Christmas Cooking - Part Two: Sweet

When it comes to Christmas treats, my mind automatically goes to two things - gingerbread and peppermint slice. The first is a recipe I've spoken about before and the second is one my mum has been making for years at Christmas-time and that everyone I've introduced it to looks forward to. At this time of year when my friends come over it's with a hopeful "got any leftover mint slice?". I also made the most adorable "rice krispie treats" (I don't even know what those are meant to be called here!) and some fudge. Let's not beat around the bush: recipe time.

The fudge, which I unforgiveably forgot to take any pictures of, was a recipe from YouTuber Donal Skehan - there's a video of the process as well as a recipe page on his site. This one was incredibly easy to make and tasted great, though I found the recipe didn't indicate just how long it took to set: a few days after I made this the base was still very sticky and soft, so the pieces almost fell apart as I separated them from the baking paper and each other. I had to stick it back in the fridge again for a couple more days before it was really edible, and that didn't leave a lot of time before it dried out: there's a pretty small window of ideal edibility for these.

Christmas Mint Fudge: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Super simple to make and delicious (but incredibly sweet!) - this does take a long time to set, in my experience, so make it a few days before you want to eat it.

A little wonky but still delicious!

These little cuties were adored by all who saw them, and this was another recipe that was really simple to make - though I came VERY close to burning the original mix when I stopped stirring to add in the peppermint essence and food colouring. Turns out you really can't afford to do that, so either have someone else on hand to pour for you or pre-open/measure these and save yourself from potentially ruining your batch.

To make the trees I ended up greasing up my hands and shaping them, as the mix is unbelievably sticky and you will not be able to handle it otherwise, and I had to enlist a helper to press the baubles and stars on while the mixture was still sticky, as it sets quite quickly once removed from the heat and I can't imagine having time to shape up the whole batch AND decorate them before they cool. We just pressed our trees on to mini chocolate cupcakes for the bases and they stuck just fine.

"Rice Krispie" Christmas Trees: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
These would be really difficult to make on your own, but if you have someone to help they're a lot of fun, and the mint is a nice addition to the well-known treat.

The star of the show, as with every year, was the peppermint slice. This one is great fun to make - but also really messy and it looks pretty disgusting for quite a few stages of the process. It's well worth the effort, though, and even better it lasts in the fridge for a couple weeks without any problem so you can make a little extra and enjoy it for longer!

You will need:

• a tin of condensed milk
• a packet of Crown Mints (or any mints, I guess, but the Crown brand are just the best!)
• a packet of malt biscuits
• 1-2 Tbsp cocoa
• dessicated coconut to coat
• plastic wrap

The first step is to soak the mints in the condensed milk overnight in a sealed (ant-proof!) container. This won't work as well if it's in the fridge, as the condensed milk will 'set' and not soften the mints enough - believe me, I made that mistake myself last year.

The next day: crush up the biscuits, either by belting them with a rolling pin (fun!) or using a food processor (efficient!), until the pieces are at a size you're happy with. Mine were a little chunky this year, but it works best with fine crumbs.

Mix the softened mint mixture with the crushed biscuit crumbs and your cocoa powder and then get ready for mess because this is basically impossible to mix any way other than by hand.

Once everything is mixed (and you've washed your hands), lay out a piece of plastic wrap and sprinkle out some some coconut. You'll want to take around a quarter of the mix and squish it into a log shape and then roll it in the coconut. Wrap it fairly tightly in the plastic wrap - this is a good time to press the mix more firmly together and into a good shape, since the stickiness is out of the way - and set it aside. After all of your mix is rolled and wrapped, place it in the fridge overnight to set.

Enjoy in thin slices, best eaten cold, or hell just bite off a chunk. I won't judge.

Peppermint Slice: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Even people who don't like mint too much, like yours truly, are gonna love this slice that's great, messy fun to make, has only a handful of basic ingredients, and keeps for ages.

Well, that's it for my Christmas cooking - now it's time to really come back to the real world and get stuck into this new year and the second half of summer (it's finally gotten hot here!). Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!