Three recipes for a sweeter Christmas together
Make the most of the festive season to share unforgettable moments with the people you care about most, whether family or friends (who are family too).
To help you enjoy a sweeter Christmas together, we're adding our pinch of festive magic by sharing a few easy recipes that are very typical of this time of year. Treat yourself to Christmas biscuits, mulled wine or a delicious hot chocolate. Enjoy!
And if you want to fill your decor with festive spirit, take a look at our themed tea towels.
Hot chocolate, perfect for a cold afternoon
Who doesn't love a good homemade hot chocolate when winter arrives? Of course, everyone's palate is different and everyone has their own tastes (more or less cocoa and sugar, with or without a hint of spice, etc.), but we've chosen a recipe that tends to please everyone, especially the youngest members of the family.
Top your chocolate with a few decorations (marshmallows, chocolate shavings, cream, whatever you like) and enjoy the flavour.
Hot chocolate for 4 people
The ingredients are:
- 400 g dark chocolate bar (ideally 70% cocoa)
- 1 litre whole milk
- 1 cinnamon stick for flavour (optional)
- 30 g sugar (optional)
First, heat the milk in a saucepan and then add the sugar (if you want to use it). Add the cinnamon stick too, for flavour.
Then break the chocolate into pieces and, when the milk is hot but not yet boiling, add it to the pan.
Mix well with a whisk to get rid of any lumps. When it starts to boil, take it off the heat and, once it stops bubbling, put it back on until it starts to boil again.
Boiling it twice will make the chocolate thicker. Then take it off the heat and serve. It's that easy!
Christmas butter biscuits
Although you can add spices or make biscuits with hints of ginger and cinnamon, here we'll show you the simplest way to make delicious butter biscuits.
A batch of 25 biscuits
Ingredients for this recipe:
- 150 grams butter
- 300 grams flour
- 120 grams sugar
- 1 medium egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
The first thing to do is beat the sugar and butter in a bowl until they form a kind of paste.
Then add the egg and mix it into the dough. Use a whisk, as it will make it easier to combine everything well.
When you've finished, let the biscuit dough chill in the fridge for about half an hour, covered with cling film.
After that time, take it out and roll the dough out on baking paper (without removing the cling film, which should also go on top) until you have a sheet the thickness of a classic biscuit, neither too thick nor too thin.
Freeze for about 15 minutes to make it easier to cut with the cutters you're going to use.
Make the biscuits using festive cutters if you like; if not, you can make them round, oval, square, rectangular, whatever you like!
Bake for around 10 to 12 minutes, or until the edges of the biscuits start to brown; then take them out of the oven and leave them to cool.
You can decorate them if you like and then tuck in with a nice hot drink!
The German spiced wine you'll find at every Christmas market
Mulled wine is a Christmas staple in northern Europe, especially in the coldest countries. German "Glühwein", or spiced mulled wine, is the country's official Christmas drink. Would you like to learn how to make it?
Spiced mulled wine
What you need to make it for about six people is:
- 750 ml red wine of decent quality
- 80 grams brown sugar
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 cardamom pods
- 6 cloves
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 2 star anise
- 1 pinch ground nutmeg
- The peel of one lemon
- The peel of one orange
First, put all the spices in a wide pot or pan. Add the sugar too and heat until the aromas start to come out. At that point, pour in a little wine, just enough to cover the sugar.
Heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until it dissolves.
Then add the rest of the red wine, mixing everything well.
Heat over a medium heat without letting it come to the boil. Cook for about 30 minutes, making sure the temperature doesn't get too high.
Check the sweetness and, if it isn't sweet enough, add a little more sugar, or honey if you prefer.
Finally, strain to remove the spices and store the wine in a large bottle, a cask or jars.
