Food and Liquor

I have a friend called Bryony who writes a fantastic blog called This Is Uni Food, with recipes and photos of all her delicious kitchen exploits. Taking a leaf out of her cookery book, this blog post will be full of recipes and photos of the things I have been making for Claudia and Giovanni's Christmas present, and I shall add a final photo when I've put it all together into a lovely presentation box (which I have yet to make....)

So, here we go

Chocolate Truffles

Unfortunately, I only decided to take a photo of these when I'd finished them, but I think they look great for a first time! They're pretty easy to make too; melt 4oz (about 114g) of dark chocolate in a bain-marie (I like to use fancy words - put it in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure the water does not touch the bowl) until smooth, then stir in 3oz (about 85g) of butter, 3oz of icing sugar and 3oz of ground almonds (I had to use finely chopped ones, but it didn't seem to be a bad thing). Allow the mixture to cool slightly, then scoop out teaspoonfuls and roll them into balls, before rolling them again in either cocoa powder (or chocolate vermicelli, which I did). Then leave them to chill and harden in the fridge on a tray covered in greaseproof paper. Once chilled, store them between layers of greaseproof paper in an airtight container - the tiny paper cases are optional - and they will keep for up to two months. 

White Chocolate, Cranberry and Pistachio Fudge

To make this lush fudge, you need: 3oz (85g) of dry-roasted, unsalted (seriously, make sure they are unsalted!!!), chopped pistachios,

4oz (114g) of dried cranberries,

14oz (about 400g) of white chocolate, broken into pieces, and 14oz of condensed milk. Place the chocolate and condensed milk in your makeshift bain-marie, unless you have a real one, and melt them together, whisking occasionally (and yes, I am aware that I am not using a heatproof bowl in this photo, but I could not find one ANYWHERE and my tiny saucepan seemed to suffice). 

When the mixture is smooth, take it off the heat!

Now stir in 2/3 of the pistachios and cranberries, making sure they're all nicely mixed in  (a bit of elbow grease is required here; as the mixture cools, it will become harder to stir)

Pour the mixture onto a tray lined with greaseproof paper, and spread it out so it's about 1/2-3/4 of an inch thick. Sprinkle and remaining cranberries and pistachios on top, and press them down with your fingertips. Put in the fridge for at least two hours to chill.

Once the fudge has chilled, cut it into squares and seal them in a airtight container. The fudge will keep in the fridge for about two weeks, but it's very moreish so it probably won't last that long!

Next up are the Peppermint Creams. Again, I did not take photos throughout the entire process of making these as I was kind of in the zone and oblivious to any distractions, but I took a couple while I was cutting out shapes from the rolled-out dough. 

Mix together about 11oz (320g) of icing

sugar, 4 1/2 oz (130g) of condensed milk, and two teaspoons of peppermint extract. You may need to work it a little bit, and when it starts to clump together, get stuck in with your hands and draw it into a ball of sugary dough. Lightly dust a clean flat surface with icing sugar, and roll the dough out until it's about half a centimetre thick.

 Cut out shapes - the most common one is circles, but I used a star-shaped cutter to make them a bit more festive - and lay them on a tray covered in greaseproof paper or cling film. Chill in the fridge for at least at hour, until firm. You can leave them like that, but another option is to melt some chocolate of your choice (dark chocolate works well and stops them from being too sweet) and dip one half of each Cream into it before laying them back on the tray and chilling again. You can also cover them completely in chocolate, and decorate them too - they're quite versatile!

Last up is my lovely Arancello. I've already given you the recipe for this, but today was the day that I strained the liquid and bottled it up. It's not quite finished yet; I need to buy ribbon to tie around the bottle, and decorate it with extra orange peel and cinnamon sticks inside, but I thought I would show you what happens when you let orange rind soak in vodka for two weeks: 

I love the colour! And I had a sneaky taste, it has a lovely warm orange flavour with a kick of cinnamon as you swallow. I will definitely be making this again!

Just to clarify, I did not create any of these recipes myself; I got the Truffle recipe from this book, the Fudge recipe from Elly Says Opa, the Peppermint Creams from Lorraine Pascale via Gourmet Gob,and the Arancello recipe from the BBC Good Food website.

I will probably next update this blog after Christmas, so until then