Winter Wonderland, London

 

This is me at Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park.

I had an amazing mulled Kopparberg cider at the Nordic Bar and also a traditional German sausage with mustard at one of the market stalls.

Sausage Rolls at Christmas

 

I got taught how to make sausage rolls by a close family friend when I was young, and making them is now a Christmas tradition.

 

I use ready rolled shop bought puff pastry and good quality sausage meat.

Lie three long sausage strips across the pastry and cut along the pasty, leaving room either side of the sausage.

Brush egg along one side and fold the pastry strip over the sausage. Use a fork to crimp along the edge to seal the pastry.

Then cut into individual rolls and make a slit in the top of each roll.

Brush the tops with egg and transfer onto a lined baking tray.

Bake for approximately 10 minutes in a hot oven.

 

Gingerbread Biscuits

 

I baked gingerbread men and stars to give as Christmas gifts.

350g plain flour

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

2tsp ground ginger

1tsp cinnamon

125g butter

175g dark brown sugar

1 egg

4tbsp golden syrup

 

Sieve all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Then add the remaining ingredients and mix until combined and forms a dough. Chill for 30 minutes and preheat oven to 180C/gas 4.

Roll the dough fairly thick and cut out shapes.

Place on a lined baking tray and bake for approximately 15 minutes or until dark brown.

 

I left mine to cool then decorated them with a simple icing sugar and water icing.

 

Chocolate and Pistachio Biscotti

I used Stacie Stewart's recipe for biscotti to make for my friends as part of their Christmas presents.

The picture below is after its first baking.

 

 

Then the dough gets cut into strips and baked again at a lower temperature.

Great recipe, my strips were quite thick so were more like a brownie texture.

 

Nut Fudge Brownies

Great brownie recipe from Stacie Stewart's Stacie Bakes cookbook. Really moist.



Best Hot Chocolate Ever

I had the best hot chocolate I've ever had the other day at Cocoba, Bluewater.

 

I had a cinnamon hot chocolate, and my friends had a ginger hot chocolate and a mint cold chocolate.

 

All served with a delicious chocolate truffle.