My favourite month of the year is here, and even though you gradually get used to the concept of December not being the “holiday month” once work life engulfs you, it has its own charm. A chunk of this has to do with the weather in our city, that slight nip in the air during the first few days progressively going on to become cooler necessitating you to boast on Christmas eve of that jacket you bought with a lot of heart (and money, if I may add) but never got down to sporting it. Christmas has always been my second favourite festival. I love the warm and fuzzy feeling associated with it. I swear by Christmas movies, love flipping through children’s Christmas books, till date hope that Santa will fill my stockings (the possibility of which is remote because I wear neither socks nor stockings) and bake like a maniac all through the month.
Back in September I had very rigorously done a blogging marathon for 30 days of Bengali recipes (you can check out the Eat Like a Bong series here) and when the adrenaline was still high I ended up promising myself that a Christmas marathon would also be in the offing. But doing a Christmas special for 30 days is no mean feat because unlike ingredients for Bengali food, most of the stuff needed for a Christmas series were not be available in the local markets. Regular trips to New Market, Spencers became urgent and that was rendered somewhat impossible due to official and other personal commitments. So the 30 day plan has neatly been scratched to a 10-day plan which looks more likely as something that can be stuck to. I still don’t promise you 10 straight days of Christmas cooking, but if I’m able to achieve that by Christmas day, you’d know my weighing machine is not happy at all!
Oh, I’ve got to name the series as well. How about “Kickstarting Christmas”? And you know what? My friend and fellow blogger Manjari (of For the Love of Food) has decided to jump into the Christmas marathon bandwagon. Do check out her Sinful Hot Chocolate here.
Recipe inspired by Nigella Lawson
Ingredients:
Dark chocolate, chopped roughly: 250 grams
Milk chocolate, chopped roughly: 100 grams
Butter, at room temperature: 150 grams
Golden syrup: 4 tbsp (You can substitute this with maple syrup or honey)
Almond/cashew biscuits: 200 gm
Walnuts: 3/4 cup
Cherries: 1/2 cup
Mini marshmallows: 1 cup
Method:
1. In a double boiler over low heat, let the chocolates melt slowly along with the butter and golden syrup.
2. In the meantime, put the biscuits and nuts into a ziplock bag and bash them with a rolling pin to different-sized crumbs. Don’t make everything into a sandy rubble.
3. Once the chocolate has melted completely, take the pan off the heat, allow to rest for 2 minutes and add the crushed biscuits and nuts, cherries and -marshmallows. Coat everything well with the chocolate.
4. Tumble to entire mixture into a square rectangular foil/glass/baking tray and level the top with a spatula to make it as smooth as possible.
5. Keep in the freezer for 30 minutes and then refrigerate for a couple of hours.
6. Cut them up into pieces and serve. Drizzle some icing sugar on top to give the imagery of Christmas snowflakes!
Kickstarting Christmas: Day 1