bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the honey and mix together well to form a soft dough. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill in the refrigerator for 30mins.
2. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180c and lightly grease 2 baking sheets with butter. Divide the dough in half. Roll out 1 piece of dough on a floured work surface to about 5mm thick. Cut out with cutters. Repeat using the other piece of dough.
3. Put them on a baking sheet and if you want to put holes in them, do it using a cocktail stick large enough to thread ribbon.
4. Bake the biscuits in the preheated oven for 10-12mins until golden. Leave to cool on the sheets for 5minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Decorate with white icing or leave them plain. I put some little silver balls on mine.

Other Christmas pressies -
I posted the recipes to the fudge, macaroons and the lavender bath salts a few weeks ago so that people could get ahead. But I made everything yesterday to give as Christmas presents so here are the photos:

<- The Chocolate and Pistachio Fudge wrapped in presentation bags from Lakeland and tied with ribbon.
















<- The Raspberry and Chocolate Macaroons put into small boxes my boyfriend made from cutting and stapling some cardboard and then wrapped in some snowflake cellophane.

<- The Lavender Bath Salts in Kilner jars with purple ribbon and a handmade label.














<- Small crates made from pallets and filled with the home made gifts and a zinc bucket filled with lavender grown in my boyfriend's garden.

And finally, a very Merry Christmas to all readers! 

Stay tuned as I'll be posting some cupcake recipes just after boxing day and New Year recipes!

Chocolate and Pistachio Fudge (Another thrifty Christmas gift!)

This time in 3 weeks, it will be Christmas Day! And while I'm going to make this fail-proof fudge a couple of days before Christmas for presents, I thought I'd better post it now in case anybody wants to make it before. I'm going to make a big batch and bag it up in these presentation bags I got from Lakeland - http://www.lakeland.co.uk/50-presentation-bags/F/product/12007 and tie the bags with ribbon. 

The Macaroons I posted last week will be for the girls and the fudge can be for the guys (Nearly all grandpas love fudge!). 

The recipe is from Nigella, I saw it on her Christmas TV programme a couple of years ago and it's so quick and easy to make yet looks really good. The photo below is from her website, I'll post mine when I make it and bag it all up.

Ingredients - Makes about 70 pieces)

350g Dark Chocolate, chopped (minimum 70% cocoa)

1 x 397g can condensed milk

30g butter

Pinch of salt

150g pistachios

Put the chopped chocolate, condensed milk, butter and salt in a heavy-based pan on a low heat. Stir to melt.

Put the nuts into a freezer bag and bash them with a rolling pin until broken into rubble (both big and little pieces)

Add the nuts to the melted chocolate and condensed milk and stir well to mix.

Pour the mixture into a tray 23cm square, smoothing the top.

Let the fudge cool and put in the fridge until it has set. Then cut it into small pieces. Cutting 8 x 10 lines in the tin.

One cut, it can be kept in the freezer, no need to thaw just eat. (Or keep it in bags for a couple of days maximum like I'm going to do)

p.s Put the Christmas tree up today at my parents house ->