To make your Christmas celebrations cheerful, Chef Ranveer Brar has created some decadent treats.
Caramel gingerbread cookies
Photograph: Courtesy ulleo/Pixabay.com
Ingredients:
For the cookies:
- ½ cup butter, softened
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup Hershey's caramel syrup
- 1½ cup refined flour
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ginger powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon powder
- ¼ tsp clove powder
- ¼ tsp nutmeg powder
Other ingredients:
- ½ cup white chocolate, melted
Method:
- In a large mixing bowl combine butter, sugar and start beating with a hand blender till soft and creamy.
- Add Hershey’s caramel syrup and mix again till well combined. Now add in refined flour, baking powder, baking soda and all the spices. Give a nice mix with a spatula till all combined.
- Dust your hands with refined flour and smooth out dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 mins.
- Take the dough out of refrigerator and sprinkle flour over dough and rolling pin. Roll dough to a ¼ inch thickness. Use additional flour to avoid sticking.
- Line a baking tray with butter paper and pre-heat the oven at 170°C.
- Cut out cookies with a ginger man cookie cutter or any other desired cutter.
- Place the cookies 1 ½ inches apart. Bake the cookies in batches. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 160°C for 7-10 minutes.
- Remove cookie sheet from oven and allow the cookies to stand until the cookies are firm enough to move to a wire rack.
- Decorate the cookies with melted white chocolate.
Chocolate Christmas fruit cake
Photograph: Courtesy Daria-Yakovleva/Instagram
Ingredients:
For soaking:
- ¾ cup dry fruits and nuts (tutti frutti, cherries, raisins, almonds)
- 1 cup orange juice
- 1 tsp rum essence (optional)
- 2 tsp orange zest
- 1 tsp candied ginger (optional)
- ½ tsp cinnamon powder
- 2 tbsp wheat flour
For cake:
- 1 cup ragi flour
- 1 cup wheat flour
- ½ cup Hershey's cocoa powder
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- A pinch of salt
- ½ cup Hershey’s chocolate syrup
- 1 cup milk
- ¾ cup melted butter
- ¼ cup icing sugar
Method:
- For soaked fruits, take dry fruits and nuts in a bowl. Pour in orange juice and rum essence. Add in orange zest, candied ginger and cinnamon powder. Mix everything well. Let this rest for 2-3 hours.
- For the cake, take a bowl and add in all the dry ingredients. Mix well.
- Now pour in chocolate syrup, milk and melted butter. Combine everything well, ensure there are no lumps in the batter.
- Toss the soaked fruits with 2 tbsp wheat flour. This keeps the fruits from settling down while baking. Add in the soaked fruits and mix everything well. Batter should be of thick pouring consistency.
- Line a cake tin with butter paper. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Pour the cake batter in the lined tin. Tap it gently to remove air bubbles. Bake for 35 minutes or until the knife comes out completely clean. De-mould the cake and let it cool down to room temperature. Dust the fruit cake with icing sugar and serve.
