6 holiday treats from grandma’s kitchen
1. Almond Christmas cookies
½ cup castor sugar
½ cup finely chopped almonds
250g butter
½ cornflour
½ cup sugar
21/2 cups flour
Method
Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celcius. Cream butter and sugar together until it appears smooth. Sift corn flour and flour into the creamed butter and sugar. Add almond bits and mix together to form a soft dough. Add more flour if dough is too runny or sticky. Roll out on a lightly floured surface and press into festive shapes.
Place on a baking tray and bake for 15 to 18 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven, carefully lift the biscuit with a spatula and place on a cooling rack. Once cool, let the kids decorate with melted chocolate, icing, sprinkles and any other decoration they might fancy.
2. Pyramid cheesecake
1 packet tennis biscuits
flake chocolates
125g butter
1 egg
5ml vanilla essence
250g plain cream cheese
250ml fresh cream
1/3 cup sugar
Tin foil
Method
Cream butter and sugar together. Make sure butter is at room temperate. Add the egg, vanilla essence and beat together. Add cream cheese and mix well. Place 3 rows of 4 biscuits next to each other on tin foil (should form a rectangle shape). Spread mixture over the biscuits. Crush one flake chocolate over the centre row of biscuits. Lift the foil gently from both sides of the pyramid, leaving the centre four biscuits to form the base (this should be a long triangle shape). Seal the foil. Refrigerate the cake for a few hours. An hour before serving, carefully remove the foil and place cake on a serving platter, whip the fresh cream and spread lavishly over the cake, covering all visible biscuit. Decorate with one crushed flake chocolate and edible flowers. Place back in fridge until ready to serve.
3. Rocky Road Ice Cream
2litres vanilla ice cream
¼ cup roughly chopped macadamia or almonds
2 mince pies or 6 shortbread cookies
100g roughly chopped milk chocolate
100g mini marshmallows
50g glace cherries
Method
Ensure that ice cream is not too soft or melted. Fold in all ingredients into ice cream and freeze immediately. Mixture should not be put through blender.
4. Kids' Christmas Twister Mocktail
½ cup chilled ginger ale
1 tblsp grenadine syryp
Slices of lemon or orange
Cherries
Ice (crushed)
Method
Stir ginger ale and grenadine syryp together and pour over ice. Garnish with cherries and a slice of orange or lemon.
5. Creamy butternut and Sweetcorn
1 butternut
1/4tsp salt
250ml fresh cream
1 tin creamed sweetcorn
Butter
5. Traditional milk tart
Pastry:
2 cups flour
1 egg
½ cup sugar
2 tsps baking powder
125g butter
Pinch of salt
Alternatively, crush a packet of tennis bicuits with a small block of butter and bake lightly for pastry shell.
Method
Cream butter and sugar well. Add egg and beat well. Add all other ingredients, and form into a dough. Press into two round pie dishes and bake for 180 degrees Celcius until pale brown.
6. Christmas trifle
2 packets jelly, red or green
1 sponge cake or swiss roll (250g)
1 can dessert cream
A can fruit cocktail mix (410g)
2 cups custard
2 cups fresh cream
1 cup chopped pecan nuts
100g whole nut chocolate
Optional-75ml sweet or medium brandy/sherry/rum
Method
Cut cake into 2cm pieces and layer in a 25 cm deep square dish. Pour dessert cream evenly onto cake. Add half cup of pecan nuts. Por fruit cocktail with syryp or moisten with sherry, rum or brandy onto cake, sprading out evenly. Mix jelly with 2 cups hot water and pour onto cake and fruit. Leave to set overnight in the refrigerator. Pour cold custard onto set jelly. Add the remaining pecan nuts. Whip cream until peak stage and pipe or spoon onto nuts. Grate whole nut chocolate onto trifle and refrigerate until ready to use.
(File photo: Gallo Images)