Di-licious

The pirate party is over and we're finally into the swing of the Xmas season here at Di-licious HQ. On Monday, Olive had her Kinder Xmas concert.  Fifty-five children dressed up in festive colours belted out the special songs they'd been secretly rehearsing in their bedrooms for past five weeks. Olive off to the kinder Xmas concert with a plate of little Di-licious Gingerbread men. This week I thought I'd offer up a suggestion to take along to a Xmas themed morning tea.  I'm on playgroup duty tomorrow with my darling friend Lisa and we've planned some gorgeous xmas crafts.  The duty roster also means we're in charge of morning tea so today I'm keeping it simple by baking up Nigella's Christmas Morning Muffins. Orange and cranberries scented with fresh nutmeg are a fabulous flavour combination that just shout Xmas. Muffins are quick to whip up (important at this time of year) and if you measure out the dry ingredients on Xmas eve, you could...

These biscuits hold a very special place in my heart.  It's the first Norwegian recipe my mother gave me. Back in the day when I was a government PR girl, I would bake a big batch and gift wrap them in cellophane bags to give to my work colleagues.  After a couple of years they guys would get expectant looks on their faces in the last week of work - yes, they are that di-licious! I like to think of these as Norway's version of the Danish butter cookie you often see in gift tins at Christmas time except its made with love and not in a factory. The dough is really simple to make - cream the butter and sugar, add the egg and sift over the flour and mix til it forms a soft dough.  And when I say soft, I mean soft.  It has to be refrigerated otherwise its unmanageable. Ideally you would whip it up the night before and bake it the next day. You might also be interested to know that you can make these cookies with a heart smart margarine like ...

This week I’m sharing with you a recipe given to me by my one of my best friend’s mum, Maureen. I was bemoaning my lack of a tried and true mince tart recipe for the blog recently when Shelby talked up her mum’s pies – the pastry has orange zest in them which gives it a special lift.  “Just ask her – she’d love to share it with you”, she said. So I did.  And to my delight, Maureen said yes. Chatting with her a few days later, Maureen told me she’s been making these mince pies for forty years.  She found the recipe in a little four page leaflet from The Australian Dried Fruits Association that she picked up in a health food shop. It is so old it is in imperial measure so you will need to convert, she told me.  Like many recipes of its age, it’s deliberately vague about the final quantity it makes. I was able to make 20 using domed tartlet pans but I rolled the pastry out too thin.   Next time I‘ll make the pastry a little thi...

I'm ashamed to say that I’m not very fluent in Norwegian but I do have the important things down pat like chocolate - sjokolade , cake - kake , and thank you for the meal - takk for maten . Then of course there’s the important social greetings like “Hello” - Hei! “Happy Birthday” - Gratulerer med dagen , and Merry Christmas - God Jul . But there’s another part of the Norwegian language that I am slowly mastering – cookies. Cookies are the traditional language of Christmas in Norway.  Each year on Christmas Eve, families lay a feast which must include seven sorts of classic Christmas cookies.  My mum tells me the number varies according to the region you come from – she remembers her mum making twelve different cookies but these days seven is more common. These days most families buy their cookies for the Christmas table but there are still some husmors (housewives) who still bake the holiday favourites.  There are over twenty classic Christ...

This year I started my own family Christmas tradition with Olive.  We made the fruit cake together.  She helped me stir the fruit every day for two weeks and stood next to me while I made up the cake batter. While the cakes baked we played Barbies and read stories. It was a very special time for us, one I hope we will continue to share each year. No doubt she'll still be stealing the glace cherries and macadamias out of the mixture when she's 21! I only made this cake for the first time last year.  I'm not a fruit cake fan myself but Mr Di-licious is.  His only Christmas wish last year was for a fruit cake. Not having a family recipe to turn to, I did the next best thing; I consulted the Australian Womens Weekly Test Kitchen (AWWTK). I know some purists out there will criticise me for this but I fiddled with the fruit.  I have enough stuff sitting in my pantry without having half open bags of glace apricots and pineapple.  I just use...

One thing I love about Christmas in summertime is it gives you permission to re-write the rules of tradition. I mean, who honestly wants to cook a hot roast on a stinking 35-degree day? The same can be said for dessert.  Back in the day my Nanna would make a plum pudding for the family get together.  There was a lot of pomp in entombing the pudding info the huge [scary] pressure cooker and it would boil away for hours. Eventually it would be lifted out steaming and I would run and hide. Not even the promise of finding the sixpence could convince me to eat it.  It was hot and full of raisins and I just wanted ice-cream. But even I have to concede that for some people it’s not Christmas without pudding.  So this week I’m suggesting you open your mind to something a lot less stodgy and a whole lot easier to make and serve – individual Sticky Date Puds. Baked in a standard muffin pan, these puddings are not only easy to make, they freeze l...

This week I’m going to make a bold suggestion.  Instead of queuing up at the shops, why not give a home-baked gift instead? Every year I pull my hair out, trying to work out what to give family and friends.  I walk aimlessly around monolithic shopping centres and to what end? I walk out dejected and despondent – unable to find just the right gift.  A couple of years ago when we were all feeling budget-challenged, my girlfriends and I resolved to make our Kris Kringle gifts instead of buying them. It was fantastic. It required thought and effort. That year I gave a jar of my first, backyard plum-tree jam. I received a beautiful Christmas angel painting that takes pride of place in my living room each year. When you make a gift you give something of yourself.  A beautifully presented box of di-licious home-baked biscuits could make you THE must have Secret Santa of the season. These shortbread-style biscuits look like a slice of Christmas...

If there is one baked good that universally signifies Christmas, it would have to be gingerbread. Originally a German recipe, these aromatic cookies are very much a part of Scandinavian yuletide celebrations as well as those of the western world. Quite simply, these cookies just smell like Christmas. This gingerbread cookie recipe is enough to make a whole gingerbread house, an army of gingerbread men, garlands of cookies for decorating the tree or plenty of cookies to decorate and give as gifts. If you only bake one thing this Christmas, please give these a try.  The recipe is easily halved. If you prefer a spicier biscuit, add more ground ginger.  If you don’t like ginger so much, reduce to one teaspoon and increase the mixed spice to 3 teaspoons.  I’ve provided an indication of how long to cook the cookies for, but use your nose too – when you can smell them, chances are they’re almost done. There are so many ways you can decorate...