Christmast Muffin Mix

Put these in your Christmas hamper to give to your friends and family this Christmas, You can change it up, Such as brownie recipes , shortbread and so on. You can get little labels and write the instructions on them, tie a ribbon or some twine around the rim to add your own touch to this.

What you will need

• 300g of self raising flour
• Two teaspoons of baking powder
• Two teaspoons of ground cinnamon
• Two teaspoons of mixed spice
• 100g of pecans
• 140g of dried fruits, such as cherries, apricots
• 100g of light muscovado sugar

First start by sterilizing a large one litre jar, I prefer to use clip jars for this.
Layer all the ingredients in sections.
Write the following method on a label, Ive shorted it down!

'Tip contents into large mixing bowl, make a well.
Mix with wooden spoon, add 2 beaten eggs 
add 300ml of milk and 100g of melted butter
Mix well! prepare 12 muffin cases in the muffin tin
and fill each halfway with the muffin batter,
bake at 180 for 18-20 minutes,
Enjoy!'

Beetroot blinis with smoked salmon

What you will need

• One cooked beetroot
• Greek yoghurt , roughly about 170gs
• Two eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• 140g of self raising flour
• Cream cheese
• Smoked salmon trimmings
• Fresh sprigs of dill

To make this very simple blini batter, Blend the cooked beetroot and greek yoghurt with either a food processer or a stick blender until smooth, Depending on what you have at home of course!
Whish in the eggs , bicarbonate of soda and the self raising flour.
Drop tablespoons of this mixture into a frying pan with a little vegetable oil.
This process is almost like making pancakes, when bubbles appear simply flip onto the other side cook for a further 30 seconds or so and transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Spread each blini with some softened cream cheese and top with smoked salmon, season with a little cracked black pepper and some sea salt and garnish with a sprig of fresh dill.

Christmas Canape's

These are some really easy but gorgeous canapé's that only take a couple of minutes to put together , and involve little or no cooking.

Serrano wrapped pears with goats cheese

What you will need

• 6 slices of Serrano ham
• 1 pear
• 125g of goats cheese
• Some fresh rocket leaves

Simply tear 6 slices of Serrano ham.
Core a pear and cut into 12 slices.
Place a piece of pear on the bottom of the ham, add a little chunk of the goats cheese and scatter a couple of rocket leaves on top and roll up.
I sometimes like to add a drizzle of honey over the goats cheese but that's entirely optional. As an alternative to the pears peaches would make a very nice substitute.