Do you need great ideas for cheap, original and easy-to-make Christmas gifts? The teams from the Estoril High School of Hospitality and Tourism, the Association of Professional Chefs of Portugal and DECO PROTESTE have created 11 recipes for biscuits, cakes and other sweets that you can make and offer at Christmas.
Get your hands dirty this Christmas and take care of the wrapping at the end. You can use leftover paper from previous years’ gifts, colored magazine paper or even newspaper pages that have been painted by the little ones. But note: food should only be placed directly on paper intended for food purposes! As for the rest, it’s all a matter of getting your head around it and giving it your personal touch.
orange cookies
The main ingredient is the orange peel, and you can use the orange juice for other purposes, such as juice and orange pie. It is a laborious recipe, since the process of making the oranges it is time consuming. At home, however, this is done with some ease.
Ingredients for the orangettes
4 oranges
500 gr sugar
500 ml Water
Ingredients for about 20 cookies
100 g butter
100 g sugar
200 g oranges
4 soup spoons flour
150 g dark chocolate
Carefully remove the peel from the oranges. Cut the peel into strips. Place them in a pan and cover with water. After it boils, let it boil for two to three minutes and pour out the water. Repeat this process two more times to remove the acidity. Make a syrup with the water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil. When the sugar is completely dissolved, add the orange peels and simmer over low heat for three hours. Remove the skins from the syrup and place on a tray lined with parchment paper. Let it dry for two to three days for the sugar to crystallize. Dip in sugar when serving.
To make the cookies, make the fine oranges. Place the butter and sugar in a saucepan over low heat until the butter and sugar melt. Remove from heat. Add all the ingredients except chocolate. Using a tablespoon, drop mounds of dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Leave room for the biscuits to rise. Flatten the hills slightly. Take one tray at a time to the preheated oven of 180ºC, about five to seven minutes. Let it cool. Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie or in the microwave. Decorate the surface of the cookies with the chocolate. Allow to cool and set.
Nutritional values per serving
Energy 159 calories
Proteins 1 g
lipids 7g
Carbohydrates 23g
Price
Total €1.98
price per cookie €0.20
Marmalade
Ingredients for 50 servings of marmalade
1 kg quinces
1 kg sugar
1 lemon juice)
Wash, peel and quarter the quinces. Remove the seeds. Keep the skins and seeds. Cut the quinces into small pieces and place in a pan. Cover with water. Add sugar and lemon juice. Heat over high heat until the quinces are cooked, then remove from heat. Grind with a magic wand and bring back to the heat until thickened. Place on a deep dish and leave to cool. Cut into pieces, wrap in parchment paper, decorate and present as a Christmas present.
Nutritional values per serving
Energy 84 kcal
Carbohydrates 21g
Price
Total €4.20
Price per person €0.42
Jelly
Ingredients for 50 servings of jelly
1.5 l water for every kilogram of peels and seeds
1 kg sugar for every liter of liquid obtained after boiling
Cook the skins and seeds over very low heat. Strain the liquid and measure. Add the respective calculated amount of sugar and bring to a boil again until you get a jam-like consistency. Put them in jars and personalize them with, for example, Christmas verses and poems.
Nutritional values per serving
Energy 84 kcal
Carbohydrates 21 g
Price
Total €1.77
price per serving €0.18
almond candy
Ingredients for 25 sweets
125 g sugar
40 g Water
8 jewels
80 g ground almond
200 g caramel
Make a hard ball sugar point at 129ºC. To do this, pour some sugar syrup into a container of cold water to form a consistent ball. Use a thermometer to measure the temperature.
Pour the dot over the yolks and almonds, previously mixed, and mix well. Bring to a boil until thickened. Let it cool and make balls of about 10 g each. Let rest for 24 hours. Make a caramel. Dip the balls in the caramel and place on a surface lined with parchment paper. Let cool and wrap.
nutritional values per dose
Energy 64 kcal
Proteins 2 g
lipids 4g
Carbohydrates 5g
Price
Total €2.34
price per candy €0.23
Christmas scones
Ingredients for 22 scones
500 gr mashed potatoes
500 gr sugar
100 g grated coconut
100 g bread crumbs
4 eggs
1 egg yolk
100 g flour
100 g cornmeal
100 g ground almond
1 orange (peel)
Boil the sweet potato, let it cool, remove the skin and break it into pieces. Triturate with a wand until you get a puree. Heat the sugar until it is completely dissolved. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place mounds of dough with space between them. Brush with egg yolk and sprinkle with grated coconut. Bake at 180°C until golden brown.
Nutritional values per serving
Energy 215 calories
Proteins 3 g
lipids 7 g
Carbohydrates 35 g
Price
Total €4.79
price per scone €0.48