My favorite Christmas memory is the year we surprised my mum! My twin sister Leigh lived in England with her husband and family and we organized for her and her son to come home to New Zealand for Christmas without telling Mum. When she walked in it was the best Christmas present mum good get. There were tears and hugs and presents and food forgotten. It’s what Christmas is all about. Being with the people you love-family.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Bron’s Christmas Dessert Recipes
Pavlova, Kiwi-fruit, Strawberries and Cream
Prep time: 40 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour
Servings: 1 pavlova
Ingredients:
3 Egg Whites
1 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 tablespoon cornflour
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Directions:
Beat egg whites until stiff (forms peaks). Add sugar – heaped tablespoon at a time – beating well after each addition. Then beat for at least 10 minutes. This is very important. Then sprinkle vinegar, cornflour and vanilla essence into mixture. Beat until blended.
Coat baking paper with water drops to allow baking paper to stick to sides of tin and pile pavlova mixture in 20cm circle.
Heat oven until 300°F (or 150°C). Put pav in oven and immediately turn oven down to 250°F (or 125°C) and leave for 1 hour. Then turn oven off and leave in oven until cold. (Usually overnight). This makes a nice crust on outside of pav.
Before serving, cover pav in whipped cream and decorate with your favorite fruit.
Hokey Pokey Cheesecake
The basic biscuit base
90 g of butter –3 oz
250 g biscuit of your choice (I use chocolate chip cookie) — 9 oz
Melt the butter on a low seat, then cool to room temperature. Combined the butter in biscuit in a blender until fine press that runs evenly and firmly into a 23 cm diameter round turn with a removable base. Rufus Stone, then refrigerate.
Cheesecake Filling
400 g room temperature cream cheese — 14 oz
120 g castor sugar — 1/2 cup
400 ml of chilled heavy cream (thickened cream) — 2 cups
4 x Cadbury Crunchie Bars (or hokey pokey bars)
With an electric beater on low, beat the cream cheese for a couple of minutes until it becomes soft and lump free. While continuing to beat, slowly tip in the sugar. Once the sugar is incorporated, slowly pour in the cream will still beating on low. Whip the cream cheese and cream until it holds its shape completely when the beater passes through the mix and the mixture looks a little grainy.
This is where I cheat. Instead of making my own honeycomb, I buy Crunchie chocolate bars (I simply shave the chocolate off with a knife and use it to sprinkle over the cheesecake before serving) or hokey pokey bars, and I simply crush them all up, and sprinkle the hokey pokey into the cheesecake mixture sized lumps, about the size of a dime, using a wooden spoon.
The mixture on top of the biscuit base and smooth with a spatula. Chill for at least four hours, or overnight.
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That is beautiful and looks so tasty!