Jennifer Sheahan: Edible gifts and decorations need no storage

Home of the Year winner Jennifer Sheahan loves to use Christmas-themed food as festive decoration

Fri, 16 Dec, 2022 - 16:17

Jennifer Sheahan

As a person with limited storage at her disposal, I love to use Christmas-themed food as decorations for my home. Food is meant to be eaten, which means that no storage is required once Christmas is over.

I also love having food out on display for guests to enjoy as they please — my dining room shelves are lined with clear jars containing jellies and sweets most of the year, but these are swapped out for Christmas cookies and chocolates during the holidays.

I also love giving food as Christmas gifts to friends, neighbours, and family. Anything homemade is always extra special, and due to my aforementioned limitation I personally enjoy edible gifts that I don’t have to find a home for. With lots of people popping around during the holiday season, it’s also nice to have Christmas bakes at the ready that can be quickly whipped out to impress last-minute guests.

DECORATIVE FOOD

The easiest way to use food as decorations is to fill glass jars with festive deliciousness. I love gingerbread cookies, and they last a good week in a jar (so I hear; they don’t last in my house!). Cookies can be cut and decorated with royal icing as you please — if you don’t have a festively shaped cookie cutter, you can cut up a can and bend it into your desired shape (fold over sharp edges so you don’t cut yourself).

If you’re feeling ambitious, gingerbread can also be made into a beautiful gingerbread house using the same recipe. This is a really fun way to spend an afternoon or two with little ones - let their imaginations run wild with the royal icing. It’s easy to undo any mistakes and anyway who doesn’t love extra icing!

Gingerbread

My gingerbread recipe is adapted from The Cake Cafe in Dublin. I use ready-made royal icing to decorate.

Ingredients

550g plain flour

200g brown sugar

2 tsp ginger

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cloves (or sometimes I add cardamom)

2 tsp baking powder

150g cold butter

100g golden syrup

2 eggs

Method

Combine the dry ingredients.

Break the butter into pieces and rub gently into the dry ingredients with your fingertips until you have a breadcrumb consistency (I cheat; I use the paddle attachment of my stand mixer on low speed and it works fine). Mix the eggs and golden syrup together, and stir into the “breadcrumbs” using a fork. Use your hands to lightly knead the dough together. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Lightly flour a surface, roll the dough to the thickness of two €1 coins and cut out your desired cookie shapes. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 180C.

EDIBLE GIFTS

You can give anything you’ve made as a lovely gift for Christmas and it will always be appreciated; time and thought beats a price tag every time. I love to make Nigella Lawson’s Hokey Pokey (honeycomb) when I need something quick, and I always like soft gingerbread; I cut it into squares and decorate it as reindeers with pretzels for horns and red M&Ms for noses. Booze can also be a wonderful gift; bottle up some homemade mulled wine or spiced cider and add a little bow. My favourite gift however is a DIY cookie jar. This is a jar of pre-measured ingredients that the recipient can quickly mix up and bake whenever they choose. This is a great gift year-round with any cookie recipe. For Christmas I go with my absolute favourite — chocolate peppermint cookies.

Jennifer Sheahan loves to bake festive gifts and decor.

Chocolate peppermint cookies

Recipe is adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction.

Layer all of the dry ingredients neatly in a jar in the order written below, write the recipe on a label, and tie it all up in a bow. You will need a 32oz (~1 litre) mason jar.

Ingredients

190g all-purpose flour 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

25g cocoa powder

150g soft brown sugar

50g granulated white sugar

90g dark chocolate chips

90g chopped peppermint bark (candy canes are ideal)

Write on the label that the gift recipient should add 145g unsalted butter at room temperature

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Mix all the ingredients together with a wooden spoon or the paddle attachment on a stand mixer.

Drop rounded tablespoons onto parchment paper, leaving about 8cm (the length of a credit card) between each.

Bake at 180C for around 10 minutes.

READY WHEN YOU ARE

I bake ahead more often than not. Baking right before you need the baked good is stressful and unnecessary; I find that most baked goods actually taste better from the freezer. Any time I’m baking a cake I make extra layers, wrap them up, and freeze them. I also make extra batter and bake cupcakes along with the cake, which go into the freezer for later. Always defrost cakes fully in the fridge before removing the wrapping. Buttercream icing can also be frozen and lasts around three months in the freezer. Iced cakes will freeze fine, but it is generally easier to freeze cake and icing separately for defrosting and decorating later — wrapping and freezing a decorated cake is not worth the hassle in my view.

For Christmas, the best baked goods are ones that you can whip out from the freezer and put directly in the oven, minutes before guests arrive. You’ll look like you’ve been working hard all day, and why bother correcting that assumption?! Mince pies are perfect for this — you can make them ahead of time, then put them in the freezer before baking. When ready, whip them out of the freezer and straight into the oven. You can wrap and freeze individually, but what I usually do is leave them in the tray, wrap the whole thing, and freeze that. Lazy? Sure. But much easier. You’re welcome.

Mince pies

225g cold butter

350g all-purpose flour

100g golden caster sugar

Pinch of salt

280g mincemeat of your choice (I adore cherry mincemeat)

Dice the butter and rub into the flour with your fingertips (I cheat and use the paddle attachment on my stand mixer on low speed) Mix in the caster sugar and the salt and give a quick knead Roll to the thickness of about two €2 coins Cut into circles and press into a cupcake tin Fill with the mincemeat Cut star shapes from the remaining dough and stick on top Wrap and pop in the freezer When ready, remove from freezer and brush the top with a beaten egg Bake at 170 celsius for 25 minutes (no need to defrost) Dust with icing sugar (and cinnamon if you like)