This is a short xmassy post bringing together some of my favourite festive treats from past years because to be honest I’m getting very absent-minded and have already forgotton many.  So lets have a nostalgic look at them together and see if they inspire us for this Christmas!  Yay!  There are entremets mousse cake yule logs, mini entremets cakes, easy chocolatey treats and some healthier biscuits, aka cookies (click on the treats named in bold below to go to the recipes). Plus from recipe books there are newly-discovered real-deal gingerbread cookies and an amazing stollen.  You don’t need to celebrate Christmas to make these yummy treats and now or any time would be great to eat them.  Okay maybe the santa hat mousse cakes would feel a little out of place in Spring but they’d still be yummy!  Ready for some inspiration and possible drooling? 🙂

This is a current favourite and these healthier optionally gluten-free Santa hat mousse cakes have been successfully made by fellow blogger and pinterest people.  Always good to know a recipe works! 🙂

But let’s have a quick look at some works in progress.

New inspiration and cake tests

I quite fancy having a more varied cookie platter this year and I have new ideas for mini entremets.

But so far I’ve also absolutely loved (along with some swooning friends) the Cranberry and ginger sourdough stollen from Emmanuel Hadjiandreou’s How to Make Sourdough book.  The flavours and textures are amazing and you can understand why his stollen is award-winning.

The other wonderful discovery is Claus Meyer’s gingerbread hearts from the book Meyer’s Bakery.  They’re made the old-fashioned way with a pre-dough, potash and baker’s ammonia – it’s soft, not too sweet and wonderfully spiced.  Interestingly we all preferred the ones brushed with a very light icing glaze (icing sugar and water or lemon juice) rather than the chocolate-covered ones.  My chocolate was tempered well but too thick, which also affected the apple compote and buttercream slices (I finally took off the chocolate to eat them and found them yummier).

Be careful if you follow Meyer’s recipe:   I found the pre-dough shrank with time and when making the main dough 1 month later I had to add some flour to the mix so it would be ‘rollable’. Anyway, we really loved this soft gingerbread!

I’ve also just tried a gluten-free version which cracked at the top and look a bit different texture-wise when baked but seems fine so far.  They’re in the fridge.  Will report back on them next year!

For now back to selecting recipes on the blog…

The cookie (biscuit) platter

Cookies are great for sharing, travelling with and nibbling on during the festive season.  These are all gluten-free (optionally) but it’s hard to choose between Earl Grey melting moments biscuits, healthier Linzer jam biscuits and cute Rudolf reindeer cookies.

And how about some iced gingerbread biscuits or mini houses complete with templates (make the cake too if you like!) or healthier gingerbread biscuits decorated with chocolate?

Of course some delicious savoury ritz-style crackers wouldn’t go amiss!

You can see it’s probably best to bake a selection. 🙂

If you’re feeling particularly daring there are always Christmas yule logs.  We’ve really loved these around Christmas time as they were a light delicious entremets dessert that keeps well in the freezer so you can cut slices whenever you need them!  Like every day really.  Try the Sparkly raspberry, chestnut and meringue log cake (gluten-free) or ‘Mazing mandarin mousse bûche log cake!

Recent favourites

If you have some sourdough brioche or standard brioche buns on hand (or time to make some – try these sourdough brioche) these snowball-like brioches polonaises are quite simple to make and absolutely delicious.

Easy peasy

This doesn’t look very Christmassy or pretty but could be the tastiest easiest dessert that makes your festive season complete!  It’s a Basque burnt cheesecake which various follower friends have made and said they’ve loved.  You can make it the day before and it tastes amazing for days!!  This cheesecake makes you appreciate that sometimes simple really is best…

Chocolate is always popular, with kids too.  Here are some no-bake treats:  Christmas chocolate and marshmallow cake pudding pops and ruby chocolate mendiants, which you can also make with milk, white or dark chocolate.

And chocolate snowflakes for decoration!

Then there are these great puff pastry christmas trees with sweet or savoury fillings.  These were mincemeat and mandarin compote.  A fast and easy treat that can be created last-minute!  Hmm, thinking I might make mini savoury ones this year… marmite and cheese?!

Finally here’s a link to my Christmas page where you can find more stuff like fruitcake and pavlovas!

Inspired?

Hope you’ve been inspired or had fun looking at the photos.  I wonder what you’re planning to make this year…  Looking forward to seeing all the Christmas treats and adventures out there!

In the meantime let’s look at those charming Santa hats again!   They do seem to say Christmas is coming! 🙂

Bye for now dears, thanks for dropping by.  Wishing you a wonderful festive season with lots of yummy food creations and taste testing!  Happy baking and eating!  🙂 Lili x