Phew – busy, busy, busy. OK – just in case you hadn’t thought of it, here’s how to cheat a nice alcoholic tart…are you seeing a theme in my baking yet?

Using bought shells (having never made little tart pastries before – and you know, it’s a busy time of year etc etc) and a tin of caramel – yes, yes, I know!

BUT – if you stir up the tin of caramel with a little dollop of Kalhua (the Gingerbread flavoured one)…catch my drift???

Then you wallop a few ginger nut biscuits in a zip bag and sprinkle them over the top…. Well, I mean really, who would know besides us?

Merry Christmas 🙂

cheats tart

I love Christmas time – it’s rum, rum and more rum! This is a soft fudge and very sweet.

Put 1/2 cup of raisins (which count as a fruit really) into a small saucepan with 1/2 cup of rum – Bundaberg rum of course! – and warm through to get the raisins nice and boozy. Cool them down.

In a bigger saucepan, stir a can of sweetened condensed milk, a firmly packed cup of brown sugar with 120 grams of chopped up butter until the sugar dissolves. I didn’t use glucose syrup because I like grainy fudge, but if you want it smoother and creamier, add into this saucepan 2 tablespoons of glucose syrup. Once the sugar is dissolved, raise the heat to medium and stir for 10 minutes until it’s a light golden colour.

Take the large saucepan off the heat and add in 200grams of chopped up milk eating chocolate – you could do dark if you wanted. Stir the chocolate in until it’s melted in. Add in the boozy raisins (and rum!) and when it’s all combined, pour it into a lined square tin. Let it cool and set – put in the fridge if you’re in a hurry.  When it’s set, slice and dice it into little pieces and enjoy.

rum and raisin fudge

Is it called a truffle if there’s no truffle in them?  I wonder to myself. Oh well, these taste lovely anyway 🙂

white chocolate, coconut and lemon/lime truffle

In a saucepan, put 1/2 cup of coconut cream, 360grams of white eating chocolate and as much grated zest of limes and lemons that you can handle zesting. The recipe suggests 2 tablespoons of each, but keep going til you can do no more! Stir over a low heat until the chocolate melts then pour into a bowl, cover and get into the fridge to cool and solidify. You need to be careful with the amount of coconut cream – too much and the mixture won’t set (tip for young players :). Leave the mixture to cool for as long as possible – overnight is great.

When set – get a bowl of some kind of coconut (moist/shredded – even desiccated).  Take a teaspoon of the mixture and roll into a ball – cover with the coconut and put on a lined tray to put back into the fridge until ready to eat.

These dark chocolate balls are chockers with raisins and cranberries soaked in port. Delish!

In a bowl, put 1/4 cup of raisins and 1/4 cup of chopped dried cranberries to soak in 1/2 cup of your favourite port. In a saucepan, melt a large block (200gram+) of dark eating chocolate with 1/4 cup of thickened cream.  When melted, take off the heat and add in the raisin/cranberry bowl of goodies. Put in a bowl and refrigerate until set. I left overnight and had a glass of port myself :).

When the mixture is set, take a teaspoon sized amount, roll into a ball and place on a lined tray.  When you’ve rolled all the balls, melt another 200gram block of milk eating chocolate in a saucepan. You can either drizzle the milk chocolate over the balls or dip them in – it’s entirely up to you. Refrigerate until you’re ready for the eating part.

port balls

This is a family tradition – probably more for Boxing Day nibbles while watching the cricket, but they are always there somewhere.

NB: You need a deep frypan (that can get up to a high heat) or an electric frypan you can control the temps on.

Put one cup of water in the heating pan with 2 cups (1 lb) of sugar. Colour with cochineal/red food dye. Stir to dissolve the sugar and then bring it to the boil (200C – or 375F in the old scale). When boiling add 2 cups (1 lb) of raw peanuts and lower the temp down to around 120C (260F) and put on the lid. Leave it to bubble away for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and take the lid off. Start stirring it all until the sugar crystallises…which can take a few minutes. Allow to cool and voila.

a boxing day tradition