Christmas is coming

Hello to you all from my French kitchen

I love making edible (or drinkable) gifts for Christmas and stack up the chutneys and preserves through the year for this purpose. Recently I made some quince cheese, which has turned out rather well. The colour is so gorgeous and the taste is pretty good too! This is great with a cheese board but also works on toast. I gave a pot to our elderly neighbour who loves quince cheese, and makes her own, and got high praise – I was secretly rather pleased. I think she is after some more!

When cherries were in season you may remember that I posted about all the things I had made with cherries (Cooking with the Season – June). One of these was an old French recipe for Cherries in Armagnac. These have been nestling in a dark cupboard with the occasional gentle shake since June. A couple of weekends ago we had some friends for supper and I decorated the chocolate cake I had made for pudding with some of these cherries. Wow – they are amazing, the cherries are still firm and have retained their shape, but are soaked in Armagnac – a delicious combination of flavours. This is a recipe to repeat but also something we are going to enjoy over the festive period and beyond. Since May I have also been adding to a rumtopf, different fruit through the summer season into autumn: strawberries, cherries, peaches, plums, and more, preserved in rum – yet to be tasted. I will let you know how that turns out. I love using a few pieces of these fruits as a grown-up topping to ice-cream or with Greek yogurt or fromage frais, perhaps with a small amount of the liqueur drizzled over it too. A hint of sunnier times in the depths of winter.

Some years ago, at a Christmas market in Manchester, when we were visiting my younger son, we happened upon a stall selling Christmas Pudding Liqueur. It was delicious so inevitably we bought some. It is not something we have seen here in France, so this year I decided to try my hand at creating our own version. There are lots of recipes online and having taken inspiration from these, I have devised one of our own. It needs about 4 weeks to infuse so if you make it now, it will be ready for Christmas. Alongside being a delicious treat, it would also make a lovely gift.

(As with all alcohol, it should be enjoyed in moderation.)

Christmas Pudding Liqueur

Ingredients:

1 75cl bottle of vodka

4tbsp muscovado sugar

1 cinnamon stick

2 cloves

Thinly pared peel of one orange and one lemon (unwaxed and washed)

25g each of raisins, currants, sultanas. You could also add cranberries and/or chopped dried figs too

Method:

1: Sterilise a large Kilner or screw top jar (1 litre plus). To do this wash thoroughly in hot soapy water, rinse and put into a low oven (150° C/Gas mark 2) for about 20 mins.

2: Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, mix well and transfer to a jug.

3: Pour into the sterilised jar and seal.

4: Leave this for about 4 weeks in a cool, dark place, occasionally turning the container gently to mix up the ingredients.

5: When you are ready to bottle, strain the liquid into a jug and then pour into small sterilised bottles using a funnel (see 1 for sterilising info). You could add a piece of thinly pared orange or lemon peel and/or a cinnamon stick. Label and decorate if giving as a Christmas gift.

Enjoy it on its own as a liqueur, try in cocktails, add a measure to mulled wine or serve with tonic over ice with a slice of lemon or orange.

I would love to hear how you get on and whether you enjoyed it. It will be a first for us too, so we will let you know what we thought.

Happy preserving!