Christmas desserts for the kids
Children don’t necessarily enjoy traditional Christmas cakes not to mention plum pudding, even mince pies elicit an unceremonial yuk! So this week’s column is especially for the kids, I have chosen treats that my own grandchildren seem to love, like frosted tangerines or mandarins. They also love all kinds of popsicles or ice-lollies made with fresh fruit juices or purees.
The chocolate Christmas tree from my first Simply Delicious Christmas is still a hit, as is the meringue and white chocolate pomegranate confection that Rory and I assembled on the Christmas programme a few weeks ago.
However if you can’t be bothered with all that palaver, you and the kids can make a batch of meringue and then pipe it into swirly Christmas trees. They will love that and can even sprinkle with hundreds and thousands, gold stars or silver dragées.
Cupcakes seem to be endlessly appealing and then there’s all the fun you and the kids can have filling, decorating, and prettying them up.
Festive chocolate pops are another fun activity. Buy some packets of sprinkles, edible Santas, snowmen or cute little reindeers to embellish the pops. Older teenagers can make a paper icing bag and have fun decorating and piping on top of the cupcakes.
Homemade sweeties are also treats and the kids can make them as little gifts for Gran or Auntie Margie — once the nuts are toasted, the simple nut clusters below can even be made by three year olds, then pack them into pretty doily lined boxes to present.
225g (8oz) dark or white chocolate, chopped
Chocolate Pop moulds
Put the chocolate into a Pyrex bowl over a saucepan of hot water (the base of the bowl should not touch the water). When the water comes to the boil, turn off the heat and leave until the chocolate melts.
Melt the white or dark chocolate as above, spoon into the moulds. Insert a lollipop stick. Tap the work top to smooth over the top. Decorate the top with freeze-dried raspberries or dried cranberries or Santa. Allow to set. Unmould. Serve in a piece of oasis decorated with holly or coloured tissue etc.
The ingredients
* Pomegranate, with their jewel-like ruby seeds seem entirely appropriate at Christmas time. Choose a fruit with an unblemished and rose-coloured skin, though the colour of the skin is not always an indication as to the depth of colour of the seeds within).
The unopened fruit will keep for several weeks in a fridge. To extract the seeds, you can cut it in half across the middle. Taking one half at a time, cup the cut side down in your hand with fingers outstretched, and then beat the skin vigorously with a wooden spoon to help the seeds to pop out. They will fall through your fingers and into the bowl below.
* White chocolate is not really chocolate at all, but a mixture of cocoa butter, sugar and flavouring. It can be temperamental and it really pays to buy the best quality, as some of the cheaper versions are difficult to melt. Melt it as you would conventional chocolate, but with a little extra vigilance.
* Rosewater, a fragrant liquid extracted from rose petals is, when used with discretion, a wonderful flavouring. Widely used in the cooking of the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, it is now easily available in this part of the world.
It is another ingredient that does not benefit from being kept for years as the flavour dulls.
The confection sounds more difficult to make than it is and even if it’s not the most perfectly shaped tree in the world, don’t worry as this tree just screams of love .
Get all the elements prepared and have fun assembling the tree. The white chocolate can be replaced with dark chocolate if that is more to your taste.
Yes, I know this sounds a bit cheesy, but it really is delicious. Anyway it’s for Christmas and when I am making this, I go all out and I throw a few hundreds and thousands at it and maybe some gold and silver dragees.
Fabulous, but just once a year mind! I suggest those of you reading this with arched eyebrows should now relax, as you will give yourself a headache!
Can you imagine how welcome frosted tangerines are after a rich meal — and not just for the kids — for everyone? This clean fresh-tasting ice tastes like superior iced lolly. It can also be filled into ice-pop moulds, which halves the work. Clementines, mandarins or satsumas are also great in this recipe. Serves 10-12, depending on whether people eat 1 or 2
Syrup
225g (8oz) sugar
juice of ¼ lemon
150ml (5 fl oz) water
20-28 tangerines
Juice of ½ lemon
Icing sugar (optional)
Garnish
Vine or bay leaves
First make the syrup. Put the first 3 ingredients into a saucepan over a low heat, stir until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, and boil for 2-3 minutes, Cool.
Grate the zest finely from 10 of the tangerines, cut in half and squeeze the juice. Cut the remaining tangerines so that they each have a lid.
Scoop the sections out of the ‘shell’ with a small spoon and then press them through a nylon sieve, (alternatively, you could liquidise the pulp and then strain). You should end up with 750ml (¼ pints) juice.
Add the finely grated zest, the freshly squeezed lemon juice and the syrup to taste. Taste and add icing sugar or extra lemon juice if more sweetness or sharpness is required.
It should taste sweeter than you would like it to be because it will lose some of its sweetness when it freezes. Freeze until firm in one of the suggested ways.
1. Pour into the drum of an ice-cream maker or sorbetiere and freeze for 20-25 minutes. Scoop out and serve immediately or store in a covered bowl in the freezer until needed.
2. Pour the juice into a stainless steel or plastic container and put into the freezing compartment of a refrigerator. After about 4-5 hours when the sorbet is semi-frozen, remove from the freezer and whisk until smooth, then return to the freezer. Whisk again when almost frozen and fold in one stiffly beaten egg white. Keep in the freezer until needed.
3. If you have a food processor simply freeze the sorbet completely in a stainless steel or plastic bowl, then break into large pieces and whizz up in the food processor for a few seconds.
Add one slightly beaten egg white, whizz again for another few seconds, then return to the bowl and freeze again until needed.
Meanwhile, chill the tangerine shells in the fridge or freezer and fill the chilled shells with scoops of the frozen sorbet. We sit them in muffin trays so they don’t wobble around.
Replace the lids and store in the freezer. Cover with cling film if not serving on the same day.
Serve on a white plate decorated with fresh bay leaves, or on colourful plates for a children’s party.
Note: Sorbetières or ice-cream makers can be very expensive, but we find that the brands which can be put in the freezer the night before work surprisingly well.
Another little treat, can be an after-dinner choccie, pressie, or a tempting item for a Christmas bazaar. Even children can help to make them
Makes 35 approximately
225g (8ozs) best quality dark chocolate
110g (4ozs) plump raisins
110g (4ozs) hazelnuts
25g (1oz) homemade candied orange peel (see recipe)
Put the hazelnuts into a moderate oven, 180C/350F/gas mark 4 for 15 to 20 minutes or until the skins loosen. Remove from the oven and rub off the skins in a tea towel. Return the skinned hazelnuts to the oven and toast until golden. Cool and cut in half.
Cut the candied orange peel in 3mm (1/8 inch) dice. Put the chocolate in a pyrex bowl, carefully sit into a saucepan over warm water, the liquid should not touch the base of the bowl. Bring the water slowly to the boil, turn off the heat immediately and allow the chocolate to melt naturally.
Stir the toasted hazelnuts, raisins and candied peel into the chocolate. Cover a tray or baking sheet with silicone paper and drop little heaps of the mixture neatly onto the paper from a small teaspoon. Don’t make them too large because this mixture is quite rich. Tidy them up a little if necessary.
Allow to set hard in a cold place, preferably not in the fridge or they will lose their sheen.
When set, peel them off the paper and put them into brown chocolate paper cases. Pack them into a pretty box or basket.
175g (6oz) or 6 egg whites
350g (12oz) icing sugar
50-110g (2-4oz) white chocolate, melted
300ml (10fl oz) cream, whipped (cream measured before whipping)
1 pomegranate, seeds removed
2-4 tbsp of rosewater, or to taste
Place the egg whites and sugar in a spotlessly clean mixing bowl. Start beating slowly just until the sugar is incorporated with the egg white and continue to beat to very stiff peaks.
While the egg whites are beating, line two oven trays with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas Mark 2.
Using a dessertspoon, drop the meringue onto the paper in little blobs, or use a piping bag fitted with a medium sized nozzle and pipe into sticks.
Bake the meringues until they lift off the paper with no resistance. This will take approximately 60 minutes. Allow to cool completely.
Whip the cream to a stiff peak and add the rosewater to taste.
Melt the chocolate gently in a low oven or over a bowl of barely simmering water.
To assemble, choose a large, flat serving plate on which you plan to present the tree, as once it’s assembled, it is too difficult to move.
Sandwich all of the meringues together with the rosewater cream before you start the assembly. Drizzle a little of the melted chocolate in a circle on the base of the plate and spread a circular layer of the meringues on as a base, pressing them into the chocolate.
Allow this to set if you wish, but continue on if it feels sturdy. Continue building up the meringues in a classic Christmas tree shape, dipping a corner or side of each meringue in the melted chocolate as you go to help them to stick together.
When the tree shaped meringue has been achieved, drizzle some of the remaining chocolate down the sides of the tree.
Now place some pomegranate seed on the chocolate drizzles as if you were decorating a Christmas tree with baubles. Put aside in a cool place to set. The fridge is ideal, but if it is too big for your fridge, put it in front of a slightly open window to chill and set.
To serve, decorate with holly leaves a dusting of icing sugar and very good quality chocolate or cocoa powder.
Serve with any leftover rosewater cream.
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