25. Gingerbread Sleigh

What is a more quintessentially Christmassy bake than a gingerbread house? With all the windows and roof tiles piped on with care, the roof dusted with icing sugar snow, chocolate fingers lining the doorway, maybe even some sweets as Christmas decorations.

I didn’t do that.

Who has time to make a house? Why not a sleigh that I could fill with “presents” (read, chocolates) instead? I cut out my own stencils from sheets of A5 paper, so it wasn’t huge, but I didn’t really want it to be, as I had to transport it up North.

Honestly, was pretty pleased with how this turned out, and the gingerbread is thoroughly tasty. Even after a few days sat holding chocolates. My only issue was that it was so pretty I didn’t want to break into it!

Merry Christmas!

Makes 1 gingerbread… whatever you like really. Only a small one though!

Ingredients

• 125g butter

• 100g demerara sugar (or other brown)

• 4 tbsp golden syrup

• 300g plain flour

• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

• 3 tsp ground ginger

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 1 egg white

• 200g icing sugar

• 50g cocoa powder

• 100g white chocolate, melted (optional)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

2. In a pan, melt the butter, demerara sugar and golden syrup together.

3. Mix the flour, bicarb, ginger and cinnamon together in a large bowl.

4. Pour the melted wet ingredients into the flour bowl and mix well. If it doesn’t come together, add a splash of water. It should be quite a firm dough.

5. Make/cut out your stencils while the dough firms up a little and cools down.

6. On a piece of greaseproof/baking paper, roll out the dough to about 6-8mm thick. Cut your shapes out and remove the excess dough from the paper. Transfer the sheet of baking paper onto a baking tray.

7. Bake for 12-14 minutes until firm and the edges have darkened a little.

8. Allow to cool and firm up for a few minutes, and then using your stencil, cut around the edges again to make them neat. (I left this a little too long, so my sleigh wasn’t as neat as I would have liked.)

9. Allow to cool completely.

10. Prepare an icing bag with a medium nozzle, star shaped or plain, for the “cement”.

11. Mix together the egg white, icing sugar and cocoa powder in a bowl, to a smooth paste. Fill your piping bag with this and pipe down the edges of your gingerbread pieces to stick them together.

12. As you assemble your gingerbread house/sleigh/city, use a bowl or kitchen utensils to prop up the pieces as you go, as the icing will not set immediately.

13. Once your house/sleigh/whatever is completely set, you can decorate with melted chocolate or anything else you like!

24. Chocolate Tart

Christmas is almost here!!!!!

Anyone else excited? I’m so ready for the break from London life and going back home to see my family. Or rather, doing the rounds around all the different friends and family members who want to see me over the holidays, meaning I don’t really spend all that much time at home. Christmas is fun, but it’s definitely not restful!

I’m not a fan of Christmas pudding, or Christmas cake, so Christmas desserts to me have nearly always been chocolate based. A roulade, a black forest gateau, or just some chocolate ice cream, chocolate is a dominant Christmas time treat. That’s why I decided to make this chocolate tart in the lead up to Christmas. Maybe you guys have fussy family members like me who don’t like Christmas pudding? If so, this one’s for you!

Makes 1 tart

Ingredients

For the shortcrust pastry

• 200g plain flour

• 125g butter

• 50g sugar

• 1 medium egg

• 2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

• Pinch of salt

  OR about 400g ready made sweet shortcrust pastry

For the chocolate ganache

• 300ml double cream

• 50ml milk

• 50g butter

• 200g chocolate (preferably dark)

• 1 tsp sugar

• Pinch of salt

Method

1. Cream together the butter and sugar for the pastry. Slowly add in the egg a bit at a time, mixing the dough together as you do so it doesn’t split. Add in the flour, cinnamon and salt and mix until the dough all comes together.

2. Flatten the dough and wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for half an hour.

3. Preheat the oven to 180C.

4. Roll out the chilled dough and line your tart tin. Mine is 14” diameter. Make sure that you push the dough into the corners so that it won’t shrink like mine did!

5. Roll the top off using your rolling pin, then push the dough into the sides to make sure it is all lined evenly. Use the back of a knife to get rid of any excess. Put back in the fridge to rest for 5 minutes.

6. Pierce the base of your tart several times using a fork, all the way through! This will stop the bottom from rising as it bakes. Line the tart with either greaseproof paper or clingfilm and fill with baking beans, rice or something else suitable to hold up the edges of the tart as it bakes.

7. Blind bake the tart with the beans in for 10-15 minutes until the edge is golden. Then remove the beans and bake the tart for another 15-20 minutes until the base is golden as well.

8. Take out of the oven and allow to cool before removing from the tin.

9. In a pan bring the cream, sugar and salt to the boil and immediately remove from the heat. Add in the butter and then chocolate in chunks and stir until they have completely blended in. Once the mixture has cooled a little, stir in the milk.

10. Pour the chocolate ganache into the tart once the tart has cooled and leave to set at room temperature. If you put it in the fridge it may seize. (Mine has a slightly paler patch as my jug had some residue milk in the bottom. Oops.)

11. Enjoy! Decorate with icing sugar or white chocolate.