Christmas cooking the fun way

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This year, why not impress family and friends with homemade biscuits and snacks, and as well as saving yourself some money, you can have festive fun too? We have several tried and tested recipes we love, and hope you will too!

Christmas tree cookies
These cute cookies look good, taste great, are easy to make and even the youngest members of the family can get involved and help you to decorate them!

For these winning treats, you will need:

470g of plain flour
1 level teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of table salt
225g of unsalted butter
300g of caster sugar
Two medium eggs
Two teaspoons of vanilla extract
A Christmas tree cuter
Colouring icing sugar pens
Silver balls

Sift together the baking powder, flour and salt. Cream together the butter and sugar until you have a light and fluffy mix, then beat in the eggs (one at a time) and finally stir in the vanilla. At this point you can then slowly add the flour mix, and when you have a ball of dough, wrap it in cling film and put it in the fridge for around an hour.

When you get the dough from the fridge, pre-heat your oven to 200 C / gas mark 6 /180C fan and line two baking trays with parchment paper – this means the cookies will slide off once cool and you won’t have any nasty pan scrubbing to do.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface and cut out your cookies.

Bake for about eight minutes or until the edges are just turning light brown, and transfer from the baking trays to cooling racks.

Decorate with the icing pens when the cookies are completely cool and put on the little silver balls for an added touch, then either eat them (fast) or put them in pretty boxes with tissue paper and give them out as presents!

Cheese Stars

For the school party, or drinks with friends, these easy to make cheese stars are winners.

You will need:

A pack of pre-made puff pastry
One mug of grated cheese – a mild cheddar / mozzarella mix works well
Flour for dusting
2 table spoons of whole milk
A star cutter

It is best to make these on the day of eating, so when you are ready, preheat the oven to 200C / 180C fan / gas mark 6 and line two baking sheets with parchment paper, or grease them with a little butter.

Next roll out the sheet of pastry and put your grated cheese on half of it, fold it over and then on a floured surface, gently roll to around double the size. At this point just make sure no cheese is escaping from the sides as this can get messy in the oven! Next, cut out star shapes from the folded sheet and place on the baking sheets, brush with milk and cook for around ten minutes. You can add some herbs or salt to the tops of the stars if you like! They will last for a couple of days in a tin, but we don’t think they will be around that long!

Veggie Tree

For something super healthy for the party table, you can’t go wrong with savoury festive tree made with goodness and love.

For this you will need:

Lots of cherry tomatoes – cut in half
Green grapes – cut in half
A yellow pepper with a piece of the flesh cut into a star shape
Half a cucumber
Salsa
A large silver foil platter

Chop a 5cm piece of cucumber and place it at the bottom of the foil platter to make the tree trunk. Then you need to make a row of tomatoes and grapes to make the first part of the tree, and then add more layers, each one shorter than the last so you end up with a cute Christmas tree shape. At the top you can add your yellow pepper star, then serve with the salsa and the rest of the cucumber cut into sticks! This looks fun and jolly and also help to keep up your five a day!

Got a recipe you love, let us know about!

Team Pure Beauty

Easter treats

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With Easter just around the corner and the long bank holiday ahead of us, you just know people will be popping by for a cuppa and catch up.

Rather than being caught on the hop (see what we did there) and having to dig out a packet of dodgy digestives, what not make some Easter goodies at home and you will be ready for anything?

Easter isn’t Easter without hot cross buns and they taste better than ever if you make your own.

To make eight tasty treats, add the following ingredients to your shopping basket:

• 500g strong white
bread flour
• 1⁄2 teaspoon of salt
• 2 heaped teaspoons of mixed spice
• 50g caster sugar
• 50g salted butter
• 200ml full fat milk
• 200g mixed dried fruit
• 2 medium free range eggs
• 7g sachet easy-blend dried yeast
• Honey

To make the buns, first pre-heat your oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas.

Sift the flour into a bowl and stir in the mixed spice, salt and sugar then rub in the butter with your fingertips. Add the dried fruit, then sprinkle over the yeast and stir in. Gently warm the milk then beat with the eggs and pour in the dried ingredients. Using a blunt knife, mix the ingredients to a moist dough, then leave to settled for 20 minutes.

Cut the dough into eight equal pieces and shaped these into buns. Space apart on a baking sheet, cover loosely with cling film and leave in a warm place until for around 45 minutes until they are half the size again. Mix a little flour with two tablespoons of water to make a paste, pour into a plastic food bag and make a tiny hole in one of the corners. Pipe crosses on top of each bun, put them in the oven and cook for 15 minutes until risen and golden. Trim the excess cross mixture from the buns, then brush with the honey and enjoy warm with butter and jam.

A plate of beautiful biscuits will impress your guests. This recipe is super easy to make and you can be as creative as you like with the decorations. For one batch, you will need:

• 125g butter, softened
• 125g caster sugar, plus 1 tbsp. extra
• One free range egg, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 250g plain flour
• Icing sugar
• Bottles of food colouring
• Sprinkles and mini eggs

To get things started, pre-heat the oven to gas 5, 190°C, fan 170°C and line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

Cream together the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy then add the egg and vanilla extract. Gradually fold in the flour then create a ball of dough and wrapped this in cling film and chill in the fridge for an hour.

Take the dough out and roll out to the thickness of a £2 coin, then cut the dough into oval shapes; if you can find bunny or oval cutters, these are perfect.

Chill for another 30 minutes before baking for 15 minutes and then leave to cool on a rack.

Make up the icing according to pack instructions and add food colouring to make your designs really stand out. Ice, add sprinkles and mini eggs then leave to dry before eating with a cup of tea!

Now all that is left to do is hide those eggs and let the Easter fun begin.

Team Pure Beauty

Hot cross buns anyone?

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beaten, bunnies, butter, cake, dough, Easter, eggs, flour, fruit, gas make six, greased baking sheet, hot cross buns, jam, knead, milk, newspapers, portions, Pure Beauty, rounds, size, smooth, spices, sugar, tablespoon, teaspoon, water, yeast

Everyone looks forward to the four-day weekend over Easter. It is a great to have the time to kick back, catch up with family and friends and enjoy some tasty treats.

From cute cookies and egg nests to seminal cake and chocolate bunnies, there’s no end of Easter themed goodies to eat at the time of year. Whilst it is easy to pick up BOGOF offers in the supermarket, there’s something really satisfying about sitting down with a piece of cake, you have baked from scratch.

We have done some baking ourselves and have found a recipe for the best ever hot cross buns and we think you’ll love them too.

This is an easy to follow recipe but be aware that it takes quite a lot of time to prepare. It is vital to follow each step and let the dough rise so that you really do get soft, fluffy buns that taste as good as they look.

Ingredients

• 400g of strong white bread flour and a little extra for dusting
• 50g of plain flour for creating the crosses
• A 7g sachet of fast-action dried yeast
• 100g of currants, raisins and peel (it is totally up to you which dried fruits you use but keep the quantities right)
• 50g of golden caster sugar, plus an extra teaspoon for the crosses
• One teaspoon of mixed spice and one of ground cinnamon
• 250ml of slightly warmed full fat mill
• One medium egg, beaten
• 50g unsalted butter
• One teaspoon of salt
• Two tablespoons of apricot jam
• Place the strong flour, yeast, caster sugar, salt and spices in a bowl and mix. Make a well in the centre of the mixture and pour in the warm milk, beaten eggs and butter. Mix it together with a wooden spoon and finish of with your hands.

Knead the dough on a floured surface for around ten minutes or until it becomes springy and really smooth. Leave the dough to rise in a lightly greased bowl and cover with a clean, damp tea towel, somewhere warm.

The next step is to place dough onto a lightly floured surface and flatten before scattering on the dried fruit. Knead the dough a few more times before dividing into eight even portions which you then need to roll in smooth rounds and place on a greased baking sheet, leaving some room between each bun for it to rise. Cover with a tea towel again and leave for about 20 minutes until they have doubled in size.

Heat your oven to 200C/180C fan/gas mark six.

To make the crosses, mix the extra plain flour with a teaspoon of sugar and five tablespoons of water and create a thick paste. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag and carefully pipe white lines on the buns to make the crosses.

If you’re going to eat the buns untoasted, gently heat the apricot jam in a pan, and brush the warm liquid onto the buns using a pastry brush. If you plan to toast them, then don’t use the sugar glaze as it will burn and spoilt your hard work.

Place in the hot over for 20 minutes until the buns are light brown.

Once the buns have cooled down, enjoy with butter and jam a cup of tea as you read the newspapers.

Happy Easter from all of us at Pure Beauty.