Design your own!

 This idea morphed when I discovered that my Nephew Lucas (and Editor in Chief and IT Adviser) declined the original version because he hates cherries! I like a challenge, so the “design your own” came to pass :

Design your own Rocky Road

Traditionally Rocky Road is made using Brazil nuts,

glacé cherries and marshmallow.

Rules are meant to be broken - take a look at the

list below and if you'd like to design your own

Rocky Road swap any or all of the three

ingredients in the original recipe for the

same weight

(or may be four if you want to stay true

to Rocky Road and include the mini marshmallows)

Cashew

Peanut

Pistachio

Pecan

Hazelnut

Glacé cherry

Dried sour cherries

Cranberry

Apricot

Banana chips

Pineapple

Sultanas

Nougat

Turkish Delight

Fudge

Toblerone

Praline

Salted Caramel

Mini Marshmallow

Popping Candy

My latest versions are :

Pecans with dark cherries and vanilla fudge

Pistachios, apricots and Turkish Delight

Cheese scones on their way!

Rocky Road – don't make life difficult!

As I said at the beginning of Brown paper packages … use tried and tested recipes – what's your signature bake or preserve or pastry? This sweet treat has always been a resounding hit so it's a must have in my Christmas Box – here's the recipe :

Rocky Road

250g dark chocolate

150g milk chocolate

175g soft butter, unsalted

4 x 15ml tbsp golden syrup

200g hobnobs

*150g shelled Brazil nuts

*150g red glace cherries

*125g mini marshmallows

Put the biscuits into a freezer bag and roll with a rolling pin until you get a mixture of rubble.

Chop the Brazil nuts into different sizes.

Chop both sorts of chocolate into small pieces, or use chocolate buttons made for melting and then put them into a heavy-based saucepan to melt with the butter and syrup over a gentle heat.

Take the pan off the heat and add the biscuit and nuts, cherries and mini marshmallows. Turn carefully so that all the ingredients are coated with the syrupy chocolate.

Tip into a foil try (I use a tray bake 31x19x3.5cms/12½x7½x1¼”), smoothing the top as best you can, although it is meant to be lumpy.

Refrigerate until firm enough to cut, which will take about 1½-2 hours although it doesn't matter if you get sidetracked and leave it longer. Take the set block out of the tray. With the long side in front of you cut in half – set aside the other for the moment. Cut into 8 strips and then across – you are aiming to cut into 2cm/1” squares – there's no need to stress – approximately will do. If you manage to cut 2cm/1” you'll get 92 squares per half, 184 in total.

You can make the Rocky Road into whatever shape you want - cut into bars or squares. Store in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 1 month.

This is the basic Rocky Road recipe. If you really want to push the boat out you can make it festive and use crispy Amaretti biscuits, crushed instead of the hobnobs.

If you'd like to personalise it design a version of Rocky Road as a special gift for a special person.

The three ingredients marked “*” can be swapped to suit.

Check out the “Design your own Rocky Road” sheet up next for some ideas.

Cranberry and red onion relish – the photos!

 

I was able to get preserving sugar, which was

a surprise

dice the red onion as finely as you can manage

it makes for a more refined texture – if that makes

any sort of sense!

I used good quality cranberries – the American variety

if you can get them – plumptious

Here are the jars I'd stashed in my garage

Here's the finished relish – delish

A choice of jars – those mentioned above

and a small kilner jar

Now for the Rocky Road!

The “Brown paper packages” and “Christmas Box” series

First up - Cranberry and red onion relish.

I think I prefer a relish to a chutney – I like the combination of fruit and a vegetable, letting the remainder of the ingredients do their thing. The other huge plus is that it doesn't take long. A chutney is fruit with additional spices and aromatics – usually taking at least an hour to cook and you have to live with the aroma in your kitchen for quite a while.

Here goes :

Cranberry and red onion relish

300g dried cranberries

3 medium red onions, finely diced

3 tbsp olive oil

7 fl oz of Balsamic vinegar

3 tbsp of preserving sugar

celery salt and black pepper

6 jars – my discovered stash, they

are 7 sided and measure 5cms/1¾” in diameter

x 7cms/2¾” high

Sweat the onion in the olive oil. Add the cranberries, vinegar and sugar and simmer gently for 25/30 minutes until sticky and reduced, season with celery salt and black pepper.

This recipe will give you 780g of relish – I filled seven jars as per the photos that follow.

If you can't get hold the preserving sugar you can use granulated.

Here come the photos!

Choices to make … boxes to fill!

Remember that nothing is set in stone and you can change your mind and tweak – make a list of what comes to mind and then sleep on it – or in my case go for a run – fresh air helps clear away the “broken biscuits” in my head when I can't think straight!

I've decided to mix savoury and sweet and I've based my packaging choices to suit the size of the cardboard box already illustrated. An odd number of treats look good when arranging – take account too of the size of “preserve pots” or jars – they don't have to be exactly the same but a smaller pot or jar looks better than, as an example, an average jar of jam which is approximately 450g.

Here are my choices :

Cranberry and red onion relish

Rocky Road

Cheese scones

Hokey pokey

Three Cheese Dainties

I haven't forgotten the syrup – I have a couple of extra ideas up my sleeve – all will be revealed!

Action plan :

The relish can be made now and fridged, ready

to label and zhuzh

The Rocky Road and the Hokey Pokey ditto – and

then bagged and into the freezer ready to transfer to

your bag or box of choice

The scones and dainties I'll leave until nearer the

time so they'll be fresh and give the giftee the choice

of freezing or demolishing immediately

Sounds like a plan – next up is the series of recipes with photos to help, mentioned during my chat with Bernie Keith, on his Radio Show, The Bernie Keith Show, BBC Radio Northampton on Thursday 10^th December 2020 at 10.45am - these are the Brown Paper Packages tied up with string and Christmas Box ideas – just in case you'd like to have a go at making your own gifts!

Margaret's Christmas Box!

Before our second lockdown I saw my friend Margaret once a week, distanced, for coffee. I should explain that Margaret is a very fit 89 year old. During one of our coffee mornings I asked her what she thought of my latest nocturnal thought – being awake at 2am has its rewards - and pitched my idea of making a selection of her chosen favourite home-made treats as a Christmas Box.

In my head it was a personal gift and ticked more than one box – she got to choose what she wanted and I didn't have to shop for a gift which I knew she'd like – but I could do better. One of my best hits in recent years was to buy her an advent calendar and in each “window” was a small jar of preserve, all different, for each day.

Not only did Margaret love the thought, she admitted being concerned about the difficulty for her of being able to go out shopping – spare a thought for the people out there who do not use modern technology! We had so much fun bouncing around ideas for her “Christmas Box” and my gift from Margaret is a donation to The Donkey Sanctuary!

Here's a taster from her preliminary list – lemon drizzle syrup :

I “borrowed” this syrup from my Lemon Tiramisu recipe - any leftovers were committed to the freezer in small pots. I may even zhuzh it for the festive season and add a generous drop of Limoncello liqueur.

I gave Margaret a pot of syrup to try over desserts - fresh fruit or the last piece of cake that needs reviving, anything goes. The only problem was she finished up with a drop left and didn't want to waste it – here's her tip – poor into a tall glass, add a good glug of chilled soda water and swizzle – result – absolutely refreshingly fabulous! I do love it when nothing gets wasted – who'd have thought it!

At the time I pitched the idea we didn't know about the second lockdown - now we do know it would appear that our ideas are even better than we first thought. Now I'm expanding the “Christmas Box” to include a selection of stuff – so far I have four boxes to fill … and counting.

Thinking “outside the box” has now become thinking “inside a box”.

Gotta go … choices to make, boxes to fill!

BPP – bags for chocolate!

there's a large cellophane bag underneath

the pennant shaped bag and then the red ties – it's

to give an idea of choice and what size chocolate delight

will fill them

the measurements of both are set down below

large clear cellophane bag

28x12cms/11x5” - with side gussets

pennant shaped bag

29cms/11” long (to the tip) x 13cms/5” wide

I've scrunched the large cellophane bag so that

you can get a better idea of size when the sides are

opened and scrunched!

 

These bags are really festive and smaller

than the other example so you'll fill more of these

with a batch, say, of Rocky Road

Note to self : if you're going to make Rocky Road, make

sure you cut it into small pieces

Next up – deciding on the contents of your package