(photograph © Kiwidutch)
Himself and I had a friend babysit our kids at her house whilst we sneaked out to the shops to “help Santa” bring in some surprises for Christmas Day.
When we came back later to collect the children they surprised us with a lovely treat: her son and our two had been busy in the kitchen making some wonderful little Christmas tray treats.
Simple ingredients, easy to make and looking amazing!
These little Christmas “puddings” are not “puddings” at all, but are really just mallowpuff biscuits, partly covered with melted white chocolate, and topped with New Zealand “lollies” (sweets/snoepjes/candy) in the form of gummy spearmint leaves and a Jaffa.
Since these were presented fully-made and as a surprise, I didn’t get the chance to photograph the seperate ingredients, but here are links to photos that should shed some light on what the ingredients actually are .
Mallowpuffs are described as “Light fluffy marshmallow sitting on top of a shortcake biscuit, covered in luxurious milk chocolate.” and you can see a picture of them here: http://www.griffins.co.nz/by-name/mallowpuffs
Spearmint Leaves are a soft-ish chewy gummy type sweet, tasting (naturally enough) of spearmint and shaped like a leaf. Here’s a link to a photograph: http://www.lollyworld.com.au/pascall-spearmint-leaves-2kg-bulk-nz-lollies-624.html
And Jaffa’s are a classic New Zealand sweet that all Kiwi’s know and love, they are little balls of chocolate covered in a hard orange candy shell : http://www.shopnewzealand.co.nz/en/cp/Cadbury_Jaffas_140g
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
Ingredients:
- Mallowpuffs
- White Chocolate
- Spearmint leaf lollies/sweets/ candy
- Jaffa lollies/sweets/ candy
Method:
Cut the spearmint leaves in half (lengthwise) , melt the white chocolate, put into a piping bag (or sturdy plastic bag with a corner snipped off) and pipe it onto the top of the mallowpuff biscuits (cookies).
Then place the spearmint leaf pieces into the choclate and top with a jaffa for the “berry” in the centre.
My friend melted the white chocolate and supervised the piping, her 11 year old son cut the leaves in half with a sharp knife and my 10 and 6 year olds made a little production line with the 11 year old to assemble everything.
They made a grand effort and doesn’t the result look stunning? (I think so!!!)
Maybe you will need to find similar “style” ingredients where you are if an exact match isn’t possible, but the idea is blissfully easy and if three kids can whip up three trays of these with minimal help from an adult, then it proves that this would be a quick and easy winner of a recipe for any busy adult (or adult with kids) to whip up for that work afternoon-tea, end-of-year school party, or sports function etc.
As an addition to your Christmas baking trays, they couldn’t be easier and they look wonderfully festive!
The note reads… “dear Mama and Daddy, Love from …(Kids names obscured for internet privacy).
PLEASE NOTE: I’ve been warned that trying to substitute icing / frosting for the white chocolate is fraught with difficulty, because unless the icing/frosting is of an exact consistency, it will simply slide off the side of the mallowpuff into puddles at the bottom, so DO use white chocolate which I’ve been assured is pretty much foolproof.
So… How do they taste? Excellent!… I “needed” to taste several to make sure LOL . Enjoy!
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
