I have never been one to prepare for Christmas in advance – especially when it comes to buying presents. Last year was a particularly last-minute affair. Less than a week before Christmas, I realised that in the wake of exams I hadn’t even started to think about what I was going to buy for my family let alone saved up any money for the cause.
Rather than spend hours trawling through over-crowded shopping centres, I decided to get baking and put together some homemade hampers. They went down really well, and everyone really appreciated getting something homemade and a bit different. So, here is my quick guide to a homemade Christmas hamper
The Christmas Hamper
Featuring:
- Fruity Biscotti
- Florentines
- Christmas Chutney
Fruity Biscotti
These little Italian biscuits are delicious and look way more difficult than they actually are. They will also keep for a month, so they are perfect for baking ahead if you are a bit more organised than I am.
Ingredients:
- 350g plain flour, plus extra for rolling
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp mixed spice
- 250g golden caster sugar
- 3 eggs, beaten
- coarsely grated zest 1 orange
- 85g raisins
- 85g dried cherries
- 50g blanched almonds
- 50g shelled pistachios
Recipe:
- Heat the oven to 180C (fan) or 160C (gas 4). Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Put the flour,baking powder, spice, and sugar in a large bowl and then mix well. Stir in the eggs and zest until the mixture starts forming clumps then bring the dough together with your hands. Keep kneading it until no flour patches remain. Add the fruit and nuts and work them in until evenly distributed.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 4 pieces. With lightly floured hands, roll each piece into a sausage about 30cm long. Place two on each tray, well spaced apart. Bake for 25-30 mins until the dough has risen and spread and feels firm. It should still look pale. Remove from the oven, cool a little on a wire rack, then turn down the oven to 140C (fan) or 120C (gas 1).
- Using a bread knife, cut into slices about 1 cm thick on the diagonal and then lay the slices flat on the baking sheets. Bake for another 15 mins, turn over, then bake again for another 15 mins until dry and golden. Tip onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- This will make about 72 biscuits. You can then put the biscuits into a nice airtight container or decorative box- I used shiny wrapping paper and ribbon to make mine look festive.
Florentines
I love these chewy, fruity biscuits, and the chocolate that you spread on them makes them very tasty not to mention luxurious. The number of different types of dried fruit and nuts that are required for these biscuits does make this recipe a little pricier in comparison to a recipe for your regular biscuit, but I promise the extra money is worth it!
Ingredients:
- 50g butter
- 50g demerara sugar
- 50g golden syrup
- 50g plain flour
- 25g dried cranberries or glacé cherries, finely chopped
- 50g candied peel, finely chopped
- 25g almonds, finely chopped
- 25g walnut pieces, finely chopped
- 200g plain chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
Recipe:
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F (gas 4). Line three baking trays with baking parchment.
Gently heat the butter, sugar, and syrup in a small pan until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat and add the flour, chopped cranberries/cherries, candied peel, and nuts to the pan and mix well.
Make 18 florentines by spooning six teaspoonfuls of the mixture on to each of the prepared baking trays, leaving plenty of room for them to spread during cooking.
Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden-brown. Leave the florentines to cool before lifting onto a cooling rack using a palette knife. If the florentines become too hard to remove, then pop them back into the oven for a few minutes to allow them to soften.
Set a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water without allowing the bowl to touch the water. Temper the chocolate by breaking half of the chocolate into the bowl. Stir until the chocolate reaches a melting temperature of 53C/127F. Meanwhile, finely chop or grate the remaining chocolate.
Carefully remove the bowl from the pan, add the rest of the chocolate, and stir gently until the chocolate has cooled to 26C/79F.
Spread a little melted chocolate over the flat base of each florentine and leave to cool slightly before marking a zigzag in the chocolate with a fork. Leave to set chocolate side up on a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container.
I stacked a few florentines on top of each other, wrapped the stacks up in cellophane, tied the excess cellophane off with some ribbon, and then popped a parcel in each hamper. Seriously tasty!
Christmas Chutney
I couldn’t believe how much everyone liked this chutney. It was just spicy enough and packed full of tomatoes and veggies- definitely worth all the hours spent boiling it down to the right consistency (I found it took longer than the recipe says).
Ingredients:
- 900g tomatoes
- 3 red peppers, 1 large aubergine and 1 green pepper (total weight of about 900g/2lb)
- 700g onions, peeled and fairly finely chopped, by hand or in a food processor
- 4 fat cloves garlic, crushed
- 350g granulated sugar
- 300ml (½pint) white wine vinegar or distilled malt vinegar
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds, crushed
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 2 tsp cayenne pepper
Recipe:
- Peel the tomatoes – prick them with a sharp knife, place in a bowl, and cover with boiling water. Leave for a few seconds then drain and cover with cold water. The skins will now come away easily.
- Chop the tomatoes and then seed and chop the aubergine and peppers. Put in a large heavy-based pan with the onions and garlic and bring to a boil. Cover with a lid, lower the heat, and gently simmer for about one hour, stirring occasionally, until tender.
- Tip the sugar, vinegar, salt, coriander, paprika, and cayenne into the pan and bring to a boil over a medium heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Continue to boil for 30 minutes or so until the mixture achieves a chunky chutney consistency and the surplus watery liquid has evaporated. Take care towards the end of the cooking time to continue stirring, so that the chutney doesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan.
- Ladle the chutney into sterilised or dishwasher-clean jars (Kilner jars are ideal) and top with paper jam covers. Seal the jars while still hot.
- The chutney is supposed to be left to “mature” for one month in a cool dark place before eating. If, like me, you are making it a couple of days before Christmas, giving it with a caveat that it was to be eaten at the end of January works perfectly well.
Finally, put all the tasty treats together in either a basket (I found some cheap little ones in a hardware store) or in a shoebox covered with wrapping paper, wrap the whole lot up; and you have a lovely parcel of tasty Christmas treats. Next project: knitted Christmas gifts. Though I think I’ll have to become a much more accomplished knitter before I can create a scarf in an afternoon!
Recipes from BBC Good Food and BBC Food