Creative Christmas Cuisine

Christmas is less than a week away, so we’re sure most of you already know (and have prepared) what you’re going to be cooking for your dinner guests this year. That’s why we’re not going to be giving you the classic, main course recipes for your roast lamb, gammon and chicken this year – we decided to rather give you some creative food ideas for appetisers and desserts.

We have chosen a very creative appetiser, two fun desserts and even an interesting, very famous drink for you! Take a look at how easy it is to get creative with your food this Christmas.

Christmas Tree Pizza

This is something perfect for an appetiser before the main course is served. While you may think it’s simple to make Christmas tree shapes out of pizza – each slice is already a triangular shape, after all – this recipe is a bit different. This recipe, found on acouplecooks.com, makes one big Christmas tree shaped pizza and it’s a delicious pesto spinach one to boot!

Ingredients:

• Pizza dough
• ½ cup of pesto
• 2 – 3 cups of spinach
• Shredded mozzarella
• Sundried tomato
• One red onion
• Salt

What to do:

• Preheat your oven to 180°C.
• Stretch the pizza dough into a triangle shape and use a pizza cutter or a knife to create a tree shape. The scraps of dough can be used for the trunk of the tree.
• Chop up the spinach and slice the onion and tomatoes.
• Once you’ve done prepping the food and the oven is preheated, lay the Christmas tree pizza dough one a baking tray and spread the pesto onto it. Layer your mozzarella on and add your toppings.
• Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes.

This is a perfect finger snack or appetiser for your guests. To make it even more presentable, present it to them on one of our bread boards.

Santa Hat Brownies

These are really cute to have for dessert on Christmas. They’re simply chocolate brownies topped with mascarpone buttercream and strawberries to resemble Santa hats. We came across this amazing idea on daisysworld.net.

Ingredients:

• 1 pan of brownies (can be made from a box) and cut into circles rather than squares.
• 12 – 16 small strawberries.
• ½ cup unsalted butter
• 230g mascarpone cheese
• 3 cups of powdered sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla essence

What to do:

• Beat the butter and mascarpone until creamy.
• Add the vanilla extract.
• Add the 3 cups of powdered sugar, half a cup at a time. Beat until smooth.
• Pipe a ring of the buttercream on top of each brownie.
• Cut the base of each strawberry and place the flat side down on the brownie.
• Top with a ball of buttercream and there you have some Santa hats!

For extra brownie points from your guests, serve the Santa hat brownies on an attractive House of York pastry board.

Christmas Tree Cupcakes

This is a really, really easy treat to make and it requires very little ingredients. Children will love them and they will brighten up any dinner table!

All you need is:

• Cupcakes topped with white icing (these can be any flavour you want)
• Ice cream cones
• Piping bag
• Green icing
• Silver balls for decoration

What to do:

• Place an ice cream cone upside down on top of each cupcake.
• Take your green icing and start piping on a whole lot of leaves on each cone.
• Decorate them with some edible silver balls.

Eggnog

OK, so this isn’t exactly creative per se, but it’s certainly different for us here in South Africa! This delightful and famous hot drink is best enjoyed in the US, where it’s cold during Christmas season. We found such an easy recipe for it on Martha Stewart’s website, that we decided there’s no harm in adopting this yummy tradition this year.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of milk
• 1 cup of sugar
• 12 egg yolks
• 1 cup of full cream
• Grated nutmeg
• ½ cup of bourbon (optional)

What to do:

• Whisk the milk and the sugar over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.
• In a big bowl, whisk the egg yolks. While doing this, slowly pour the mixture into the yolks.
• Empty the bowl back into the pot on the stove and cook over a medium-low heat. It’s important to stir often for 20 – 25 minutes. Our elevated nylon spoon is perfect for stirring this as it is heat resistant and won’t scratch your pot.
• Strain the mixture into a bowl. Add your cream and bourbon (if you want to).
• Allow the mixture to cool and then refrigerate it.
• Garnish with nutmeg.

How do you make your Christmas food creative? Drop us a line on Facebook and let us know – we always love hearing new ideas!