This little series is the recipes for the components of my Christmas hampers. I made hampers as gifts this year for family and friends and they went down incredibly well! Despite the festive season now having passed, these recipes are perfect for wintery days, weekends in the kitchen and simple gifts throughout the year. Most of the foods do suit the wintery months best and the majority of ingredients have the benefit of already being in the larder. You can check out my Pinterest here for more homemade present inspiration.
The first, and my favourite of the homemade gifts is a delicious chocolate bark! A bag of chocolate bark can be created by even the most novice of cooks and really can be customised for all tastes and purposes!
I used:
2 or 3 bars of good quality dark chocolate
1 cup of almonds
1 cup pistachios
1 tbs cocoa powder
2 tbs coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 cups flaked coconut
1/2 cup sesame seeds
Begin by popping your pistachios and almonds in a baking tray, with the coconut oil and roast for 10 minutes at about 150 degrees. After 10 minutes remove from the oven and add the sea salt, cocoa and vanilla extract. Roast for a further 10 minutes.
Line a baking tray with cling film and drizzle in your melted chocolate. Try and resist the temptation to eat it at this stage!! Push the chocolate around so that its fairly evenly distributed.
Grab the nuts from the oven and pour into the chocolate. Sprinkle over the sesame seeds, a little more sea salt (to stop the chocolate from being too bitter) and the flaked coconut. Stand back and admire the beautifulness and then pop the tray in the fridge for a couple of hours to allow to fully set.
Cut up systematically or smash and pop into cellophane. Decorate as desired and its ready to share - do make sure you try some yourself though, it really is delicious!
Those pistachios look bloody amazing!! Would love to have that inside my Christmas Hampers 2015 - wow!
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