Festive Rum Butter Recipe

Now that we’re heading into December it’s now acceptable to get in the festive spirit!

Personal touches are what makes Christmas so special, and so with this in mind, Wren Kitchens have asked a range of food, craft & interior bloggers to help them put together their #24DaysOfWren interactive advent calendar – which showcases a variety of Christmas inspiration behind each window! With everything from mince pies…to handmade nativity outfits it aims to get everyone in the festive spirit!  I was thrilled to be asked, so here is my Christmas offering.

RUM BUTTER.  Is there anything more perfect to spread on your toast on Christmas morning?  I think not.

Now, for those who do not know, there are two types of Rum Butter - Cumberland and Westmorland.

The Westmorland recipe requires the butter to be creamed into the sugar, whereas in the Cumberland recipe you melt the butter then stir it in.

So basically you need 1lb of soft brown sugar to half a pound of butter and a "glass" of rum.  My glass was rather large, but there's no point having a weak rum butter is there?  :)

Here is how you make it:

First, find a jar (or jars).  I picked this cute little hexagonal one from Hobbycraft.

Sterilize the jars by washing thoroughly in boiling water then popping in a hot oven to dry off. Don't forget to do the lids too.

Then, slug a generous splash (be quite generous, you do want to taste it) of Rum into the sugar and stir to mix.

Melt the butter.

Mix the butter into the sugar, this will take a little while as the sugar dissolves.  You will need a good beating arm.

When it is totally mixed through, leave it to cool for about half an hour, then go back and give it a really good beat.  At this point I use the electric mixer to make it a little easier.

It makes the Rum Butter creamier if you repeat this step - leave it for another half hour, then go back and beat it again.  You will see at this point that the colour changes and it becomes lighter.

I leave it another 15 minutes and give it another whisk to make it light and fluffy.

Next you need to pop it into the jars, I thought a spoon would be too tricky so I filled up a piping bag and piped it in.

(Lots of little jars all full to the brim with delicious Rum Butter)

To give as gift I added a little material circle to make the lid prettier, and an ingredient label.

If you want to see the rest of the crafty Advent calender, then please visit:  http://www.wrenkitchens.com/blog/24-days-of-wren/

Candy Easter Egg making

I made a right mess this week in my kitchen - I needed to make some Easter Egg bases so that they can be decorated during a VIP event at Hobbycraft this week.

I used Candy Melts, but I had a very limited selection of colours to play with.   I did have black though, so thought, why not?   Someone might be inspired by a black Easter egg.  I did only make the one as it was quite ugly.

But I did go a bit silly, playing with patterns and colours.  There was candy setting all over my worktops and the whole house smelt like Willy Wonker's factory - sickly sweet!

(I can only imagine what Willie Wonkers factory smelled like, but I am sure you know what I mean  ;) )

These all went away to the Hobbycraft VIP event, and ended up being decorated by Philippa, who did a most marvellous job.

Clean Eating Cookies

I got this recipe from a friend, and they are really quite delicious.

The recipe is so simple and easy, and so open to lots of different variations, I can see these being a firm favourite in our house.

Let me share it with you.

What you need:

• 4 ripe bananas
• 6oz Porridge Oats
• 4oz Peanuts & Raisins
• Real Vanilla Essence
• Cinnamon

What you do:

• Mash up the bananas with a fork.

• Chuck in the oats and raisins, cinnamon and vanilla essence and give a good mix.

• Divide the mixture into 8 - this gives you a very large cookie, so saves you having two  ;)   You might want to half them again if you don't want big cookies.  Pop the balls of mix onto greaseproof paper.

• Flatten them down slightly and bung them in the oven.  Gas 6, for about  minutes.15-20 mins.

• Hide ...... I mean, share  ;)

You can of course substitute the nuts for other things, like chocolate chips (not so healthy), dried cranberries, coconut, pecans..... the list is endless.

Cumberland Rum Butter - gifts for workmates

Last year (- has it REALLY been a whole year?) I made my work colleagues a jar of Rum Butter.

As it went down rather well, I thought I might make it a tradition, and make them some this year too.  (but with an added bonus of a wee bottle of Sloe Gin)

I actually used SIX blocks (250g blocks) of butter for this batch.  I did four to start with and decided it wasn't enough, so did another two.  For the second batch I could only get dark brown sugar though, so the batches are slightly different colours - but equally delicious.

Here is the recipe for you.  (I have broken it down into a smaller portion for you, but the photos show bulk :)  )

You will need:

• 250g butter
• 500g soft brown sugar
• a good measure of rum

What you do:

• Pop the sugar in a bowl and pour the rum over it.  Let it soak all the way through.

• Meanwhile, pop the butter in a non-stick pan over a low heat and allow to melt.

• Once melted, pour onto the boozy sugar and stir.  The hot butter will dissolve the sugar.

• Give it a good mix with a wooden spoon then plug in your electric whiskers.  (you can do the next bit by hand, but you will have muscles Popeye would be envious off by the time you are finished)

• On a slow setting give it a good whisk until the sugar is blended with the butter.

• Now, go away for half an hour, do some crocheting, make a brew, wash the dishes, catch up on Corrie - whatever, just leave the butter to cool slightly.

• Then go back and whisk it again, it will magically change colour.

• I leave it another 15 minutes and give it another whisk to make it light and fluffy.

• Then pipe it into pots.  I prefer to pipe rather than blob it in with a spoon as it's much less messy.  Although on the down side it looks rather like...... let's not go there!

Voilà!   Yummity, easy-peasy, hand-made Rum Butter.

To make it into a gift I added a scruffy hand-made label - or you can take your time with it and make a pretty one  (time was running out fast for me this Christmas)

.... and added a little bottle of highly alcholic, home-made Sloe Gin  (Sloes kindly picked and donated to me by my lovely friend Lezley)

Tied it up with a red ribbon (got Hubster to curl the ends to make it prettyful)

Pretty pressies all round  :)

And there is a pot left in the fridge for me  :)
Perfect on hot toasted crumpets, so the Rum Butter all melts and leaves a puddle of sugary rummy mess on your plate which you just have to lick  :)

Nutella Brownies - tested

I have been seeing Nutella Brownies recipes popping up on various newsfeeds for some time now, so decided it was about time I tested them, to see what I was missing out on.

So, the recipe boast  "Just three ingredients" which is a little bit of a big fat lie in reality, considering Nutella itself contains nine, yes NINE ingredients itself.

Sugar, Vegetable Oil, Hazelnuts (13%), Fat-Reduced Cocoa (7.4%), Skimmed Milk Powder (6.6%), Whey Powder, Emulsifier: Lecithin (Soya), Vanillin.   

Anyway, what you need is:

• 400g jar of Nutella
• 60g SR flour
• 2 eggs

What you do is: 

• Chuck it all in a bowl

• Mix

• Pop in a lined tray  (this one shows 2 x the recipe as I was taking some into work too.)

• Bake - Gas 4-5, 25 mins or so.

• Scoff

So, the verdict?  Well, personally they were way too sweet for my taste, but I don't have a very sweet tooth, my colleagues at work who helped test them said they were perfect.   They are very gooey, almost cookie-doughish, quite chewy, but soft.  I can't quite work out how to describe them - just go make some of these 3 (11) ingredient brownies and find out for yourself  ;)

White Choc & Pink Wafer Crispy Cake

These are a little bit nommy.  I only use the budget brands for all of this as it makes no difference when covered with chocolate!

You will need:

• 150g Malted Milk Biscuits
• 100g Rice Krispies
• 300g White Chocolate 
• 100g Butter
• 250g Golden Syrup
• 100g Pink Wafer Biscuits

What you do:

• Crush the biscuits with the end of a rolling pin, until they are small bits, but not too powdery.
• Mix in the Rice Krispies.
• Chop up the wafers into decent sized squares and add to the mix.
• Melt the chocolate with the butter and syrup in a glass bowl in the microwave.  Use the low setting and do it in short bursts of 30 seconds, stirring inbetween.
• Add the chocolate to the mix and stir well to coat everything.
• Pour into a flan dish lined with foil, press down and pop in the fridge to chill.
• Cut into chunks when cold and set  (about 2 hours)

Ginger & Fudge Crispy Cake

A nice 'warming' treat, the hit of ginger travels right through the crispy cake in a most unexpected way.  Totally delicious on cold nights with a warm cup of tea.

What you need:

• 100g Ginger Biscuits
• 150g Digestive Biscuits
• 3 'Fingers of Fudge'
• 100g Dark chocolate
• 200g Milk chocolate
• 100g Butter
• 250g Golden Syrup

What you do:

• Crush the biscuits with the end of a rolling pin, until they are small bits, but not too powdery.
• Chop up the fingers of fudge into chunks and add to the mix.
• Melt the chocolate with the butter and syrup in a glass bowl in the microwave.  Use the low setting and do it in short bursts of 30 seconds, stirring inbetween.
• Add the chocolate to the mix and stir well to coat everything.
• Pour into a flan dish lined with foil, press down and pop in the fridge to chill.
• Cut into chunks when cold and set  (about 2 hours)

Malty, minty, chocolate fridge cake

I have it confirmed from a very good source (my No:1 son) that this sweet treat is very yummy indeed.  I have also been told that another sweet-toothed person would happily "eat their body weight in it", so I am guessing it might be a hit in your house too.

It is a no cook, easy-to-make, fridge cake.  Wanna try it?  Course you do.

You will need:

• 250g Digestive biscuits (or hob nobs, or any kind of plain biscuit really)
• 88g bag of maltesers  (or roughly thereabouts once you have nibbled a few)
• 300g chocolate
• 60g of minty matchmakers  (or equivalent)
• 200g Golden Syrup
• 100g Butter

What you do:

• Crush the biscuits up with the end of a rolling pin, you want smallish bits but not too powdery.

• Break up your chocolate into a microwaveable bowl.  What I used is Aldi's own at just 30p a bar.  I love how they market it as an "Everyday Essential".  I mix Milk with Dark as I am not a massive Dark chocolate lover.

• Add the syrup and butter to the bowl.  TIP:  To get the syrup out of the tin easier, heat up a spoon, you will find it just slides off.

• Pop into the microwave on a low settings, just give it 30 second blasts, remove and stir in-between each blast.

• Weigh out your maltesters and minty sticks, breaking the sticks into smaller bits.

• Dump the melted chocolate mix and the sweets in with the crushed biscuits and give it a good mix until all the biscuits are coated.

• Watch as the maltesters suddenly become naked!  Whit whooo....

• Line a dish with foil - you can use a square dish, a pie-dish, a baking tray - whatever, it will all work - then stick it in the fridge for an hour or so.

• Slice.

• and serve.

Oh, by the way, these are very diet friendly - the maltesters are so light that they weigh nothing so therefore don't have any calories, the minty sticks contain mint, which is green, so therefore one of your 5-a-day.  The chocolate is made from cocoa beans, beans are pulses and good for you, we can ignore the syrup and butter as they are just minor ingredients, and digestives are almost savoury so they don't count either.

Enjoy!