Handmade Homemade Christmas Gifts

 

When it comes to giving presents at Christmas or anytime of the year you can’t beat handmade and homemade Christmas gifts. 

Our flapjacks and cookies work great
and look very pretty in a clear glass jar with a ribbon on top. These make great foodie gifts. You can also stack a few flapjacks or biscuits on top of each other wrap them in cellophane and tie with a pretty ribbon. Handmade gift tags are the icing on the cake!

 

Another unique Christmas gift is a custom made luxury Christmas hamper that you have put together yourself. 

The great thing about hampers is that it can be suited to your budget and your recipient. You can make a hamper as small or as large as you like and suit it to your budget. Add whatever baking utensils you like, pretty biscuit/scone cutters, rolling pins, loaf tins, bread boards, wooden spoon or what ever takes your fancy.

 

If you are giving a gift to a diabetic you can use our bread mixes as none contain any added sugar, team this up with other diabetic friendly jams etc. For a ‘healthy’ baking hamper add natural sweeteners, coconut oil etc. Just ask in your local health food shop for suitable products. 

TheTinahely Christmas Spirit Fair was on yesterday and we popped by and picked up all these lovely handmade and unusual Christmas gifts by local crafts people. We picked up amazing pressies, glass by Catherine Wilcoxin, Crochet by IreneLundgard  home décor by Northern Style by and a fab handmade pottery plate by Rose Sharpe. The problem is always giving away pressies that you really want to keep yourself! Its great to buy local and support such talented people, you’re sure to get a completely unique and unusual gift.

We’re big into handmade and this year Christmas cards and all! Mark a friend of mine also an archaeologist has drawn our own personalized card that’s just lovely isn’t it! Love the little robin! 

Spelt Christmas Cake 2012

The Spelt Christmas Cake is next up, we actually made these the same night as the Christmas Pudding as its quiet handy to do all your baking the same day. We were chatting about Christmas baking traditions and its amazing how much times have changed. I couldn't believe that in those times, around the 1950's a Christmas Cake wasn't baked as not everyone had an oven, they mostly cooked over an open fire. It would be very tricky to cook a Christmas Cake over an open fire! A pudding was cooked as it could be boiled over the open fire in a pot and the tradition was to boil the pudding in a greased cloth, tied at the top. Its amazing how times have changed and moved so quickly, if you have any other baking traditions we would love to hear, the small details are forgotten so easily if they are not passed on to the next generation.

 

What you need:

9 and half inch square baking tin  

Tinfoil

Baking parchment

9 and a half inch (approx) square baking tin

Large mixing bowl

 

Ingredients:
12 oz/350g butter
12 oz/ 350g dark brown sugar
1lb/450g currants
12oz/ 350g raisins

12oz/350g sultanas
5oz/ 150g cherries halved
Grated rind of two lemons
Grated rind of 1 orange

3 oz/ 75g ground almonds
7 eggs size 2
3 tablespoons of whisky

Sieve Together;
15 oz/ 425g of white spelt flour
1 and a half level teaspoons of mixes spice
1 and a half level teaspoons of ground nutmeg
Preheat oven to gas mark 2, 300 degrees F, 120 degrees C

Method

1.     Brush the tin with melted butter and line the sides and bottom with two layers of baking parchment

2.       Put two layers of tinfoil around the outside of tin three inches above the top of the tin and tie with string, this prevents the cake from burning on the outside

3.       Make a ‘hat’ for the top of the cake with a double layer of grease proof paper keep this aside to put on top of cake for the last hour of baking so the top of the cake doesn’t burn

 

 

 

Spelt Christmas Cake out of the oven wrapped in tinfoil and baking parchment

 

4.        Sieve together the 15 oz/ 450g of white spelt flour, 1 and a half level teaspoons of mixed spice, 1 and a half level teaspoons of ground nutmeg

5.       Place all the cake ingredients together in a very large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon until well mixed, 3-4 mins

6.        Place the mixture in the prepared tin and smooth out top with a wet spoon

 

 

7.        Bake in the preheated oven for 3 hours approx (depending on oven) at 120 degrees on middle shelf

8.     Test the cake by pressing centre top with spoon it should feel very firm and also with a warm skewer through the centre of the cake if the skewer comes out clean with no uncooked mixture clinging to it the cake is ready. At this stage there should be no sizzling noise to be heard from the cake either

9.       Once baked leave the cake to cool overnight in its tin and remove all paper and tin the next day

 

10. To store your cake wrap it in double grease proof paper and then tin foil! You can feed the cake with extra whisky by using a cocktail stick to put small holes in the top and then pour a few spoons of whisky on top.

 

 

11.   I will put up the icing recipe about a weeks before Christmas as this will allow the cake to mature!

 

Lovely red berries from our holly tree, these will be eaten by the birds as soon as it gets cold

 

 

 

Easy Spelt Christmas Pudding

 Last weekend we made our spelt christmas pudding, the same recipe thats been used for the last twenty years or so! Cathy has tried out many different recipes over the years but this one is the best pudding recipe. The best thing about making the christmas cake and pudding has to be the aroma of grated oranges, lemon and spices. The hardest thing has to be all the grating but its well worth it in the end.

Ingredients

75g/3oz. Spelt white flour, 

175g/6oz.dark brown sugar,

175g/6oz. butter, 3 eggs, 

1/2 teasp. cinnamon,

1/2 teasp.nutmeg, 

1 teasp. mixed spice, 

225g/8oz. raisins,

225g/8oz. sultanas, 

100g/4oz. currants, 

100g/4oz. halved cherries, 

100g/4oz. ground almonds, 

Grated rind 1 lemon, 

175g/6oz. breadcrumbs, 

1/2 pt. stout or fresh milk, 

2 dessert spoons brandy/whiskey 

Method

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy, add lightly beaten egg and mix . 

Stir in sieved flour,nutmeg and mixed spice. 

Add raisins,sultanas, currants,cherries, ground almonds and grated lemon peel and mix well. 

 Add breadcrumbs, stout or milk and brandy/whiskey mix well. You can leave this to stand overnight covered with a damp tea towel to blend flavours. 

Grease a 1 and a 1/2 litre/3 pint pudding bowl. 

Put a circle of greaseproof paper in bottom of bowl.

 Put mixture in bowl and cover top with greaseproof paper secure lid and put into a saucepan with water half way up sideof bowl. 

Put lid on saucepan and steam for 5 hours. 

Keep saucepan topped up with boiling water and dont let it boil dry. 

Next day wrap pudding in greaseproof paper and tinfoil. Hope you enjoy making and eating this georgeous easy spelt christmas pudding!

Spelt Cookies

This is an easy recipe which uses Cathys Spelt for Health White Scone Mix. These cookies would make a pretty delicious food present especially as the festive season is coming up.

What you need is;

280g White Scone Mix

225g of butter

140g of caster sugar

Lemon or orange zest

1 egg yolk lightly beaten

Half a teaspoon of cinnamon

A pinch of salt

Method:

Mix the butter, sugar and lemon zest in a bowl with a wooden spoon until well mixed.

Add in the egg.

Sieve the flour, cinnamon and salt into the mixture until it forms a dough

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C/170 degrees C/Gas 5

Line two flat baking trays with baking parchment

Roll out the dough and cut out shapes with cutter

Space the cookies apart on the tray and put in oven for 10-15 mins until golden.

If you would like to use normal spelt flour keep the recipe the same. If you would like a healthy version use dairy free margarine, coconut oil and replace the sugar with Xylitol or coconut sugar. Most importantly enjoy!

Oklahoma Pumpkin Pie

Paradise Pumpkin Pie

This recipe for pumpkin pie comes courtesy of Rhonda Malahy from Oklahoma who is  my daughters mother-in law. I got a great recipe book called Cafe Oklahoma from her and Paradise Pumpkin Pie is straight from it. Its was our first time ever making pumpkin pie and it is really good. 

 

Step 1: Shortcrust pastry base

Preheat oven to 350º.

We made the shortcrust pastry base with spelt flour.

7 oz spelt flour sifted

pinch of salt

3.5 oz chilled butter cubed

approx half a medium egg beaten    

Method: 

Place the flour, salt and butter in a bowl and rub in the butter with your finger tips. Add the egg until the mixture comes together and place on a sheet of baking parchment.  Using a rolling pin roll out until flat and lift into the pie tin. This saves the pie sticking to the tin!  

 

Step 2 Pumpkin Pie:

 1 x 8oz packet of Philadelphia

2oz sugar/xylitol

½ teaspoon vanilla

1 egg beaten

Method:

Combine softened cream cheese, sugar and vanilla, mixing until well blended. Blend in egg. Spread onto bottom of pastry base. 

  

Step 3 Pie filling:

10 oz pureed pumpkin (we used a real pumpkin boiled and mashed but you can buy tinned pumpkin)

237 ml of evaporated milk

4oz sugar/xylitol

2 eggs lightly beaten

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ginger

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Dash of salt

59ml maple syrup

Pecan halves to garnish

Method:

To make the pumpkin puree we chopped up the pumpkin and boiled it until soft enough, mashed it and allowed the water to drain by placing it in a strainer over a saucepan when cold. You will have enough left for another pie if you use a large pumpkin and you can freeze this for later!

Combine remaining pie ingredients (10 oz pureed pumpkin, 237 ml of evaporated milk, 4oz sugar/xylitol, 2 eggs lightly beaten, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon ginger, ¼ teaspoon nutmeg, dash of salt) except maple syrup and pecan halves and mix well. Carefully pour over cream cheese mixture. Bake for an hour.

Step 4: Spiced Whipped Topping

4 oz brown sugar/coconut sugar

1/3 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

200 ml whipping cream

½ teaspoon vanilla

Method:

Allow to cool and brush with maple syrup and garnish with pecan halves if desired. For topping, mix brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in medium sized bowl. Stir in whipping cream and vanilla and allow to chill for an hour. Take from fridge and whip until stiff. Spread on top and enjoy!.