Foodie Friday Christmas Special - Some Sweet Treat For The Festive Period

Hi Guys -we're on the final strait now aren't we and the big day is in sight. The fridge and the cupboards are filling up rapidly, the Asda man is due tomorrow, and today we filled a trolley in M&S. Yes there's more to the festive season than food but it plays a huge part, with family and friends bonding over steaming plates and food, and tempting nibbles everywhere. Today for my Foodie Friday post I'm going to share with you two of my favourite festive sweetie treats, Cranberry and White Chocolate Cookies, and Nigella Lawson's amazing Sweet and Salty Crunchy Nut Bars. Both of these treats are great for nibbling on and there great for offering to guests with a nice cuppa, or some hot chocolate.

This first recipe is a one that I adapted from one of my favourite home made cookie recipes Melting Moments, the basic dough is the same with the addition of white chocolate chunks and dried cranberries, and the omission of the porridge oats - this is sooooo easy to make definitely one to try with the little people.

Cranberry and White Chocolate Cookies

4oz Softened Butter or Margarine 

3oz Caster Sugar 

1/2 Egg

1 tsp Vanilla Extract 

5oz Self Raising Flour (I'm using Doves Farm Gluten Free)

1oz Dried Cranberries

1oz White Chocolate Chips or White Chocolate Chopped Into Small Chunks

1. Pre heat your oven to about 180ºC and grease a few baking trays 

2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy

3. Chop up your cranberries and chocolate if using - Add to the butter and sugar and mix in x

4. Beat the egg and the vanilla together and beat into the butter and sugar 

5. Add the flour and mix everything together till it's all combined, you may need a bit of extra egg, or milk if it's to dry or a bit of extra flour if it's too wet. You should have a soft dough but you should be able to mould it quite easily.

6. With slightly damp hands roll the mixture into small balls about the size of a walnut, pop them on a baking tray leaving a little bit of space between because they will spread. Then press them down a little bit with a fork - this leaves a nice design on the top :)

7. Pop them into the oven for 10-15 minutes till they go a light golden colour. They will still be quite soft so leave them on the baking tray and they will harden slightly as they cool.

8. Voila - slightly soft cookies, that taste yummy. These will keep for a day or so in an air tight tin but I guarantee they won't last that long.

OK they don't look posh or shop bought but they are homemade and taste gorgeous and that's what matters. I've doubled the recipe here which is fine to do. If you leave the cranberries and chocolate out these make a gorgeous vanilla cookie in their own right, you can also roll them in porridge oats, or coconut to make the traditional Melting Moment cookie

The next recipe I'm going to show you is from one of the Queens of cookery, Nigella Lawson. This recipe features in her fabulous book Kitchen. We have a huge tradition of sweet making at Christmas in my house, when I was small my mum used to make all sorts, home made coconut ice, peppermint creams, rum truffles and fudge were commonplace in my house at Christmas. We don't make anywhere near what we used but ever since the book first came out we've been making this extremely rich and moreish sweet treat at Christmas time. I won't be making these till Sunday (in order to have some left over Christmas) so my pics are actually from last year - when I failed to get the post up due to my dead hard drive x

Nigella Lawson's Sweet and Salty Crunch Nut Bars

300g Chocolate ( A Mix of Dark and Milk Or Whatever Your Prefer)

125g Unsalted Butter

3 x 15ml Tablespoons Golden Syrup

250g Salted Peanuts

4 x 40g Crunchie Bars

1. Fully line a swiss roll tin, cake tin or shallow roasting tin with greaseproof or foil. Alternatively use a disposable foil tray or like me a silcone baking pan

2.Break up the chocolate (I'm using 100g dark and 200g milk but any combination will work), and add to a saucepan. Also add the butter and the syrup and heat gently.

3.Meanwhile smash up your crunchie bars, I find it easier to do it whilst their still in the wrappers just whack them off the wall - great for getting rid of Christmas stress! - you want a mixture of small chunks and crumbs pieces so don't whack to hard.

4. Pop the smashed up crunchies into a mixing bowl and add the salted peanuts - give it a quick stir

5. Keep an eye on your chocolate mix and give it the occasional stir, you want in to be melted, and all combined.

6. When it's all melted mix it into the crunchie and nut mix, till it's all combined.

7. Pour it into your baking tray and smooth down the top

8. Leave it for an hour so in a cool place till it set,

9. Tip it out and cut it in to small squares! 

10. Voila eat and enjoy (keep this in a cool place as it does tend to melt and go a bit sticky)

All hail St. Nigella for introducing the world to this amazing piece of sweet, chocolatey, crunchie loveliness. This is amazing in my opinion and it's so easy to make. It goes very well alongside a nice cup of tea or coffee too. 

Both of these treat and my previous Christmas recipe (Nigella's Peanut Butter Cups) would be great for emergency gifts, or for a treat for yourself or even for Santa x Do you make any special recipes for Christmas? let me know in the comments xx