Christmas All The Way.... X'mas Desserts Recipes

Hullo dearests!!!! I'm guessing you are all tight up for Christmas. Well you might have thought of some delicious ideas for the Christmas Dinner or Lunch, I'm sure. So how about some excellent dessert ideas?? Here are some I found very attractive. Hope you'll like them.

Chocolate Choco chip ice-cream cake

Ingredients

4 litres chocolate ice cream

2 litres vanilla ice cream

125g Choco chip biscuits, roughly chopped

150g Violet Crumble bars, roughly chopped

Maltesers, frozen raspberries and chopped nuts

Method

1. Grease a square cake pan with butter so that in the end you can turn up side down the cake.
2. Take chocolate ice cream into a large bowl. After it gets soften for about 10 minutes, add half of it into prepared pan and flatten the surface. Cover with plastic wrap. Freeze for 30 minutes or until just firm.
3. Then take vanilla ice cream into a large bowl and spoon until smooth. Fold in Violet Crumble. Spoon half of the ice cream over chocolate ice cream layer in pan and flatten the surface. Then freeze for 30 minutes or until just firm.
4. Repeat this with the remaining chocolate and vanilla ice cream until you get four layers. You can reduce the number of layers if you want.
5. Fold in biscuits. Spoon over vanilla ice cream layer. Smooth surface. Cover. Freeze overnight or until firm. Serve decorated with Maltesers, frozen raspberries and nuts

Pink champagne jellies

Ingredients 

750ml bottle pink champagne or sparkling wine

1 cup (215g) caster sugar

2 tbs gelatine powder

1/4 cup (60ml) hot water

Lychees in fragrant syrup

1 cup (215g) caster sugar

1 cup (250ml) water

1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthways

1 lime

1 tbs julienne fresh ginger

1kg fresh lychees (about 24), peeled

Method

1. To make the jellies: combine champagne and sugar in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until sugar dissolves.
2. Sprinkle gelatine over hot water in a cup and whisk briskly with a fork until gelatine dissolves. Stir gelatine mixture into champagne mixture. Pour evenly among eight 150ml plastic jelly cups. Place on a tray in the fridge and set aside overnight or until set.
3. For lychees in fragrant syrup, use a zester to remove rind from lime. Juice the lime. Combine lime rind and juice, sugar, water, vanilla bean and ginger in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes or until sugar dissolves. Place lychees in a heatproof bowl, then pour over the hot syrup. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill.
4. To serve: dip base of jelly cups briefly into very hot water. Use the point of a hot, small thin bladed knife to form an air pocket at the edge, then turn out onto serving plates. Serve with lychees and syrup.

Caramel chocolate torte

Ingredients

For the base:

12 digestive biscuits, crushed

60g (2oz) unsalted butter, melted

For the caramel:

100g (3½oz) caster sugar

2 level tbsp liquid glucose

300ml carton whipping cream

Large pinch of salt flakes, eg, Maldon

For the chocolate layer:

2 med egg whites

125g (4oz) caster sugar

300ml carton whipping cream

Few drops of vanilla extract

300g (10oz) dark chocolate, melted

Pinch of salt flakes, to decorate

Method

1. To make the base: Mix the crushed biscuits with the melted butter. Tip the mixture into the base of the lined cake tin and press it down well. Chill the biscuit mixture while making the caramel.
2. To make the caramel: Pour 4 tbsp water into a pan and add the sugar and liquid glucose. Place the pan over a low heat and stir until the sugar dissolves. Wash down any crystals from around the sides of the pan, using a damp pastry brush. Increase the heat and boil the syrup until it turns golden. While the syrup is boiling bring the cream to the boil in a separate pan or in a jug in a microwave oven. Remove the syrup pan from the heat and carefully pour in the hot cream, taking care in case the mixture splatters. Stir well, then return the pan to the heat and simmer for 2-3 mins. Remove the pan from the heat and leave mixture to cool and thicken.
3. Stir the salt into the caramel. Pour most of the caramel over the biscuit base and spread it out almost to the edges. Reserve the remaining caramel for the topping. Chill while making the chocolate layer.
4. To make the chocolate layer: Place the egg whites and sugar in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Stir until the sugar has completely dissolved, and the liquid feels smooth to your fingers. Remove the bowl from above the hot water, and then whisk the mixture to form a thick meringue.
5. Whisk the cream and vanilla extract until it just forms soft peaks. Fold the melted chocolate into the meringue mixture, and then fold in the cream. Pour the mixture over the caramel and smooth the top. Chill the torte until set.
6. Spoon the reserved caramel into the piping bag and cut off the end of the bag to give a small hole. Pipe squiggles of caramel over the top of the torte. To serve, remove torte from the tin, peel away the baking parchment from the sides and remove it from the base. Sprinkle some flakes of salt over the top.

Mince pies

Ingredients

12 oz/350g all purpose/plain flour

Pinch of salt

8oz/ 225g butter, cubed or an equal mix of butter and lard

1 beaten egg 

1 cold water as needed

1 jar of mincemeat, shop bought or home made

2 tbsp icing sugar

Method

1. Heat the oven to 400°F/205°C/Gas 6
2. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean bowl.Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, working as quickly as possible to prevent the dough becoming warm.
3. Add the egg to the mixture and using a cold knife stir, add cold water a teaspoon at a time until the mixture binds but don't make it too wet that it is sticky. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for a minimum of 15 minutes, up to 30 minutes.
4. Choose a muffin or bun tin for the size of the pie you want. 
5. Dust a work surface lightly with a little flour and roll out two-thirds of the pastry to 1/8"/3mm thick. Cut circles to line the cups of your tin. Fill the pastry lined tins 2/3 full with mincemeat.
6. Roll out the remaining pastry to the same thickness and cut smaller circles to fit as lids on the tarts or to be decorative, cut stars or other fancy shapes.
7. Dampen the edges of the tart bases with a little cold water and press the lids on. Make a small hole in the surface of each pie with a small sharp knife to allow the steam to escape 
8. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 mins or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the icing sugar.

Chocolate Lava Cake

Ingredients

5 tbsp butter

one standard dark chocolate bar

2 extra large eggs

1 extra large egg yolk

3 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp flour

2 tsp cocoa powder

pinch of salt

powdered sugar as needed

Method

1. Melt the butter and chocolate together over a double-boiler, or microwave for a short time. Stir to combine. Whisk together the eggs and sugar until the mixture is light yellow in color, and the sugar is dissolved. About 3 minutes. 
2. Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and whisk until combined. Sift in the flour, cocoa, and salt. Fold in with a spatula until combined. Spoon into 4 buttered 5-oz ramekins, and tap on the table to settle any air bubbles. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. 

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Place ramekins in a baking dish and add water until it is halfway up the sides. Bake for 15 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar and serve warm. The cakes can be turn out, or served in the ramekins.

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