Festive specials

[Snoop Puss]

A place to share what you're making - sweet and savoury - for the festive season: photos and recipes, links and tips, questions and plans, successes and flops (not that we're going to have many of those, of course ).

[greenishfing]

Christmas cake from me.



Only notes are if you rub the butter in by machine, be careful not to do it for too long or you'll end up with pastry due to the high butter to flour ratio. It says 3½ eggs. I just bung 4 in.

The timings and temperatures are very flexible. 2 to 3 hours at gas 1 to 2, them turn the oven down really low for another 2 to 3 hours. A skewer should come out clean and/or the temperature in the centre of the cake should be 95 to 97°C. A 6, 7 or 8 inch tin is good. The mix just fits in my deep 6 inch tin.

This is a very forgiving, flexible recipe. I tend to add extra cherries and reduce the fruit. My sister cooks it overnight in her Aga.

[greenishfing]

Another tried and tested favourite.


It makes one large or up to four small puddings. I like to eat it with brandy cream. My sister insists on rum sauce.

[greenishfing]

Another recipe, savoury this time. We always call it stuffing and it is wonderful with chicken,turkey, duck or pork. It doesn't actually stuff anything and is wonderfully sloppy, nothing remotely like paxo.

My mother used to make large amounts of this. I used to love stuffing sandwiches as a child later in the week. It only took me a couple of attempts to achieve what I considered perfection when I made it myself years later. I only make a small amount now for two or three of us.

Ingredients:
Two or three large onions (or the equivelant in small onions)
Two or three handfuls of fresh breadcrumbs (any sort).
A handful of dried sage.
Salt and pepper (plenty salt)

Method:
Quarter the onions if large. Leave small onions whole.
Boil until tender, not long.
Drain, then chop roughly. If I've drained into a colander I just run a sharp knife through it in situ.
Add the other ingredients and mix well.
After the meat has been roasting for a while and there is some fat and meat juices in the bottom of the roasting tin spoon in the stuffing. If hardly any fat in the tin add extra. Turn the stuffing every 20 minutes or so so that all of it gets a turn at the bottom absorbing the meat juices. After an hour or so it should be ready. It will have shrunk and be quite sloppy. Taste it, adjust the seasoning. Remove from the roasting tin to an ovenproof dish and keep warm. It tastes far better than it sounds.