Nigella Christmas: Food, Family, Friends, Festivities (26 page)

Now, it doesn’t look anything like a log when it is just a bald roulade, but once you’ve spread on the chocolate icing, made approximations of wood-markings on it (I use the sharp end of a corn-on-the-cob holder for this) and all, it does look quite impressive. I don’t go as far as the French, and make sugar mushrooms to adorn it: this is not only because I lack the talent, but also because a light snowfall of icing sugar is all this yule log really needs to complete its wintry perfection.

Makes about 12 fat slices

FOR THE CAKE:

6 eggs, separated

150g caster sugar

50g cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3–5 teaspoons icing sugar to decorate

FOR THE ICING:

175g dark chocolate, chopped

250g icing sugar

225g soft butter

1 × 15ml tablespoon vanilla extract

• Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4.

• In a large, clean bowl whisk the egg whites until thick and peaking, then, still whisking, sprinkle in 50g of the caster sugar and continue whisking until the whites are holding their peaks but not dry.

• In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks and the remaining caster sugar until the mixture is moussy, pale and thick. Add the vanilla extract, sieve the cocoa powder over, then fold both in.

• Lighten the yolk mixture with a couple of dollops of the egg whites, folding them in robustly. Then add the remaining whites in thirds, folding them in carefully to avoid losing the air.

• Line a Swiss roll tin with baking parchment, leaving a generous overhang at the ends and sides, and folding the parchment into the corners to help the paper stay anchored.

• Pour in the cake mixture and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Let the cake cool a little before turning it out onto another piece of baking parchment.

• To make the icing, melt the chocolate – either in a heatproof bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water or, my preference, in a microwave following the manufacturer’s guidelines – and let it cool.

• Put the icing sugar into a processor and blitz to remove lumps, add the butter and process until smooth. Add the cooled, melted chocolate and the tablespoon of vanilla extract and pulse again to make a smooth icing. You can do this by hand, but it does mean you will have to sieve the sugar before creaming it with the butter and stirring in the chocolate and vanilla.

• Sit the flat chocolate cake on a large piece of baking parchment. Trim the edges of the Swiss roll. Spread some of the icing thinly over the sponge, going right out to the edges. Start rolling from the long side facing you, taking care to get a tight roll from the beginning, and roll up to the other side. Pressing against the parchment, rather than the tender cake, makes this easier.

• Cut one or both ends slightly at a gentle angle, reserving the remnants, and place the Swiss roll on a board or long dish. The remnants, along with the trimmed-off bits earlier, are to make a branch or two; you get the effect by placing a piece of cake at an angle to look like a branch coming off the big log.

• Spread the yule log with the remaining icing, covering the cut-off ends as well as any branches. Create a wood-like texture by marking along the length of the log with a skewer or somesuch, remembering to do wibbly circles, as in tree rings, on each end.

• You don’t have to dust with icing sugar, but I love the freshly fallen snow effect, so push quite a bit through a small sieve, letting some settle in heaps on the plate or board on which the log sits.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Make the Yule Log up to 1 week ahead and store in an airtight container in a very cool place.

FREEZE AHEAD TIP:

Make the Yule Log and freeze in a rigid container for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in a cool room and store in an airtight container until needed.

EDIBLE CHRISTMAS TREE DECORATIONS

I couldn’t have Christmas without these, or at least, not happily. Rituals are essential to give us meaning, a sense of ceremony, and making these peppery, gingerbready edible decorations is how I have always marked with my children that Christmas has begun.

Makes approx. 35–40

FOR THE BISCUITS:

300g plain flour, plus more for dusting

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

1–2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

100g soft butter

100g soft dark sugar

2 large eggs, beaten with 4 × 15ml tablespoons runny honey

FOR THE ICING AND TRIMMINGS (see Stockists):

300g instant royal icing, from a packet

edible gold or silver balls or sprinkles

florists’ ribbon for hanging

• Line 2 baking sheets with parchment and preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3.

• Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves and pepper in a food processor and, with the motor on, add the butter and sugar, then, slowly, the beaten eggs and honey, though don’t use all of this liquid if the pastry has come together before it’s used up.

• Form 2 fat discs and put one, covered in clingfilm or in a freezer bag, in the fridge while you get started on the other.

• Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3. Then dust a work surface with flour, roll out the disc, also floured, to about 5mm and cut out your Christmas decorations with cutters of your choice, which could include fir-tree shapes, angels, stars, snowflakes, and so on.

• Re-roll and cut out some more, setting aside the residue from this first disc, well covered, while you get on with rolling out the second. When you’ve got both sets of leftover clumps of dough, roll out and cut out again, and keep doing so till all the dough’s used up.

• Now take a small icing nozzle and use the pointy end to cut out a hole just below the top of each biscuit (through which ribbon can later be threaded).

• Arrange the pastry shapes on the lined baking sheets and cook for about 20 minutes: it’s hard to see when they’re cooked, but you can feel; if the underside is no longer doughy, they’re ready. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

• Make up the instant royal icing, beating it until it’s thick enough to be able to cover the biscuits with a just-dripping blanket of white; but don’t beat it for as long as the packet says or you’ll have icing so thick it will need to be spread with a spatula and you won’t get such a neat outline.

• Carefully ice the cold decorations, using a teaspoon (the tip for dripping, the back for smoothing), and scatter sparkles or sprinkles as you like. When the icing is set, thread ribbon through the holes and hang on your tree.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Make the biscuits up to 1 week ahead and store in an airtight container. Ice the biscuits the day before needed to allow them plenty of time to set.

FREEZE AHEAD TIP:

The raw cookie dough can be made and frozen for up to 1 month. Thaw in the fridge overnight. The cooked biscuits can be made and frozen in sealable bags for up to 6 months.

PANFORTE

I spent enough of my life in Italy when I was young to feel almost as strongly attached to Italian culinary traditions as I do to my own, home-grown ones. I couldn’t have Christmas without a panettone in the house, though I am happy to buy one. Panforte, that other seasonal sweetmeat, is another matter: it’s easy to produce, and I love the nougat-chewiness of a homemade version; it tastes rather like a clove-flavoured Curly Wurly. Or at least my take on it does – not strictly authentic but recognizably panforte even to Italians.

The original uses candied citron and orange peels; I found some Seggiano chocolate-covered clementines in a cupboard and, snipped up with scissors, they are extravagantly perfect in the already cocoa-darkened panforte. see Stockists or use peel; a little crystallized ginger along with the candied peel would work well here, too.

What you’re making is not exactly a cake, although it’s baked in a cake tin, but rather a fruit and nut compacted dark nougat patty. It is wonderful with coffee and with sharp white cheese.

Makes approx. 20 very thin slices, perhaps even more

125g natural almonds, with skins

100g blanched almonds

125g whole shelled hazelnuts

75g soft dried figs, roughly scissored into 2cm × 1cm pieces

1 × 200g packet chocolate-covered candied clementines (see

Stockists

) or mixed orange and lemon or citron peel, roughly scissored as above

½ teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

good grating of fresh nutmeg

50g plain flour

good grating of white pepper

1 × 15ml tablespoon cocoa powder

150g sugar

150g honey

30g butter

1 × 15ml tablespoon icing sugar

• Preheat your oven to 170°C/gas mark 3. Line the bottom and sides of a single sandwich tin (20cm) with Bake-O-Glide or baking parchment.

• Mix together the nuts, dried fruits and snipped-up chocolate-covered candied clementines (or peel) in a heatproof bowl.

• Add the cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour, white pepper and cocoa powder.

• Put the sugar, honey and butter into a saucepan and melt together gently.

• Take off the heat and pour into the dry ingredients in the heatproof bowl. Stir slowly and patiently to mix everything together well.

• Tip into the sandwich tin and, using wet hands or wearing vinyl disposable gloves, pat and press down on the top to get as smooth a surface as you possibly can.

• Bake in the oven for 40 minutes; the top of the cake will be bubbling when it’s ready.

• Let the cake cool completely in the tin, then remove all the lining and push the icing sugar thickly through a small sieve over the top of the cake before removing to an airtight tin.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Make the Panforte up to 3 weeks ahead and keep in an airtight tin.

SPRUCED-UP VANILLA CAKE

This is a sleight of hand, or a trick of equipment rather than an act of brilliance. True, the cake does look incredibly complicated and seasonally impressive as it comes to the table, but that is all down to the shape of the tin. It’s an expense to get a tin that can’t be used all year round, but it really is a beautifully Christmassy creation, and a doddle to make.

For the “spruced up” of the cake refers to the Holiday Fir tin I bake it in (see Stockists); at other times of the year, I call this Eggy Vanilla Cake and cook it in a 2.5-litre bundt tin, as you can now, too. Whatever the shape, and with either the Antioxidant Salad or the deep blushing pink Rhubarb and Strawberry Compote, it is one of my proudest creations. And the thing is, it doesn’t need just to be brought out as a festive flourish for a supper party, but can be satisfyingly baked and left to preside grandly over the kitchen, commanding anyone to have a slice, damply plain, or toasted, by way of a seasonal treat.

To turn this into Spruced-Up Spice Cake, even more seasonal and just as good, but with less appeal to children, halve the vanilla and add 2 teaspoons each of ground cinnamon and ginger and a half teaspoon of ground cloves.

Makes about 12 slices

225g soft butter, plus more for greasing (or use flavourless oil)

300g caster sugar

6 eggs

350g plain flour

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

250ml (250g) plain fat-free yogurt

4 teaspoons vanilla extract

1–2 × 15ml tablespoons icing sugar

• Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4 and put a baking sheet in at the same time. Butter or oil your large, regular or fir-tree shaped bundt tin (2.5 litres capacity) very, very thoroughly. (I use oil-sodden kitchen paper to do this.)

• Either put all the ingredients except the icing sugar into the processor and blitz together; or mix by hand or in a freestanding mixer as follows:

– Cream together; the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy.

– Add the eggs one at a time, whisking each one in with a tablespoon of flour.

– Fold in the rest of the flour, and add the yogurt and vanilla extract.

• Pour and spoon the mixture into your greased tin and spread about evenly.

• Place the tin on the preheated baking sheet in the oven and cook for 45–60 minutes until well risen and golden. After 45 minutes, push a skewer into the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is cooked. Let it sit out of the oven for 15 minutes.

• Gently pull away the edges of the cake from the tin with your fingers, then turn out the cake, hoping for the best.

• Once cool, dust with the icing sugar pushed through a small sieve, to decorate: think fresh snowfall on the alps.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:

Make the cake, turn out and leave to cool. Wrap in clingfilm and foil and store in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

FREEZE AHEAD TIP:

Make, wrap and freeze the cake for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in a cool room.

STICKY GINGERBREAD

I can’t disentangle the smell of gingerbread from the smell of Christmas: I can think of no better welcome as people come through the door of the kitchen than the waft of it freshly baking in the oven. It is relaxingly simple to prepare, is good at any hour and keeps wonderfully.

I’m happy with it unfrosted, just left plain or perhaps snowily dusted with icing sugar, but if you want you can (as I do if it is for a bake sale) make a sharply contrasting icing by sieving 175g icing sugar and mixing it till thick and spreadable with a tablespoon of lemon juice and one of warm water. Spread this over the cold slab of gingerbread, and leave to set before cutting.

But it is, perhaps, the simplicity of the gingerbread, sticky with syrup and dark muscovado sugar, that makes me love it most. A square of it with a nice cup of tea would make even wrapping-up seem less vile, though I’d recommend having a pack of wipes nearby.

Makes 20 squares

150g butter

200g golden syrup

200g black treacle or molasses

125g dark muscovado sugar

2 teaspoons finely grated ginger

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, dissolved in 2 × 15ml tablespoons warm water