“Mum, today’s calendar is really Christmassy!”
So yelled my six year old upon opening the Friends Lego calendar this evening and finding a snack for Santa and carrots for the boomers and reindeer.
Meanwhile, in Lego City advent calendar, my son found a boy with ice skates and hockey gear.
These Double Christmas Treats are made of two layers and taste absolutely divine, ad are surprisingly moist, too.
Looking through Pinterest a few weeks ago, I came across an image which I really liked the look of. It had two layers but looked like a cupcake/muffin – something a bit different, I thought, plus two parts meant I could get my two littlies involved a different stages…
Unfortunately, the image was not linked to a recipe but a sales page for the most over-priced cake mix I’ve ever come across.
So I created my own version, adding Christmassy touches and I am very pleased with the results of this one!
These do take a bit of time, especially if you have little helpers, but are SO worth it!
It would make a lovely Christmas Eve activity with the kids – there’s plenty to sample and still have a nice snack to leave out for Santa 🙂
Cover the lower layer with the biscuit mix – this photo shows the top layer on the back row and lower layer only in the front row.
180 g white chocolate, chopped plus about 100 g for decoration at the end
375g unsalted butter
420g smart sugar (or castor sugar as an alternative)
100g raw sugar
4 eggs
100g macadamia nuts, finely chopped
415g plain flour
1.5 teaspoons orange zest
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
150g dried cranberries
1/4 cup mixed dried fruit
food colouring (optional)
Melt white chocolate and 150g butter.
Once it has cooled a little, mix in 220g (1 cup) smart sugar. Then add 3 eggs and mix well.
Stir in chopped macadamias and 115g (3/4 cup) flour.
Grease large muffin pans – prepare 24 large muffin holes.
Half fill muffin holes with mixture and put aside.
Preheat over to 185°C.
Cream raw sugar, 225g butter and 200g (bit under 1 cup) smart sugar.
Beat in 1 egg.
Mix in orange zest and juice.
Mix in 300g (2.5 generous cups) flour and bicarb soda.
Gently stir in cranberries and dried fruit until mixed throughout the dough.
Add a spoonful of mixture on top of the brownie mix in the muffin tins. You may need to use fingers to spread the biscuit dough evenly.
Place muffin trays into oven for 16 -17 minutes – the biscuit top should be lightly brown all over.
Leave the trays to cool completely before removing from the muffin trays.
Melt remaining white chocolate, add food colouring if you wish, and drizzle over the cooled Double Christmas Treats.
Once the chocolate has set, they’re ready to serve…
Yummy muffins that have red dots to look Christmassy and fruit mince to taste Christmassy – easy to make, nice to leave out for Santa or offer guests or just send to school in lunch boxes.
They take about 20 minutes to make plus cooking time so fit into our busy family life 🙂
For fun, you can ice them in red icing with chopped green spearmint leaves on top or in white icing with coconut sprinkled over the tope for a snow look.
Ingredients
220g self-raising flour, sifted
100g castor sugar
1 large egg
100ml sunflower oil
75ml milk
60g each good quality white and milk/dark chocolate, chopped
1 heaped tablespoon good quality fruit mince (dried fruit works but doesn’t give such good results)
60g fresh (or dried) cranberries (make sure you drain them if use a tin or jar – I haven’t tried this but you’d risk a very wet mix)
Preheat the oven to 190C and prepare muffin trays or patty pans.
Mix the flour and sugar.
Beat egg, oil and milk.
Pour wet ingredients in with flour and sugar, and stir gently.
Add the yummy things – sorry, add the chocolate, fruit mince and cranberries.
Stir gently to not break up the fruit or get tough muffins.
Put mix into muffin pans and bake for about 20 minutes. Cooked when golden brown.
Put onto a wire rack but nice to serve them warm, too (gooey chocolate, yum!) with a scoop of ice-cream.
These are a traditional Xmas treat in Germany and they quite pretty in a nice bowl on the Xmas table or wrapped up as a small gift. They keep for at least a month (so you can make them before Christmas Eve!) & go well with coffee.
This recipe makes about 200 of them – halve it if you’re not making gifts as well.
Peppernuts
120g butter
1 tsp bicarb soda
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup golden syrup
1/2 cup water
2.5 tsp finely grated lemon rind
4 1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp allspice or cinnamon
Icing sugar
Combine sugar, syrup & water in pan but don’t let it boil until sugar dissolved . Then boil. Remove from heat & add butter & soda.
Cool to lukewarm. Stir in egg, lemon rind, flour & spice. Put dough in fridge for a few hours or overnight.
On lightly floured board, roll dough into sausages about 3mm thick. Cut into 3mm slices. Place on lightly greased oven trays. Bake at 180C for about 12 minutes.
Cool on wire rack, dust with sifted icing sugar.
Store in air tight container.
Santa’s sleigh is packed, the reindeer and boomers are rested, Santa has checked his list twice, the elves are checking the load is secure – Santa is almost ready to leave the North Pole and head Down Under!!!!!!!
How about you – are you ready for Santa’s visit? Have you prepared a snack and drink for him, and put out something for the boomers?
Santa is VERY BUSY tonight, after months of preparing, so he really appreciates you leaving a snack near your stockings. And I believe that by making it yourself, you help build up Santa’s magic supply so he can get down (and up) small chimneys and find the right stocking for all his gifts.
If you need ideas for making a snack for Santa, try our recipes , article or look at any letters you have received from Santa. Or share your favourite ideas and recipes with us.
I hope you’ve been good and are excited, because Santa arrives in only a few hours!!!!!!!!!!!
These are a yummy snack for Santa but can also be wrapped to make a nice gift 🙂
ingredients
250g butter
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 egg
2 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup cornflour or custard powder
1/3 cup cocoa
1 tablespoon milk
200 g milk chocolate
100g white chocolate
round lollies (e.g. mini marshmallows, mini smarties)
icypole sticks (at least 12)
instructions
* Makes about a dozen trees if you have a 12cm long biscuit cutter. Will make more or less depending on your biscuit cutter.
* It’s fun to make different Christmas shapes and give a couple together as a gift…