Christmas Food

A most spectacular Pav...if I do say so myself!

Cherry and Lemon Tart

Tiramisu Truffles

White Chocolate and Coconut Truffles

Well the food excesses of Christmas day are over! I feel like all I did yesterday was eat and eat.... after a few days of cooking and baking and therefore just about expiring in the awful humid heat we have had. I went through packets and packets of butter (I think about 6-7 at least), tons of sugar and flour not to mention the chocolate!

For gifts I made a lovely butter shortbread and Annabel Langbein's amazing Chocolate Chip Biscuits which are my current favourite (they are on here). Then Harry decided that he wanted to give home baking to the family as his present instead of buying something which I loved the idea of. However it did mean lots more baking to do the day before Xmas. He made Caramel Shortbread and a Crispy Shortbread recipe which you can find on the Foodlovers website. If you like your shortbread to have some crunch then this is the recipe for you....delicious! I wish I had taken some photos of these but in the rush I just didn't even think about it. I also baked Pecan tarts and Xmas Mince Pies (all homemade including the Xmas mince).

For breakfast I kept it pretty easy with delicious Paneton pastries and Croissants accompanied with Te Horo jam and the phenomenal Lewis Creamery butter. If you haven't tried this butter yet, it's really worth it for a special occasion. It's pretty pricey but the flavour is like nothing you would have had before....unless you remember the way butter used to be! I also had a platter of lovely fresh fruit and some good yoghurt to go with it as well as good coffee and of course bubbles!!

Lunch was at George's and if I do say so myself, we always put on a great spread. This year I did boneless leg of lamb which I BBQ'd and served with a lime, chilli, ginger dressing and lots of lovely fresh herbs, potatoes roasted in duck fat (these were amazing and I think were quite possibly the star of the meal), a smoked salmon, avocado and rocket salad. George did a ham, a duck and mango salad, a roasted beetroot salad and some delicious mustard fruits. For dessert I made up a platter of the Pecan and Xmas tarts, Tiramisu truffles, White Chocolate and Coconut Truffles; a Cherry and Lemon tart (from Baking Dish...it was like a Lemon tart without the pastry), and a stunning Pavlova. I always use the recipe from Nigella's How to Eat book and this time used 6 egg whites. I think it looked like my best one yet. However Pavlova isn't my favourite thing and instead I tend to go for Russell's amazing Berry trifle so I don't know first hand how it tasted. 

Finally dinner was a more sedate and easy BBQ so I took some Broken Glass Jello (it always goes down well with the kids) and a Stripey Chocolate Cheesecake. I didn't even remember to take photos sorry.

So that was our day of excessive eating. I hope you all had a lovely day too with lots of lovely family time and lots and lots of good food. Merry Xmas!