Gingerbread Star Trees

Having spotted this recipe in the Waitrose Christmas Harvest cook book, we decided to try the recipe for gingerbread, tweaking it to be gluten free.

The ingredients we used were -

125g unsalted butter
100g dark soft sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
325g Dove's Farm gluten free plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp Waitrose Signature Spice (ground) (this is a blend of spices - cinnamon, ginger, etc)
To decorate
100g icing sugar, sifted, plus extra for dusting
20ml egg white

We also used a set of 5 star-shaped cookie cutters, plus a 1.5cm round cutter, non-stick baking sheets and a silicone sheet for rolling out the dough on.

Preheating the oven to 170°C, we put the non-stick baking trays in the fridge to cool.

First of all we melted the butter, sugar and syrup together in a small saucepan, stirring occasionally, then removed from the heat and combined well with a silicone spoon.








Having sifted the gluten free flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices into a bowl the melted ingredients were stirred

in to make a stiff dough.

Turning the dough out onto a silicone sheet, it was cut in half.  Half the dough was put to one side to be frozen for later use.  The remaining half was rolled to a thickness of about 5mm.

Using the cutters, we cut out one of each size star and 4 of the rounds. After cutting the stars, we also cut out additional small stars, gingerbread men and holly leaves for icing later.

The cut biscuits were then placed on the chilled baking sheets before chilling for 10 minutes until firm.

Baking the biscuits for 10-12 minutes, we checked they were just turning a light golden brown, before cooling on the tray for a couple of minutes.  Next they were transferred to a wire rack and left to cool.

When we were ready to ice the biscuits, we mixed together the icing sugar and egg white until smooth then spooned into a small greaseproof piping
bag.

Assembling the tree, we used the icing to stick one of the round biscuits onto the centre of one of the largest stars. We then added the next star biscuit on top and continued to build layers using one small round and the next size of star, descending in size, to form each layer.

We used two of the smallest star biscuits, sandwiched with icing, on a cut cocktail stick to form the tree's top.

Dusting with icing sugar, the gingerbread tree was placed inside a plastic pot (reusing a meringue pot from Sainsbury's in-store bakery) ready to be eaten later.

We decorated the remaining biscuits with first white, then coloured icing.  Turning the gingerbread man shape upside down and icing it as a reindeer (a jelly bean was used as the nose!)  We made small snowflakes out of the stars and turned the holly leaves and rounds into a holly spray..... these were stored in a seasonal tin to be eaten later.

Chocolate Pine Cones

Following on from our previous post, Sous Chef J and I have been thinking of 'different' edible decorations and came up with the idea of "trying to fashion" pine cones using chocolate buttons.  Knowing that pine cones show the Fibonacci spiral and thinking about 3- & 5-fold radial symmetry seen alot in nature,  we decided to give it a go...

As usual, we started by deciding on the ingredients (materials) to use to make our chocolate pine cones.  Sous Chef J decided the pine cone would need a 'centre' and thought a curly wurly would be good for this.

Cutting down a curly wurly into shorter pieces, we had the centre ready to be used.  (A note of caution, if the curly wurly is too cold, the internal toffee tends to shatter)
We used melted chocolate chips as the cement/glue to stick the buttons in place.

Using the same technique as we did for making our Rudolph Heads, we placed chocolate chips in a small plastic bag, which was then put in hot water to melt them, before cutting off one corner of the bag.  This was then squeezed out where needed to stick the buttons together to make the pine cone shape.

Next, the assembly of the pine cone could begin.  Three buttons were placed on a piece of card, a blob of chocolate was added and the curly wurly upright was held in place.  Then layers of buttons were added, around the upright, with more melted chocolate to make a cement.  This was repeated, building up the spirals of the pine cone.

Finally, the cone was ready!  We're quite pleased with the result.  We made a large cone using Giant Cadbury buttons and a few smaller cones using standard sized buttons.

The cones were bagged up in cellophane wrappers and will be given as gifts (if they last long enough!!)

Christmas Party Food from Marks and Spencer

Once again this year we have been pleased to see how many of the 'mainstream' party foods products in the Marks and Spencer chiller cabinets are marked as gluten free.  Sous Chef J is a VERY BIG fan of the Mini Chicken Kievs whilst I like the Belly Pork bites.  Here's a selection of the products we've tried so far this 'festive season'...

 ... first off, we were delighted to find a really lovely, decorated Christmas Cake.  When we bought it, there was the additional bonus that it was on offer at a cost of £8.  It can also be ordered online here using Marks and Spencer's food to order service and has a cost of £12.

 

Sous Chef J is a HUGE fan of the mini Chicken Kievs - these can be found in the chiller cabinets and also the freezers (useful for stocking up) - and will eat almost a whole pack himself!  They are crispy chicken bites, filled with garlic butter which are a firm favourite.




The Mini Toad in the Hole with  caramelised onion chutney are lovely little mouthfuls of Cumberland sausages in a crispy batter. 

The BBQ Pork Belly Squares are delicious - the meat falls apart and the barbecue sauce glaze is a fab last minute addition to the tray when they're being cooked.

When we found the Mini Christmas Dinner Bites, Sous Chef J was not sure he would like them.  They're made of bitesize turkey and stuffing wrapped in streaky bacon with a pomegranate, clementine and cranberry glaze.  The glaze is added 5 minutes before the end of the cooking time.

In the end, Sous Chef J enjoyed trying the bites... and they do look appetising - a nice touch is that the bamboo picks have Magic & Sparkle engraved on them.

The last party food item we found was also something Sous Chef J liked - Sticky Asian Lollipops - as they are "easy to eat" which always something that's likely to make him happy!









Spotted in the freezer cabinet was a dessert called Christmas Candles - no gluten was listed in the ingredients or allergen information... we are still trying to find out if this is gluten free but it looks like a lovely option for an easy pudding.

Marks and Spencer also sell gluten free Christmas Puddings and mince pies although, to date, we've only seen the empty shelves where these are meant to be.  

Online, Marks and Spencer's food to order even has a Gluten Free Party Selection which contains 12 Mini Chicken Kievs, 12 Scottish Lochmuir™ Smoked Salmon and Prawn Appetisers, 18 BBQ Pork Belly Squares, 12 Sticky Asian Style Chicken Lollipops, and 12 Mini Toad in the Hole with caramelised onion chutney at a cost of £30 for 66 pieces in total.

Overall we have been pleasantly surprised by the range of items that are stocked which are clearly marked as gluten free and, although we'd like the supply to be more reliable, we do think it's worth heading to M&S to stock up on easy-to-cook party food.

Festive FreeFrom Fare

We like to be prepared for the Festive Season in plenty of time, so were pleased when Sainsbury's sent us a parcel of FreeFrom goodies from their range to try.

There were two types of  mince pies - the 'traditional' pastry topped ones and also a packet of iced pies.  Sous Chef J likes the look of the iced mince pies the best as he's "not keen on too much pastry".

The box of goodies also contained a panettone style loaf cake.  It was a softer cake than we were expecting, but there was a good distribution of fruit and was a tasty treat.

 Also included were two packs of cake slices - both contain 5 slices - one has Iced rich fruit cake and the other Mini chocolate logs.  The Iced fruit cake slices seem to

have a good proportion of cake to icing.  Looking at the Mini chocolate logs, they're more of an iced slice than a log shape but Sous Chef J thinks that won't stop him eating them. All!

It was good to see some products aimed at children included in the range.  Sadly the Gingerbread biscuit man hadn't survived the post in tact but Sous Chef J had a solution for that... and promptly ate the biscuit.

The Freefrom Santa Choc bar is Gluten, Wheat and dairy free and would make a great stocking filler.  Also, the choc selection net, which contains a santa choc bar, choc'n'crispie bar, choc bar, choc buttons and choc discs, looks like a treat that will fill a space in a Christmas stocking nicely.

Whilst it's been nice to get a pre-Seasonal goodie box, we'll be 'monitoring' the goods on sale in store as "reliability of availability" is something we harp on about a lot.  It's great to know Gluten Free Christmas food items exist but is doubly frustrating when you can't get hold of them.

Checking our local store this week, we saw all the items we were sent apart from the Selection net.  We were pleased to see there was also a FreeFrom Advent Calendar, Christmas Cake Loaf and also a Christmas Pudding on sale.


Disclosure - Sainsbury's sent us a selection of FreeFrom items without charge but we have not been paid for this post.

Tomato Chutney

Our pot-grown tomato plants rewarded us with a good haul of fruit this year.  With the approach of Autumn and forecast strong winds, we needed to harvest and use them... so we decided to make chutney.  The recipe used was originally for just green tomatoes but we decided to make a mixed tomato version of it.

The ingredients used were -

1.8kg tomatoes, washed and chopped
675g onions, peeled and chopped
450g cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped (we used ready pureed frozen apples)
450g brown sugar
600ml cider vinegar
225g seedless raisins and sultanas
25g root ginger, bruised
tablespoon chilli flakes
2 teaspoons of salt

Having chopped and chopped and chopped the tomatoes and onions, they were placed in our huge chutney pan... the apple was also added, as was 300ml of the vinegar.  This was then cooked over a medium heat until the contents were soft (took about 30 minutes).

Using a spatula to mix the contents of the pan, we than added the fruits and place a bag containing the ginger and chilli into the pan (we attached ours to the pan's handle).  This was then mixed through and cooked for about an hour.

Once the chutney started to thicken, the sugar, remaining vinegar and salt was added. Stirring the chutney thoroughly, the chutney was brought up to simmering and left to thicken - stirring regularly to avoid burning/sticking.  (To remind us to stir the chutney, we set the timer for 15 minute)  It took about an hour for the mix to thicken.

The bag of ginger and chilli was removed and then we potted the chutney in sterilised jars, allowed it to cool and will leave for

the flavour to develop for at least 6 weeks before eating it.

We like to serve the chutney with cheese or spicy potato wedges.  If bottled in pretty jars, it makes a lovely gift - perfect for a foodie's Christmas!