Cook Your Own Xmas Presents

10 November 2009

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Chef Phil Vickery Shows you how to bake your own gifts incliding, Christmas Gingerbread Biscuits - Ginger and Cherry Fudge - Cardamom Shortbread - Raspberry and White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Top chef Phil Vickery gives you tips and recipes on how to bake your own personalised Christmas gifts.

Christmas Gingerbread Biscuits

Makes 20-25 biscuits

Ingredients
125g (5oz) margarine or butter
100g (3½ oz) dark soft brown sugar
4tbsp Carnation Condensed Milk
325g (11oz) plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger

20 boiled sugar sweets
Coloured icing tubes, for decoration

You will also need:
Biscuit cutters and lined baking sheets

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C, 350°F, Gas Mark 4.
Heat the butter and sugar in a saucepan, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.  Add the condensed milk and stir together.

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger into a bowl and pour over the condensed milk mixture.  Start by working the ingredients together with a spoon then with clean hands bring the mixture together into a soft dough. 

Roll the gingerbread out on a floured surface to the thickness of 0.5cm.  Cut rounds out and place onto a baking sheet.  Use a very small cutter or knife to cut out circles in the centre of the biscuits (about the size of a pound coin).

Place the boiled sweets into a strong plastic food bag and holding the open end of the bag tightly closed smash the bag onto a hard surface (like a work top), to break the sweets.  Place the broken sweets into the holes in the biscuits.  Make a small hole in the top of the biscuit with a skewer or cocktail stick.  Bake the biscuits for about 10 minutes until just golden. 

Remove the biscuits from the oven and check the small holes for hanging the biscuits are still open.  Leave to cool completely before decorating with icing. Allow the biscuits to dry before hanging on the tree.

Tip
Hang the biscuits on Christmas day as they go soft if not kept in an airtight container for more than a couple of days.

Ginger and Cherry Fudge

Makes approx 1Kg
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 20-25 minutes

397g can Carnation Condensed Milk
150ml (1/4 pt) milk
450g (1lb) Demerara sugar
100g (4 oz) butter
150g (5oz) glace cherries, halved
50g (2 oz) stem ginger, chopped

1) Grease and base a 20cm (8 in) square cake tin with baking parchment
2) Heat the milks, sugar and butter in a large, non-stick saucepan over a low heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves completely.
3) Bringing to the boil and simmer over a low heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring continuously and scraping the base of the pan, until a soft ball of fudge is formed when a little of the mixture is dropped into a jug of ice cold water.
4) Remove from the heat and beat the fudge by hand until thick and grainy (about 10 minutes)
5) Gently stir in the remaining ingredients. Pour into the prepared tin and leave to cool before cutting into squares.

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