Cranberry Jam

This is a festive recipe for cranberry jam, it will be perfect with your roast turkey on Christmas day.
During the year I collect my empty jars from jams and salsas etc so when it’s jam time you don’t have to waste your money on jars!

Makes 1 large jar.

This is what you need;

300g frozen cranberries
1tsp cloves
1 cinnamon stick
2 oranges, zest and juice
1 tbsp lemon juice
500 ml water
300g caster sugar

Add all your ingredients to a saucepan, put the cloves and cinnamon stick in a muslin, let this simmer for 2 hours and stir occasionally. Sterilize your jar and once the jam is done pour over and cover the opening with baking parchment, once cooled, put the lid on and leave it in the fridge until it’s ready to use. Will keep in the fridge for up to 3-5 months.
Tip – Use your leftover turkey and make a nice sandwich for lunch and spread a thick layer of this jam and Christmas will be in every bite.

GINGERBREAD

THE ultimate Christmas bake!

This dough made about 30 biscuits and a fairytale house.

This is what you need;

225g unsalted butter
12 tbsp golden syrup 200g caster sugar
100g light muscovado sugar
1tsp all spice
2 tsp ground ginger
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp milk
900g plain flour
3 tsp bicarbonate soda

This recipe is super easy to make and give quite the result.
This is how you do it;

Preheat the oven to 180 fan, gas mark 4. Put butter, syrup and sugar into a sauce pan, over  medium heat stir until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Take the pan off the heat and stir in the spices, once fully incorporated put your flour and stir vigorously add the milk to make the dough smoother.Leave to cool before you roll out to £1 tick cookies, bake in the middle of the oven  for 9 min, depending on your oven but they burn pretty quick so keep an eye on them.

If you are making a ginger bread house make sure that all the pieces are of equal thickness and make your blueprints before you start. If you want the measurements that I used just email me and I’ll send them over.

For the piping, mix 500g icing sugar, 2 egg whites and 1 tsp lemon juice divide into bowls and add 2 drops of the food colouring of your liking.

This is the perfect past time and if you have kids I can promise that this will keep the occupied for a few hours.
Enjoy x

A little tip, take a straw and make a hole in the ginger bread before baking and they will make fantastic place cards, Tree decorations and Christmas present tags.

Swedish Apple Cake

This is one of my favorite cakes and something that everyone loves!

Makes 14 generous slices.

This is what you need:

1 batch of sponge cake
2 apples, I use granny smith.
2 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp caster sugar

Start by slicing your apples, in a bowl, mix the cinnamon and caster sugar and add the apples, set to one side.

Preheat your oven to 175 degrees, gas mark 4,grease your tin with a thin layer of butter then coat it with fine breadcrumbs. By adding the breadcrumbs you get a really nice crust on the cake which makes such a difference.
In a bowl, whisk butter, vanilla paste and sugar until you have a light colour then start adding the eggs, one by one until fully incorporated. Chop the apple into super small pieces, this will add sweetness and moisture to the cake and set to one side. Now sift your flour and baking powder in 3 parts into the batter be careful so you don’t beat out the air of the eggs, now fold in the apples with a metal spoon. Now, you can line your tin with apples or mix the apples into the batter, totally up to you.  Transfer into your tin as soon as possible, if you leave it for too long it can cause the cake to sink in the middle, bake in the middle of the oven for 40 minutes.

Let it cool and eat with some vanilla ice cream.

Swedish Cinnamon Buns

Tomorrow is the BIG day, international cinnamon bun day
(or maybe it’s only in Sweden but I think it should be international, they deserve it) so I thought I would give you a head start with a recipe that I’ve used for years!
Makes ca 40-50 normal size or 30 massive ones.

If you have time I would recommend proving the dough over night (12 hours) as we are using milk in this recipe and that slows down the proving process.

What you need:

Dough:

5dl Milk
1 x sachet of dry fast action yeast
2dl Sugar
0.5 tsp salt
14dl Self raise flour (if you can get organic or local do it, it makes such a difference) + 2 depending on the wetness
125g butter
**optional – I have 2 tsp of grounded cardamom in the dough,it gives the buns an amazing taste.

You will need 1 egg to brush the buns with after their second proving and then sprinkle them with coarse pearl sugar.

Filling:

120g butter
1,5dl sugar
3 tbsp cinnamon

OR, if you don’t like cinnamon but don’t want to miss out on bun godness

120g room temp butter
1dl sugar
0.5dl vanilla sugar
50 of shaved almonds

NOW, time to get your hands dirty and start mixing these ingredients together.
Start by sifting 13dl of the flour into a bowl put the yeast on one side and the salt on the other, then mix, add the rest of your dry ingredients and butter. Start adding your milk gradually, in 3 parts. As you go along you will see when you need to add the remaining flour but leave 1dl for dusting and kneading. When everything has come together tip it out on a floured surface, roll your sleeves up and start kneading.
After 10-15 min you should have a smooth dough, now if you can’t prove it over night, put the dough in a bowl cover tight with clingfilm but make sure that the dough has enough space to double in size. If you are leaving it over night, same here but leave it in a cool place, this allows the flavors to establish and for the gluten to build up.
When your dough is done proving, punch it down and tip out on a floured surface.
Take a rolling pin and start flatten out the dough, try not to be too rough and let the dough stretch out.
Once your dough is about 5mm thick it’s time for the filling to come in, so evenly distribute butter, sugar and cinnamon or your other fillings.
Then push the down down on the opposite side of where you start rolling.

Start rolling the dough, make sure you roll it tight and don’t leave loads of space in the swirl as the might dry out and fall apart when you eat them 🙂

This is the traditional way of doing it but there are hundreds of ways of making it to a bun.
Cut them up, I normally cut 5-7 cm pieces, then put into cases and cover with clingfilm.

Leave them to rise and double in size, this should take about 1 hour, turn your oven on when you have 30 min left on the proving. Turn your oven to 250 degrees (gas mark 6-7)

If the buns are ready brush with the beaten up egg and sprinkle with pearl sugar, bake the buns in the middle of the oven for about 8-10 min and golden.

If you have made too much and can’t control yourself, this is the perfect time to chuck some in the freezer, when the buns has cooled down a bit just put them in a freezer bag and enjoy on a later date.

Best consumed warm with a cold glass of milk, yummy….