Delectable Desserts, Christmas Style

Lindy’s ice cream pudding

No recipes for these (although I can put in a request from my mum for the cheesecake one if you want it, but I think the ice cream plum pudding is a family secret of my step-mum’s!), but I just wanted to share these pictures of some of the sweet goodies we enjoyed on Christmas Day.

I don’t usually eat sweet stuff much, but I could not resist the ice cream pudding, and boy was it amazing!

Hedgehog (above, on the same plate as the Christmas cake) is a staple sweet thing in my family – my mum is famous for hers. I thought I’d shared that recipe with you but I can’t find it, so I must not have…yet. And the Christmas cake is the dead easy low-fat one you can make at the last minute (we did pour some booze over it a few days before!).

Fruit salad is….well….fruit salad! And of course we had chocolates, chocolates and more chocolates. We totally forgot to get out the mince pies (bought ones, cos’ sometimes you just have to be lazy about things) and I don’t think we even had any shortbread this year. There’s always plenty to go around though, no one ever goes hungry on Christmas Day!!!

Happy Post-Christmas Fooding!

Delicious Dumplings!

Still haven’t been cooking much here, apart from a last minute Christmas cake. Instead, I have been doing a lot of Christmas shopping (and I mean a LOT – 10.5 hours at Chadstone shopping centre on Thursday!!!), and quite a bit of just slobbing around!

At Chadstone, 4 of us had the most wonderful dumpling lunch at the Oriental Teahouse. Lots of small serves of dumplings that just melted in your mouth. I had chilli prawn dumplings, chill vegetable dumplings and chilli pork dumplings (yes there is a recurring theme there….). The pictures tell it all really. Scrumptious.

Today, we are in a flurry of Christmas Eve activity – last bit of shopping (there is always something you’ve forgotten, isn’t there), roasting two boneless turkey breasts and a piece of pork, preparing the stuffing, making a cheesecake, making some mountain bread rollups, the list goes on…..busy day, but it means tomorrow will be nice and relaxed, with strawberries and champagne flowing from very early on!

Mum’s Christmas Tree

May all of your Christmas wishes come true, with lots of food, family (and of course presents!), involved in your day tomorrow.

Happy Christmas Fooding!

Christmas Truffles

What a busy time! I can’t wait for tomorrow, when I break up from work at lunchtime (and we have an afternoon Christmas bbq at the beautiful Kings Park) for a two week break. I’m off to Melbourne next week for Christmas with my family – haven’t seen my kids since March so am really looking forward to it.

As promised the other day, here is the recipe for the chocolate balls I made to take to my work Christmas bbq.

These are rich, chocolately, boozey and gooey. Just the things we all love at this time of year!

Fruity Christmas Truffles

500 gms bought Christmas cake (the “dark” variety seems to give a richer flavour)

200 gms good quality dark chocolate (I liked to use Lindt 70% cocoa)

60 gms butter

2 tbsp cream

2 tbsp brandy or sherry

dessicated coconut, cocoa or chopped nuts, to coat

Crumble the Christmas cake into a bowl. Combine the chocolate, butter and cream in a separate bowl and microwave until chocolate is melted and smooth. Pour melted mixture over the cake and add the brandy.

Stir until well combined and refrigerate for about 20 minutes, until firm enough to handle.

Roll into small balls and then roll in desired topping (above as you can see I have done half with coconut and half with cocoa).

Refrigerate until firm.

Makes 40-45 (depends how big you like your balls lol!).

If you buy a Christmas cake that is a bit bigger, cos’ they vary, use it all and just slosh in a bit more cream, butter and brandy (hic!) – it will still work just fine with a bit of “fudging”.

Happy Christmas fooding!