‘Tis the season to be jolly!” After a busy year, we’re all in need of some Christmas cheer. It doesn’t matter if the tree went up soon after Halloween or your Christmas movie marathon started when the first leaf dropped. We’re not judging!
Whether you’re craving mince pies or looking for the perfect biscuit batch, there’s nothing better than treating yourself to the holiday’s most festive foods. We’re sharing a couple of our favourite Christmas treats. They’re healthier, overflowing with seasonal flavours and make great festive gifts.
Clear Day Cake
If we’re talking healthy treats, there is no way this one wouldn’t feature top of our list. This is a no fuss cake that we often bake for our healing clear day events at Spinal Care Clinics in Brentwood. It’s packed with goodness and is insanely yummy.
Ingredients:
- 14 tbsp (110 g) self raising flour
- 4 tbsp (50g) sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 400g nuts of your choice
- 400 g dried fruits. This depends on what we find in our kitchen cupboards but raisins, prunes and apricots work wonderfully!
- Pre-heat oven to 180C and prepare a baking tin.
- Mix together the flour, sugar, eggs and cinnamon before adding the dried fruits and nuts to the mixture.
- Once all the ingredients are well combined, transfer to the baking tin.
- Bake the cake in the oven for 45 minutes and voila!
Christmas Bark
Incredibly easy to make, looks beautiful to serve and it’s one the kids will love to get involved with. There isn’t really a recipe you need to follow here so let your creativity take over.
Our favourite uses:
- Two 70% dark chocolate bars
- A small handful of pistachios, almonds and dried cranberries
- 2/3 bar of white chocolate
- Melt both chocolates separately in a pan over simmering water.
- Spread the melted dark chocolate into a rectangular shape on a sheet of baking parchment
- Drizzle the white chocolate creating beautiful swirling patterns
- Sprinkle with nuts and cranberries or whatever dried fruit you love
- Leave to cool in the fridge before breaking it into shards.
Christmas energy biscuits
Somewhere between an energy bar and a crunchy biscuit, these treats go wonderfully with a steaming hot cuppa. They’re ideal for kids or a perfect pick me up being low sugar, high protein and absolutely yummy!
Ingredients:
- 150g white flour
- 150g whole-wheat flour
- 80g oats
- 80g honey
- 1 egg
- 90g smooth peanut butter
- 100g plain yoghurt
- A little vanilla extract
- A handful of dried fruits, nuts or chocolate chips – you choose! We tried toasted sliced almonds and apricots, which were delicious!
- Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix manually into a dough-like consistency.
- Transfer the mixture onto clingfilm and wrap tightly.
- Cool in the fridge for at least ten minutes.
- In the meantime, preheat the oven to 200C and prepare a baking tray with parchment.
- Remove the mixture and take a small amount of dough.
- Roll it into a ball in your hand. Flatten slightly in your palm before placing it on the baking tray. Repeat until all the mixture is used up.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven for roughly 10 minutes.
Keep an eye on them as you’re aiming for a slightly golden look.