Christmas baking: almond bread

The lead up to Christmas can be such a wonderful time. I think I might even like it more than the day itself. Now I don't mean the shopping with the hoards or driving around on the chaotic streets. Hate all that. It's the Christmas decorating, baking and catch ups I love. When the tree is up and the stockings hung, the carols go on full blast and I mix bags and bags of flour and sugar with towers of butter! So far I've brewed up gingerbread, mini rocky roads, salted caramel fudge, cookies and cream fudge, date, raison and hazelnut liquor truffles and my old favourite, almond bread. My mum used to make this and I've been baking it for at least the last six years. I always make at least four loaves and give it away in clear cellophane bags tied with pretty ribbons (The wrapping is important! I also love wrapping presents nicely. What can be more exciting that opening a pretty package?). Almond bread is also great to serve to guests that pop in ** over the festive season. Great with a coffee or a bowl of cherries. 

Almond bread 

Ingredients

2 egg whites
½ cup caster sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
2 egg yolks 

1 cup plain flour
120 grams unblanched almonds

Method

Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry.
Add caster sugar gradually while continuing to beat.
Fold in vanilla and lightly beaten egg yolks.
Sift flour and fold in with almonds.
Place in loaf tin that has been lined with baking paper.
Bake at 180C for about 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
When cool, wrap in a glad wrap and leave for 2 to 3 days.
Slice with a sharp knife as thinly as possible.
Place on a baking tray and dry in oven at about 120C until golden but not brown.
This should take an hour at most. Turn off oven and leave to cool.
Store in an airtight container. 

** A note on popping in. No one pops in when you want them too, do they? When the house is clean and something delicious has just come out of the oven, all your friends and family are no-where to be seen. The act of popping in seems to be dying off and I wonder if it's a generational thing. I admit that I like a bit of notice when having guests. I need time to pull off my ancient slippers with the paint splotches and wash all the baking dishes! But I have great childhood memories of family friends popping in when growing up, especially at this time of year. So, now that the cupboards are stocked with freshly baked goods, should I put the vibe out for a few pop ins?!?

An edible Christmas

Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat
Please to put a penny in the old man's hat;
If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do,
If you haven't got a ha'penny then God bless you!

Christmas is coming indeed. So excited! I woke to Sarah McLachlan singing A Merry Little Christmas from my festive playlist and I now have this favourite litte English nursery rhyme in my head (see above). As promised, here is a peek of my edible Christmas gifts. Since we do the Christmas Eve present opening in our family, there's only hours now until I can bestow my little hampers (above) on my family.

Christmas Spice biscuits in snowflake shapes (recipe from Margaret Fulton Christmas: A collection of Christmas favourites).

Christmas Spice biscuits in cellophane bags with snowflake ribbon!

Almond bread (recipe is an old favourite and I'm not sure of the source)

Mince pies yet to be dusted with icing sugar (recipe from Margaret Fulton Christmas: A collection of Christmas favourites).

Cherry and vanilla bean jam (Karen Martini recipe from the Sunday Life magazine in the Age. It worked out in the end after a few tweeks and tastes delicious, but I don't recommend this particular recipe. A few weeks later a notice was posted in the magazine to say the recipe was incorrect -no news flash, we'd figured that out in the cooking process - and a revised version was published. Annoying - I hate dud recipes).

Ye old favourite gingerbread men. These didn't go in the hampers as they were for the kiddies we saw leading up to Christmas (recipe from 09 Coles catalogue that I used last year).

The boxed Charles Whyte Christmas collection

The paper bag version of the Charles Whyte Christmas collection.

Phew! That's it! Lots of time, love and joy went into the making of these so I hope they are gobbled with gusto. Now I think I deserve to kick back to eat, drink and be merry for a few days (oh hang on, I'm hosting Christmas Day and still have a feast to prepare!).

A big thank you for stopping by and reading my blog this year. May your festive season be filled with peace, joy and the ones you love. I look forward to sharing more of the things that make my heart sing when the silly season is fini. xx

A festive wrap tune

Forgive my absence, I have been happily baking up a festive storm after work each evening. No time for blogging between gingerbread men, almond bread, mince tarts, cherry and vanilla bean jam and Christmas spice biscuits with snowflake icing. Lots of photos to share but not until the the day draws closer to lessen the chance of ruining the surprise for any friends and family that check in here from time to time.

Lucky, all my gifts are wrapped so today I can proudly present my musical wrapping. Now this really has my heart singing. After a fossick through the books at Savers Footscray, I came across an old book of sheet music with pages yellowed just so without signs of mildew. After forking out $1.99 for the book, I was bursting to try this wrapping I'd only previously seen in magazines. Quick trip to a discount variety store for some red ribbon, a shipping label, some stamping with my kikki.k set and voila. Sweet tunes all round.

A few tips: some gifts are too big to wrap in the pages of the music book but it looked great on a solid square or rectangle (as above). Also, old books can smell musty. I posted two gifts wrapped this way interstate and was worried that they might not smell great after being trapped in a post bag, so just to be sure, I gave the gifts a spray of parfum! For this reason, this wrapping may not be for everyone. Keep some cartoon Santa wrapping paper on hand for those that may not appreciate your creative, gorgeous masterpieces (and for the kiddies that just want to rip into the treasure without a bow in their path). Save the delightful, vintage-inspired creations pour moi!

Joy to the world

Oh joy, oh joy, Santa brought me a bike! It was salvaged from my mum’s bike graveyard and given a new lease on life by my beloved and my little brothers. Amazing what a basket, pack rack, brake pads and new chain can do for a relic. So far, I’ve only ventured a few blocks from home to Puckle Street and Queen’s Park but I did get the opportunity to carry home some shopping in the basket. Super exciting!

I am now on the look out for a comfortable saddle, preferably tan in colour and an old school helmet. Unfortunately , the helmet I inherited from my brother doesn’t have that leisurely vibe and makes me look like I’d rather be on a racer (nnoooo!). Also on the ‘to do’ list is lacquering the basket to protect it from the weather and give it a deeper colour.

Santa also surprised me with this lovely globe. The first time Santa saw something like this he thought it was dumb because the world doesn’t sit like that. So glad he come around and realised that it has superb form regardless of the North Pole's position. I love it!