The Christmas Surprise (43 page)

As you can see from the dedication in this book, this year I lost my wonderful agent and great friend Ali Gunn. We have all been heartbroken; she dug me out of the slush pile many years ago and we had so many wonderful adventures together. So she is still upfront in the acknowledgements, where she belongs. Wholehearted thanks also to Douglas Kean and Sarah McFadden.

Also: Rebecca Saunders, Manpreet Grewal, Thalia Proctor, David Shelley, Ursula Mackenzie, Emma Williams, Charlie King, Jen and the phenomenal sales team, Victoria Gilder, Jo Wickham … actually, the whole of Little, Brown is just amazing and I know how unbelievably lucky I am. Thanks also and welcome to Jo Unwin whose unflappability and sensitivity were so
helpful at a difficult time. And a huge thanks to Jane Selley and Elizabeth Dobson for their excellent copy-editing and proofreading skills.

Karen Murphy MRCS, Christian Aid, for showing me Africa; Deborah Schneider and Mallors; Faustine Reynaud, the board, and of course and for always, Mr B and the wee bees.

This feels a bit of a cheat because you need to buy the moulds. But they do look so lovely on the tree! And of course the smell.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Mix together the butter and sugar, and then add the syrup.

Sift in the dry ingredients and knead together to form first crumbs, then a dough. Refrigerate for half an hour or so – go on Facebook, have some tea.

Roll out the dough under cling film so it doesn’t get dry and cracky. Then go nuts with the moulds. Make sure to leave little holes at the top so you can thread them with cotton/ribbon for hanging.

Bake the cookies for 15-20 minutes. Keep an eye on them – they should be lovely golden biscuits. Leave them to cool then let your imagination go wild with the icing!

Of course, sometimes you want your Christmas tree decorations to last a little longer, which is why we love salt dough decorations for the tree. They are so easy but they last for YEARS. You can’t eat them, obviously, which you might see as something of a downside, but this is such a lovely thing to do with children on a chilly December afternoon. Also I like the measurements for this.

Preheat the oven to 100 degrees. Combine all the ingredients to form a dough. If it’s too wet or dry, adjust.

Roll out the dough and cut out shapes – angels, stars, Christmas trees and hearts all work well. Remember to make a hanging hole.

Bake for 3 hours.

When they’re dry, the decorations can be painted (gold spray paint is fab), you can stick on glitter or sequins or anything. Thread with gold ribbon, then hang. And if you are a sentimental sort, keep them from year to year so you can remember your three year old’s misshapen angel, and have a bit of a wobble every December.

Every year at Christmas time somebody says, ‘What’s figgy pudding?’ when we sing the song (even my computer thinks it’s called ‘foggy pudding’) so I am telling you now: it is Christmas pudding except with MORE FIGS and it is yummy and here it is.

Tip: start the day before, but it takes just five minutes the day before and five minutes on the day so FEAR NOT.

The day before, combine the figs, raisins, sultanas, cherries and apple and pour in a slosh of brandy (a slosh being the scientific term for a
measure of ‘how much brandy you like’). Cover with a cloth and leave overnight to soak.

The following day, add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour into a greaseproof paper lined pudding basin. Now you can either steam the pudding, which involves bain mairies and boiling water and so on, or you can do the BAD THING I do (complaining letters to the usual address) which is microwave it for 5 minutes and turn it out until it cooks through.

Serve with custard or brandy butter. But, you know. CUSTARD.

Where we live in France, the big thing to eat at Christmas is yule log (coming next) and, after Christmas,
galette des rois
up to the feast of the Ephiphany, or Twelfth Night. There are little ceramic creatures, called
fêves
, or favours, hidden in each cake. They can be angels or religious figures, but these days you can also get Scooby Doo. Whoever finds it is crowned the
Roi
with the gold paper crown that traditionally goes around the outside. Then it is their turn to host the next
galette des rois
. We have found through trial and error it is usually prudent to push the
fêve
piece towards the youngest person in the room. If you can’t lay your hand on some
fêves
, a coin wrapped in greaseproof paper should have the same cheerful effect in warding off the post-chrimbo blues.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees. Divide the ready-made puff pastry in half, roll out each piece into two circles. Put one of the circles on a baking sheet and spread with the jam.

Whisk the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in most of the egg. Stir in the almonds, brandy, and add the
fêve
.

Spread the mix on top of the jam, then cover with the second piece of pastry. Seal up with a pinch. You can decorate the top of the
galette
with a fork if you like.

Bake for 25 minutes or until crisp and golden. Serve warm or cold.

This is called
Büche de Noël
in France, which I like because I like writing letters with dots on them. Swiss roll is what it is
really
.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees. Line a tin – loaf is fine – with greaseproof paper.

Whip the cream, icing sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla extract until it thickens, then bung in the fridge.

Probably use a mixer for this bit: beat the egg yolks with the caster sugar until thick. Add the second lot of cocoa powder and vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt.

Separately (obviously. Sorry) whip the egg whites to soft peaks. Add the sugar, slowly, until the mixture gets stiffer. Fold the two mixes together and pour into the tin.

Put in oven for 12 to 15 minutes – the cake should ‘spring back’ when gently prodded.

Dust a clean tea towel with icing sugar.

Run a knife around the edge of the tin, and upend the cake onto the tea towel. Get rid of the baking paper. Carefully, carefully, CAREFULLY, roll the cake up with the tea towel. Start at the shorter edge. Then let it cool for half an hour.

Take the filling out of the fridge. Unroll the cake and spread the filling on it but not right to the edge. Then carefully roll it up again, put on a plate and stick in the fridge (put the edge side down on the plate). You probably want to make icing powder snow before serving. Also if you don’t decorate it with holly, it doesn’t count.