Last Minute Limoncello Liqueur

If you want to make a last minute present, try this quick and easy version of Limoncello. You can adjust the alcoholic strength and sweetness, by adding more or less sugar and water to make the syrup.

• 1½ cups vodka
• 3-4 unwaxed lemons
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup water

Gently heat the water and sugar together until dissolved and bring to the boil for 1 minute to make a syrup. 

Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Wash the lemons, then peel the zest with a potato peeler, or zester taking care to peel thinly and avoid the white pith.

Put the zest in a large clean, sterilised jam jar.

Pour the vodka over the zest.

Add the cooled sugar syrup, put the lid on the jar and shake to mix.

Allow to steep for a few days (or up to a week for a stronger lemon flavour). 

Strain through a sieve, coffee filter paper or a piece of muslin, bottle and label.

Alternatives: To make lemon/fruit flavoured vodka, omit the sugar and water.

Change the fruits and spirits used to make different liqueurs - use orange zest and brandy to make Triple Sec, cherries and brandy to make Cherry Brandy etc.

Pin It

Dear Santa...

So, it's a week into December and I've only just started Christmas (or Yule as I prefer to call it) shopping...eeek! Apparently, most organised and efficient mums have their presents bought and wrapped, and their cards written and ready to send...but not me, no, I like to wait until we're well into the holiday season until I do all the above (OK, so I just don't get the urge to spend, spend, spend until we're in December!)

Anyway, I've been browsing the internet and have come up with a few vegetarian-friendly gift ideas that either I would like, or I'm thinking about buying for my friends and family.

For the cook in the family...

• I'm hoping for the River Cottage Veg Every Day! cookbook for myself. Unfortunately, I haven't watched many of the programmes (as it clashed with X Factor!), but from what I've seen and read about the series, and my growing respect for Hugh F-W, I think this will be a good book.
• If you're going to buy one classic cook book, I can recommend Rose Elliot's New Complete Vegetarian. I received it last Christmas, and it's become a firm favourite.
• I love colourful cookware, and have had my eye on these Joseph Joseph stacking bowls for quite a while.

For the fashion-conscious veggie...

• If you love make up, try Urban Decay's cosmetics, including the amazing vegan palette. I received the dangerous palette for Christmas last year and it's lovely.

For the teen veggie...

• For the veggie twilight fan, get one of these fab vegetarian vampire t-shirts.
• Find fashionable vegetarian 'leather' shoes, jackets and belts at Vegetarian Shoes.
• Not necessarily vegetarian, but Blue Banana is my elder daughter's current favourite shop with loads of quirky fashion items.

For the younger veggie...

• I'm thinking of buying Tyrannosaurus Drip for a vegetarian friend's child who loves dinosaurs. I can also recommend Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon and The Chicken Gave it to Me which are both lovely stories for young children, with veggie-friendly messages (have a look at Veg Books for more ideas).

For the veggie who has everything...

• Make up a hamper - fill with home made goodies or with shop bought items on a particular theme e.g. Sweet hamper - Goodie Good Stuff sweets, Hotel Chocolat chocolate, veggie Percy Pigs from M&S and some retro sweets,  or veggie essentials - Marmite, Goodlife Worcester sauce, Bookhams vegetarian Parmesan, packs or dried herbs/spices, veggie gravy, veggie jelly crystals etc.
• Buy something handcrafted, like a vegan tea cup candle from Nyan Nyan or choose from a wide range of original gifts from Veg Etsy (World-Wide).

Pin It

Oreo Truffles

©

As it's the 1st of December, I thought I'd start adding some more Christmas-inspired recipes to my blog (here are some of last years' recipes).

This recipe was given to me by a work colleague who generously brought some of these delicious morsels into work to help raise money for Children in Need. I'd never tried them before, but after googling, it seems that Oreo truffles are very popular, especially in the US. They're easy enough for children (or inexperienced cooks) to make, but taste quite wonderful!

These truffles would make a great dessert canape for parties (double the recipe) and I think they'd be a great Christmas gift, the only problem being is that they need to be kept refrigerated due to the mascarpone cheese in them.

Makes about 20

• 1½ packets (200g/8oz) Oreos (or other biscuits*)
• 100g/4oz mascarpone or other mild-tasting cream cheese
• 150g/6oz plain, milk or white chocolate

Put the biscuits in the food processor and blend into crumbs (or put in a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin).
Add the cream cheese and blend again to make a firm mixture (add a little more cheese if needed).
Refrigerate for 30-60 minutes, to allow the mixture to firm up.
Roll into small balls using your hands and then chill in the freezer for 10-15 minutes.
Melt the chocolate and dip each Oreo ball into the chocolate to cover.
Remove with a fork and drain off the excess chocolate.
Place on greaseproof paper, decorate with sprinkles if wanted and chill until set.

Will keep in the fridge for up to a week.

Alternatives: Add a few drops of flavouring essence to the biscuit mixture such as vanilla, mint, orange, coffee etc.

Oreos may not strictly vegetarian as they may contain non-vegetarian whey...try using other biscuits to make different flavoured truffles (e.g. amaretti, chocolate-chip cookies, shortbread etc) - adjust the amount of mascarpone used to make a firm mixture.

Pin It

Mocha Cream Biscuits

©

I fancied baking some biscuits yesterday and couldn't decide what to make. I came up with this recipe after browsing several recipe books and not finding anything I wanted to cook! They're based on a gypsy cream recipe I found in Cookies Galore .

• 100g/4oz dairy-free spread/butter
• 50g/2oz soft brown sugar
• 75g/3oz plain flour
• 50g/2oz rolled oats
• 25g/1oz cocoa powder, sieved

Cream the butter and sugar together.
Mix in the dried ingredients to form a firm dough.
Roll the dough into 16-20 small balls, using your hands (make sure there's an even number!)
Place on a greased baking tray and flatten slightly.
Bake for 12-15 mins at 170C/160C Fan/Gas 3
Cool for 5-10 minutes before removing from the tray and cooling on a wire rack.

Mocha Icing/Frosting

• 50g/2oz dairy-free spread/butter
• 100g/4oz icing sugar
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder, sieved
• 1 tsp instant coffee granules dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water

Cream the butter and cocoa. 
Mix in the icing sugar, adding enough coffee to make a smooth, spreadable icing.
Pipe or spread the icing onto half of the biscuits and sandwich together.

Suitable for freezing.

Alternatives: Substitute the coffee for orange or mint extract, and up to 1tbsp boiled water.

Make mini biscuits (divide mixture into 32-40 balls), sandwich together as before and then dip each biscuit into melted chocolate. Leave to set on greaseproof paper. Package up in cellophane and give as presents, or add to a homemade hamper.

Pin It

The very chocolaty Hotel Chocolat giveaway

You may have gathered from all the chocolaty recipes on my blog, that I like chocolate. I particularly like good chocolate and I especially like good, dark chocolate. So how pleased was I, when the people at Hotel Chocolat chose me as one of their Christmas product tasters? Well, pretty chuffed, to be exact.

I hadn't actually ever tried Hotel Chocolat chocolate before, so I was really looking forward to receiving one of their products to review...

I was excited to find a beautifully presented dark chocolate advent calendar on my door step the other morning. I noticed (for blogging purposes) that it contained 175g of 70% cocoa solid, vegan/dairy-free chocolates, but then as Miss Ony and Miss Kahonie were around at the time, I had to stop reading the back of the box and get on with the tasting. I also had to share the first chocolates with them, rather than sneak them indulgently without the kids knowing!

It felt rather naughty opening the first door of the advent calendar before October was even over, but we soon got over that! We found that each piece of chocolate was either inscribed with a little message, or shaped into a cute little Christmasy motif. They were dark and glossy and snapped in two with a satisfying crack (I'm not sure why, but this is a sign of good chocolate apparently.) 

The chocolates had a strong, smooth chocolaty taste, and were pleasantly sweet (I find some dark chocolate too bitter). They melted deliciously on my tongue, and left me wanting another one! My children and husband all thought the chocolate were lovely too, although they're not quite as fussy about their chocolate as I am!

I must admit that at £17, the price of the calender is rather more than I would usually spend, but it would make a lovely gift for someone special. Hotel Chocolat also have a yummy-looking range of Christmas stocking fillers starting from just £5, so there's something suitable for all budgets.

Helpfully, they mark all their products with their suitability for different dietary requirements, including vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free, so you don't have to look through lists of ingredients, before deciding what to buy. 

So to the giveaway - I have one dark chocolate advent calendar to give away, just like the one I reviewed.

COMPETITION NOW CLOSED: Winner is @maxineflossy

• All you have to do is visit Hotel Chocolat's Christmas page and tell me which product you would like to find under your Christmas tree this year.
• For an extra entry, follow them on Twitter and tweet this message @HotelChocolat @FacelessFood - I entered the Hotel Chocolat giveaway to #win a chocolate advent calendar #vegan #vegetarian
• Leave me a comment below for each entry (maximum 2 per person), with some way of contacting you.

UK residents only.
Competition closes at midnight Saturday 12th November.
I will announce the winner here and on Twitter.
The winner will be picked randomly and contacted within 48 hours.
If I don't hear back from the winner within 7 days of this, I reserve the right to re-draw and offer the prize to someone else.

Integrity Statement
I received a chocolate advent calender to review and one to give away on my blog. I did not receive payment, and the views expressed are genuinely those of myself and my family. Pin It

Bookhams vegetarian 'Parmesan' - tastes as good as the real thing

Chances are that if you're reading this, you'll already know that real Parmesan cheese isn't vegetarian as it contains rennet extracted from calves stomachs. The Vegetarian Society recently ran a campaign to highlight this, but many restaurants still mark dishes containing Parmesan as vegetarian.

Bookham Fine Foods have come up with the ideal solution to this issue, by developing their own vegetarian Italian-style hard cheese wittily called 'Not Just A Pasta Cheese' as they weren't allowed to call it vegetarian Parmesan!

My family have been putting some of Bookhams products to the taste test, including Not Just A Pasta Cheese (which we had with pasta!) We also tried their pasta sauce, penne pasta, Sussex Charmer cheese and butter.

"At Bookhams, we're real people who eat real food, just like you do. Our philosophy is 'for taste', inspired by Italian Cuisine, achieved through the use of sensitively sourced, British & traceable natural ingredients. All our products have now been approved by the Vegetarian Society. What's more, our Dried Pasta and Pasta Sauces are great for Vegans too"

Not Just A Pasta Cheese is a fantastic substitute for Parmesan - it has very similar texture, grates well and has a good strong, almost nutty taste. It went really well over a bowl full of Bookhams penne pasta and their spicy tomato sauce. Although I don't usually buy ready-made sauces, this one really tasted home made, and would make a good alternative for a quick family meal, when you don't have time to make your own pasta sauce.

Their Sussex Charmer cheese also went down well with my cheese-loving family. It's a farmhouse-style cheese with a lovely mature but not over-powering flavour. We tried it with fresh home made bread spread with Bookhams South Downs butter - which made a lovely combination.

As a family, we were all impressed with the Bookhams products we tried and would happily purchase them ourselves.

Integrity Statement
I received various products from Bookhams to review and a discount code to share on my blog. I did not receive payment, and the views expressed are genuinely those of myself and my family. Pin It

Goody Good Stuff - Vegetarian and vegan sweets

One of the hardest things I've found as a vegetarian mother is explaining to my kids that they can't eat certain things. I took the decision quite early on that I wouldn't worry too much about them eating hidden ingredients (like non-vegetarian cheese and gelatine) when they were out and about, but I would only buy genuinely vegetarian products to eat at home. They've always accepted this, but they do have the odd moan about not being able to have certain sweets.

Although there are some vegetarian chewy sweets available in supermarkets, they're normally packed full of artificial flavours and colours, which I'd also rather that they didn't eat. I recently read about Goody Good Stuff sweets in a vegetarian food magazine and thought they sounded pretty good. There are 8 types (4 gummy varieties and 4 sour varieties) which are all either vegetarian or vegan, plus they are gluten-free, halal and use only natural colours and flavours (so even most children with food allergies can eat them).

I was asked to review them on my blog, which my children were only to pleased to help with!

We tried 3 of the varieties: Koala gummy bears, sour cola bottles and sour fruit salad. All 3 varieties were satisfyingly chewy, although not quite as chewy as gelatine-based sweets. The fruity flavours were great and despite only using natural ingredients, the colours were nice and vibrant. The sour varieties both had a good tangy taste, although we would have all liked them to be a little more sour. The koala gummy bears were just right though and both of my kids said they tasted nicer than a certain well know brand of chewy sweets! We were all impressed the sweets and were left wanting more!

Goody Good Stuff sweets certainly live up to their claim that give sweets a good name. I will definitely be buying them in future as an occasional treat and to put in party bags.

Goody Good Stuff sweets are available to buy from various online retailers and from Holland and Barrett and Waitrose. Click here for a full list of suppliers.

Integrity Statement
I received 3 packets of sweets to review and a prize to give away (more next week!) I did not receive payment, and the views expressed are genuinely those of myself and my family,

©Images courtesy of Goody Good Stuff.

Pin It

Fab Effex - A fab set for rainy days and long journeys

10 year old Miss Kahonie was feeling bored (well it is week 6 of the school holidays!), so she was thrilled when I showed her the pack of Fab Effex which had just popped through the letterbox. She loves creative activities and fashion (one of her ambitions is to be a fashion designer), so Fab Effex sounded ideal to combine the two.

pack contents

The contents of the box looked a little puny - 3 little bags, which contained 3 cardboard dress up dolls, a pack of pre-cut Fab Effex pieces in various shapes and 2 small sheets of uncut Fab Effex in different designs. Miss Kahonie was initially a little disappointed by the quantity of the contents, but soon got stuck in designing her first outfit.

Just in case you've never seen Fab Effex, this is what the manufacturers say about the product: "Get a fabulous formable fabric experience with Fab Effex! The kits come with lots of patterns, textures and shapes. You can shape it, wrap it, stick it and it holds its shape."

the finished outfits

The product is aimed at children aged 6+ but I think that an average 6 year old would need quite a bit of adult help to manipulate the little pieces and cut out small clothes-shapes from the uncut sheets. The instructions look a little overwhelming as there's lots of text to read ...so Miss Kahonie had a quick look at the pictures and then ditched the instructions and learnt by trial and error. It took her around an hour to design outfits for all three of the dolls and she came up with some lovely ensembles.

Miss Kahonie said "Fax Effex is really creative and fun to do. You can design any outfits you want to and use the pieces again. It's quite hard to cut it to the shapes you want and the handbags are difficult to make though. The instructions looked really complicated, so I didn't use them."

Fab Effex is reusable and portable, so it's ideal for long journeys or to take on holiday for a rainy day activity (it would be useful if it came with a resealable bag to store the pieces). I think it's probably best suited to 8-11 year olds, Extra sheets of Fab Effex are available in refill sets which is a good idea to prolong the life of the product and to extend the play value. There's also an animal set available, so it's not just aimed at girls.

So to the crunch question, would I buy Fab Effex? Yes, I would. At around £9.99, it would make a nice birthday or Christmas present for Miss Kahonie's friends.

Integrity Statement
I received 1 pack of  Fab Effex to review. I did not receive payment, and the views expressed are genuinely those of myself and my family.
Pin It

The alternative to party bags

 ©

I'm not claiming that this is an original idea, but I hadn't seen a decent tweenage/older kids alternative to traditional party bags until my daughter came back from a friend's party with a mug in her hand. It wasn't just any old mug... it was a mug filled with goodies and wrapped in cellophane, which looked great and went down well with 12 year old Miss Ony.

As it was Miss Kahonie's birthday pretty soon afterwards, I unashamedly stole the idea and made up 'party mugs' for her party guests.

The pretty mugs were a great buy from B&M Bargains at 79p each. To fill the mugs, I bought a bag of mixed mini chocolate bars (£2.99) and a bag of mixed wrapped sweets (£1.50), plus a pack of assorted hairbands and bobbles (reduced in ADSA to £2.00). The only expensive part was the cellophane, which I bought from Hobbycraft (£7.00 a roll) but that will last for a long time as I only used about 2M of the 10M roll. The total price per mug worked out at around £2.50, which I don't think is bad compared to the amount I've spent on total rubbish to fill party bags in the past!

You could easily adapt the mug idea for different friends and  family members and for almost any occasion such as Easter, Christmas, Birthday and Teachers'/Teaching Assistants' presents. Fill with items such as cosmetics, craft items, beads/jewellery, small toys, cooking equipment, tools, stationary etc. Add some home made Chocolate Truffles or Oreo Truffles, if you're not sure what to fill your mug with.

Fill other containers using the same idea...colourful pastic cups (from IKEA etc) cocktail glasses, sundae glasses, beer glasses, small vases etc, or really go to town and fill a hamper!

Pin It

The great gingerbread house fiasco

This is not my gingerbread house!

Once upon a time, there was a woman who went shopping with her friend in IKEA. After buying some things she never knew she needed, she popped into the IKEA food store before leaving. Whilst grabbing a bag of her daughter's favourite cinnamon buns, her friend waved a box in front of her. "I bought one of these last year" said the friend encouragingly. The woman took hold of the box and read the word pepparkakshus. She quickly realised that she couldn't read Swedish and turned the box over, to read the words Gingerbread House.

"Ooh" said the woman, smiling, "That'll be nice to make with the girls". So she purchased one in the midst of a wave of nostalgia which washed over her (she used to love imagining that a real Hansel and Gretel gingerbread house existed somewhere, when she was a child.) She subsequently realised that she should have been warned by the third syllable of the aforementioned Swedish word!

Some time later, the woman  and her children decided to have a fun afternoon making the little gingerbread house. They followed the instructions carefully and boiled up some sugar syrup for the 'mortar'. They managed to stick two sides of the house together and then tried to cement the next side on. Oh no! The sugar syrup had turned to toffee and was too hard to use.

Never one to give up, the woman made up some thick royal icing and piped it on to the edge of the gingerbread; It dribbled down the wall as she pressed the next section of the flat packed confectionery house to it. It stuck for a moment and then, plop, it fell down. She propped it back up with the help of the children who didn't want to get too near, as they sensed their mother getting a tad stressed. Determinedly, she piped more icing onto the next edge and managed to stick the foundations of a rather crooked-looking house together.

She was just pressing the last 2 pieces of wall together when ...Craaackk, the window-bearing wall of the gingerbread house snapped in two. "Oh bother" said the woman  (OK, she said something slightly different!) and the children fled from the kitchen, in the same way that Hansel and Gretel had wanted to flee from the wicked witch's house.

Determined not to let a stupid pile of sugar and flour get the better of her, she angrily stuck the broken pieces back together with icing and crossly proceeded to top the house with the two roof pieces, and yet more icing. Just at the critical moment, the woman's husband walked through the door, shouting a cheery "Hello!" in her direction. "Get. Out. Of. The. Kitchen!!!" growled the woman, glaring at him, whilst taking her hands off the roof for a second or two.
She turned back to the house, but it was too late; the roof pieces slid down like an avalanche, pulling the walls apart with them. The gingerbread house was no longer! In a fit of rage, the woman smashed up the house into little pieces. There was no going back now, the house was well and truly derelict!

After calming down for an hour or so, the woman  decided to make something with the gingerbread smithereens. She thought about making a cheesecake, with a gingerbread crumb base, but then decided to make tiffin*, which has well documented powers of soothing stressed mums!

By the way, the woman 's friend later admitted that a similar fate had fallen upon her the previous year!

THE END...almost!

*Here's my tiffin recipe (obviously use crushed gingerbread instead of digestives!). The tiffin actually worked out really well, apart from being, well...maybe just a tad too gingery! I think it would have been nicer if I'd used half gingerbread and half digestive biscuits. Pin It

Vegan candles from Nyan Nyan - Delicious!

I've always wanted to have a go at making my own candles, but it's one of those things that I've never quite got round to doing. Once I started researching and realised I needed the wax, the essential oils, the molds, the wicks etc,etc, it seemed like just a bit too much effort to make a few candles.

Lucy, from the intriguingly-named Nyan Nyan was more determined than me! She makes and sells beautiful (looking and smelling) vegan candles, made from eco-soya wax and fragranced with essential oils. If you didn't realise that not all candles are vegan (or necessarily even vegetarian) you just need to look at a few candle ingredient lists to spot the added beeswax, tallow and animal-derived/tested colours, scents and additives. Of course, most mass manufactured 'cheapo' candles are made from paraffin wax these days, but burning a candle made from processed crude-oil isn't everyone's cup of tea either...

...Oh, talking of cups of tea, Nyan Nyan also sell candles made in delicate vintage china tea cups, which can be washed out and reused, or displayed, long after the candle has burned out. These would make a lovely (and unique) present for a mum (Mother's Day?) or friend, and will certainly last longer and cost less than your average bouquet of flowers. They also sell candles with personalised labels, which would be great for wedding favours or gifts.

I received a Lemon Sherbet candle from Lucy, as she's recently relaunched her online shop and wanted some willing volunteers to test out her luxury candles. Before I even finished opening the parcel, I could smell the delicious, zesty aroma of lemon wafting towards me! The candle (infused with may chang, grapefruit & lemon essential oils) was beautifully presented and wrapped in coloured tissue paper. It gives out a lovely aroma once lit, which fills the whole room and smells a million times nicer than those horrible chemical air fresheners which seem all the rage at the moment; I know which scent I'd rather breathe in!

For more information, or to order, visit Nyan Nyan or email Lucy: mail@nyan-nyan.co.uk

Integrity Statement
I received 1 Lemon Sherbert candle from Nyan Nyan to review. I did not receive payment, and the views expressed are genuinely those of myself.

Images courtesy of Nyan Nyan ©

Pin It

Because I'm worth it...beauty with an edge!

I love Urban Decay make up! I discovered the brand last year after searching for cruelty-free cosmetics online, and was pleasantly surprised at the cost and quality of their products. Not only that, but the packing is eye-catching, original and looks great on your dressing table...so good in fact, that 12 year old Miss Ony, keeps 'borrowing' my make up!

Their products come in an amazing range of long-lasting pigment colours, which are fabulous for the party season and would make a lovely last minute present for a friend (or yourself!)

Their new vegan eye shadow palette includes vibrant teal and silvery-green shadows plus four rich neutrals. It also includes a mini eye pencil and (non-vegan) primer. It costs around £23 and is available online and from selected Boots, House of Fraser and Debenhams stores.


Update: 07/06/12 I am saddened to hear that Urban Decay will no longer be cruelty free, after they decided to sell their products in China. Whilst Urban Decay won't be testing their own products, it is likely that the Chinese policy of animal testing will mean that their products will have to be tested before they are allowed to go on sale. Therefore Urban Decay will no longer be able to use the leaping bunny symbol or claim to be cruelty free.

Update: 06/07/12 I am very happy to hear that Urban Decay have done a U-turn and have decided not to expand into China. Well done everyone who expressed their concerns and well done to Urban Decay for listening to your customers :-)

Images courtesy of Urban Decay.

Pin It

Cinnamon Apple Sauce Decorations

These cinnamon apple sauce Christmas decorations are fun to make with the kids and smell amazing...don't let them eat the mixture though! I was sceptical that this recipe would work, but it really does. You can buy cheap, large packets of cinnamon from the 'world foods' section of large supermarkets...look for East End or TRS brands.

• 2 cups home made or bought apple sauce
• 2 cups cinnamon powder (you might need more)
• 4 tbsp PVA, white glue
• 1 tsp fine silver or gold glitter

Mix everything together to make a dough. If the mixture seems too wet, add more cinnamon until you have a cookie-dough kind of mixture.
Flatten the dough on a sheet of grease-proof paper, to around ½ cm thick.

Cut out gingerbread men or Christmas shapes using cookie cutters.
Use a drinking straw to punch a hole in the top of each shape.
Leave in a warm place to dry over night, turn the next day and repeat until they are hard - alternatively put on a baking tray in a very low oven, for several hours.
Once dry, decorate with glitter glue and thread with ribbon to hang.

Not edible!

Pin It

Chocolate Ganache Truffles

 © 

Chocolate truffles are really easy to make, and will keep in the fridge for a week or so.  They are great as a gift for any occasion...Christmas, Mothers' Day, Easter, whatever! Vary the recipe by using different chocolates and flavourings. If you make them with milk chocolate and vanilla extract, they taste pretty much like Lindor chocolates!

• 250g/10oz chocolate (plain/dark or milk - shop's own brand is fine, but don't use cooking chocolate)
• 150ml/10 tbsp double cream (use 125ml/9 tbsp if using liqueur as the flavouring)
• 25g/1oz unsalted butter
• Flavouring (1 tbsp liqueur, 1-2 tsp flavouring extract or a little grated orange zest)
• Cocoa powder, drinking chocolate powder, icing sugar, grated chocolate, crushed chocolate flake etc to coat.

Heat the cream until hot (but not quite boiling) in a heat-proof bowl in the microwave.

Add the chocolate and butter allow to melt (you might need to warm the mixture slightly if the chocolate doesn't melt). Mix well, adding the flavouring, if used.

Chill the mixture for an hour or two, until almost solid.

Remove from the fridge and working quickly, shape heaped teaspoonfuls of the mixture into balls, using your hands.
Roll the truffles in the cocoa powder etc to coat (or if you're feeling adventurous, try dipping them in melted chocolate and leave to set on greaseproof paper).
Place in mini-muffin/sweet cases and chill until needed.

Pin It

Homemade vegetarian Christmas hamper ideas

I've been making my own vegetarian food gift hampers for the past few years. They always go down well as the recipients always appreciate the thought and effort that has gone into making them.

Home made gifts are not only a great budget option, but are also an incarnation of the saying "It's the thought that counts". After all, how long does it take to pop into Boots and pick up 3 uninspiring gifts for the price of 2, compared to making a jar full of aromatic chutney and a box of mouthwatering chocolate truffles? Even Kirstie Allsopp's at it, and I'm sure she's not short of a penny or two!

Packaged nicely (try Hobbycraft for jam pot covers and cellophane), these recipes make great home made gifts for friends, family and teachers too!

Hamper recipes:

Apple & pear chutney
Aubergine chutney
Marmalade
Mincemeat

Pickled cucumber

Pickled onions/Pickled cabbage

Cherry & almond fudge

Chocolate ganache truffles
Mini mocha cream biscuits
Oaty florentines

Oreo truffles
Tiffin

Limoncello liqueur

Also see my Vegetarian Christmas Day Menu

Pin It