(Reuters) – Snow covered cars are parked in the car park of Simon car re-import company in Emmering westward of Munich December 12, 2008. Talks between the German government and carmaker Opel are continuing and Berlin stands ready to decide on providing guarantees to the company before Christmans if it needs help, the Economy Ministry said on Friday. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle (GERMANY)
Author: greetingstuffs
Christmas shines as No. 12 Duke nips No. 4 Stanford 56-52 (USA Today)
Karima Christmas scored 10 of her career-high 14 points in the second half and chased down the critical rebound that led No. 12 Duke past No. 4 Stanford 56-52 on Tuesday night.
Green Christmas Reduces Waste
Are visions of a greener holiday season dancing in your head?
Consider using a live evergreen as your Christmas tree, and offering nontraditional gifts, such as sporting event tickets and music lessons.
Many people buy live Christmas trees because they can plant them after the holidays, said Marisa Keris, whose parents run Keris Tree Farm & Christmas Shop in Upper Freehold.
“Some people have, like, 10 years of Christmas trees along their yard,” said Keris, 23.
Cut Christmas trees also can be recycled as mulch, which help new trees grow.
From Thanksgiving to the New Year, Americans generate an extra million tons of waste each week, according to the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation.
They also toss out enough ribbon every year to tie a bow around the Earth and throw nearly 1 billion Christmas cards into the garbage instead of recycling them, according to the New York agency.
But people can take scores of steps to be greener this holiday season, according to experts and advocates.
“I think it’s becoming more common that people think of these things in their everyday life,” said Kirstin McPolin of Middletown, president of Real Mama Inc., a nonprofit focusing on environmental issues and children’s health and wellness. “As hard as it is during this season, we want people to remember that there are ways to do it.”
Real Mama tips include preparing meals with organic ingredients, shopping within about 10 miles of home to save fuel and turning down the heat to 55 degrees when on vacation, McPolin said.
Other tips include decorating the tree with homemade or natural ornaments and giving cloth napkins to family and friends, she said.
People should “avoid impulsive shopping,” said Fran Metzger, Monmouth County recycling coordinator. “Give a lasting gift of a movie ticket or a theater certificate or gift certificate.”
Metzger also recommends choosing toys and tools that run on rechargeable batteries, using reusable cloth shopping bags, buying gift wrap and cards made from recycled paper and using old holiday cards as gift tags.
Using comic books or old road maps for wrapping could “become a conversation piece,” she said.
“Shredded newspaper makes good packaging material rather than using the (Styrofoam) peanuts,” she said.
As for Christmas trees, check with your municipal public works department on when cut trees can be placed at the curb or dropped off for chipping, Metzger said. Towns usually use chipped trees in flower beds or make them available to residents for use, she said.
In Ocean County, most towns collect Christmas trees, and county parks also collect them, said John A. Haas, Ocean County recycling coordinator.
And because people receive new clothing during the holiday season, they should recycle their older clothing through their church or synagogue, Haas said. Hundreds of clothes recycling bins are throughout the county, and people are especially in need this winter, he said.
by Todd B. Bates
Christmas Marketing Idea – Promotional Christmas Cracker
There is a rubber band powered promotional product known in the UK as an auto extender and it is most often used as an everyday promotional mailer where the message is growth or speed. But what about its potential as a seasonal mailer – or even a fun Christmas greetings card
Each year companies spend a great deal of time and effort trying to come up with an idea for a company card. Invariably, other projects take priority and the choice of a top notch company greeting is left as a last minute decision and the opportunity to create a lasting impression is lost. If you are reading this as a brand new article you might well be thinking that I’ve gone mad as it’s still only August and I’m already talking about Christmas. Well that’s because I know that things are left to the last minute every single year. It’s almost as if Christmas takes the corporate marketing world by surprise – as if it were a floating date. What I am trying to say here is that if you don’t chose your company greeting or Christmas card with care and thought then your last minute afterthought of a 4-page A5 card will be money and opportunity wasted. The card will be hung up on a line of ribbon on your customer’s office wall with scores of others who have done exactly the same thing and got hung up with the smalls!
I urge you to start thinking right now and here’s one neat idea to get the grey matter working. In a word, it’s – “crackers”.
As a symbol of Christmas the humble Christmas cracker is quite possibly the most physical and noisy! It is a highly interactive product and contains the promise of a small gift, a party hat and a party joke. If you want to create a similar festive feeling to the Christmas cracker with your Christmas promotion then the auto extender might just fit the bill.
The auto extender is the ideal product to take on the guise of a Christmas cracker. The product is delivered compressed in a custom-designed envelope. When the extender is taken out of the envelope the sides shoot out with a whoosh and a crack giving your Christmas promotion the impact that you are looking for and making sure that your customer remembers you. The auto extender is also a very interactive product and it will be passed around your customer’s office for everyone to have a play with, making it a very effective marketing product for Christmas promotions. Comparison of auto extenders to Christmas crackers is very apt and one that hasn’t gone unnoticed by advertisers for Christmas ad campaigns.
By Paul Whitney
Christmas Scrapbooking Ideas
Well, if you’re waiting for Christmas to come, its almost here! Which means that you gotta get busy and start getting things together. But while you’re scrambling around, trying to get everything organized, dont forget to put your holiday greeting card on the list! And this year, you’ll want to make it special by making your Christmas cards yourself.
Hopefully some of these ideas here will get your creative mind going and some holiday inspiration to put together one of your best Christmas scrapbooking cards ever! There is something special about spending time with your family and making Christmas cards. I remember when I was a little girl and we would spend all sorts of time putting together our Christmas cards. I bet that your kids will never forget either!
Anyways, a good idea for a Christmas scrapbook card would be to create a north pole theme, and then have your kids dressed up as elves, and the dad as Santa Claus and the wife as Ms. Claus! Then you could take photos of everybody having fun together, then assemble on your Christmas scrapbook card. And if you have any pets, like a dog, you could dress them up as reindeer! I bet our little dog would look hilarious as Rudolph!
Another idea you could use for your Christmas scrapbook card is to create snowflakes. You fold up some blank white pieces of paper and then cut odd shapes out of the edges. Then you unfold, and presto! You have snowflakes. Then what you’ll want to do is take your best one, and put everybody’s face on it. Or you all could make smaller, individual snowflakes and put a single picture on each snowflake!
By Jenny Hampdon
6 Horrible Christmas Gift Ideas That You Should Avoid
Gifter, before you decide to buy something for you friends, neighbor, families or relatives, beware what you are about doing may hurt your recipients. While this statement seems harsh and you have the best intentions that you wish your recipient well but some of the ideas we are about discussed here are actually nightmare and just do much harm to your recipients than bringing up Christmas joy! Therefore we recommend you that stay away of our list of six horrible gift ideas that we are about to discuss:
Horrible Gift Idea #1: Items That Give a “Clever” Hint to a Recipient’s Problem
For this idea you actually tell your recipient that they have some problem that they need to make a change in their life. While we think it is a polite way of telling them but it actually causes more pain and trouble than it is worth. For instance, gifts such as books for losing weight, an audio book on helping them with their memory or even a book to teach them how to find a right guy or girl. When your recipients receive your gift, they may just think you are calling them fat, dumb, or a person just cannot meet good people for relationship. While you may not have this type of intention but some of your recipients may just feel this way. So these type of gifts will just cause pain and depression than the opposite of what you hope for.
Horrible Gift Idea #2: No Thought On Your Gift
Well, for this type of idea, you may just do not give at all instead of giving away anything that your recipient don’t even wear or cannot use at all. Things such as body jewelry that the recipient don’t have ear pieced on, a Buddha T shirt for a Christian or a bottle of wine to a Hep B patient are just few examples we come with. If you don’t show heart in your gift why bother to give away in the first place? Those of which you called friends may just appreciate it.
Horrible Gift Idea #3: Extremely Large Coffee Table Books
The thought behind this type of gift is usually giving an impression of the larger wrapped of the gift is the more value it has and therefore it will make the recipient
happy! Well we have to admit books can be a great gift, but if you can give a regular sized or a pocket sized one, the recipient may be even more happier!
Horrible Gift Idea #4: Gifts That the Recipients Cannot Give away or Exchange We all want our recipients to love our gifts but we can not 100% guarantee that we get it right! So please do not give a present from a shop that does not even exist in the recipient’s part of the country unless you sure they want this type of item. Otherwise your recipient will potentially get angry and disappointed.
Horrible Gift Idea #5: Repeat What You Have Given in the Previous Year We realize we are all busy and sometimes we have just forgot a holiday or special
occasion and find ourselves desperate in getting one. We just know we don’t have time in shopping and what we do is looking around what we have bought last year and just repeat the same gift to the same person! The problem is after the fact for doing so, you are immense with the guilt that you feel afterward. In our opinion, every action you did always had a cost. So think twice before you are doing it.
The Final Horrible Gift Idea #6: “Fake” Gifts
When talking about “fake” gifts, I don’t mean that they products themselves are replica of famous brand but those “gifts” are actually what you want rather your recipient would like. In doing so, you are hoping your recipient will give your gift back to you, because they don’t like it! Well, this is really horrible and in fact this type of trick will backfire on you, so don’t do it! If you want it for yourself, then just purchase it and don’t fake it with your wrong intent of giving in the first place! At last, as a golden rule, buy for others then buy for you as well and your recipients and you will be happy!
By Proson Cheng
Unique Christmas Gift Ideas
The Christmas holidays have arrived. Shoppers are getting restless. Christmas is the time we celebrate Jesus Christ’s birth. Christmas is the time for giving gifts to children. Here we get confused as to what gift we should be giving.
Shopping for gifts can is fun. But shopping for the right gift to give can a lot of time and effort. But how about a mobile as a gift? who wouldn’t like it?
Mobile phones are a universal gift as they are popular, stylish, and costly. Mobile phones are popular as a gift because they offer more features than just communication especially those N series by Nokia.
Mobile phones features like Internet browsing, MP3 playback, memo recording, personal organizer functions, e-mail, instant messaging, built-in cameras and camcorders, ringtones, games, radio, Push-to-Talk (PTT), infrared and Bluetooth connectivity, call registers, ability to watch streaming video or download video for later viewing, video calling and can serve as a wireless modem for a PC.
One can choose from a wide range of mobile phones models. The best is always Nokia. There are other brands also like that offers the quality technology in the world of mobiles.
Just imagine how would you feel if you get a Nokia kind of mobile as a Christmas gift. Isn’t it an awesome idea. So what are you waiting for? The Christmas bells are ringing. Get someone hear the most lilting ring tones that would make them happy. I wish even Santa Claus borrows this innovative Christmas gift idea!
By Pankaj Mistry
Corporate Christmas Party Ideas
Corporate Christmas party ideas don’t have to be limited and boring! Here is the usual order of events. They are usually large affairs that include all the people that work for a business, as well as any guest that each employee may bring with them. They will typically consist of a dinner, and entertainment that is often in the form of music and dancing. Half way through the evening, there are sometimes speeches made by the managers, bonuses are given out and any other awards may also be given. When people come to these parties, they usually buy drink tickets at the door, as well as tickets for door prizes. Door prizes are given out throughout the evening and are gifts that are purchased, which can be given to either men or women.
But now the good news! Office Christmas party ideas are beginning to be more entertaining in order to keep employees happy and get them involved with the evening. On top of the traditional Christmas dinner and entertainment, corporations are now going in for a casino Christmas night or a magic show. Hypnotists are also unique entertainment appreciated by most.
Another source of entertainment that has become quite popular is a crime investigation night, in which people have to figure out clues to a staged crime. There are also small theater groups that specialize on taking their type of entertainment to you and will bring their small group or one person play to the Christmas party.
Corporate Christmas party ideas are the perfect opportunity to put the imagination to work, but it is also always a good idea to try and get a feel of what kind of party the employees would like.
By Dee Schrock
Christmas Ideas
Christmas Food & Desserts
Let’s celebrate Christmas with Superb Recipes~
Christmas Turkey
Preparations:
The Christmas turkey experience wouldn’t be the same without a flavourful stuffing or two. Pan-frying or roasting the stuffing separately, rather than stuffing the bird, is the safest way to make a stuffing because, in an unstuffed bird, the hot air of the oven is able to circulate easily inside the cavity of the bird, reducing the cooking time, and the possible incidence of bacterial contamination.
If you decide to stuff the body cavity, don’t overstuff. Pack the stuffing in loosely, to allow the hot air to circulate. An alternative is stuffing the smaller cavity of the neck-end of the bird. Always be sure add the weight of the bird and the stuffing together to calculate the correct cooking time.
Tips: Just put the stuffing in buttered, ovenproof dishes and cook for an appropriate length of time. That way you save on cooking time, eat safely – and get a nice crisp crust on your stuffing.
Instructions:
1. Cover the bird loosely in foil before placing it in the oven. This will allow the air to circulate and ensure even cooking without overbrowning. Remove the foil for the last 40 minutes of cooking time to allow the skin to brown.
2. Fan-assisted ovens tend to cook food more quickly because of increased air circulation. Be sure to take this into account and check the manufacturer’s guidelines.
3. To test to see if the bird is completely cooked, insert a clean skewer into the thickest part of the thigh. If the juices run clear the turkey is cooked. If the juices are still pink cook for a little longer.
4. Allow the turkey to stand for at least 15 to 20 minutes before carving.
5. Remember on Christmas Day power may be reduced slightly because of a surge on the grid. This and regular opening and closing of the oven door will also reduce the heat, so you may need to adjust cooking time accordingly.
6. When roasting your bird, try putting it upside down on its breast so the juices from the back and legs run down to the breast keeping it moist.
7. If you’re cooking a free-range bird, consider cooking the legs (which cook more slowly) separately from the breast. The legs of free-range birds tend to be tougher and cooking it this way means that you won’t end up with dried-out breast and cooked legs – or perfectly cooked breast and raw legs.
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Christmas Silver Cake
Preparation time overnight
Cooking time no cooking required
An easy yet stunning Christmas cake idea. Use your homemade fruit cake or liven up a shop-bought cake. This recipe has been written by Angela Nilsen
Ingredients:
1kg/2lb 4oz royal icing
silver coloured round chocolate sweets
wired star garland
Instuctions:
1. Spread the icing over the cake in swirls and peaks.
2. Stick the silver smarties into the icing. Leave overnight to set.
3. Attach the wired stars under the cakeboard with sticky tape, and drape around the cake. Do not attach the wire into the cake as it can affect it.
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Christmas Rolled Sugar Cookies
PREP TIME 20 Min
COOK TIME 8 Min
READY IN 3 Hrs
Original recipe yield 5 dozen
INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
* 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
* 2 cups white sugar
* 4 eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 5 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
DIRECTIONS
1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.
Ref: Allrecipes.com
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Meringue Mushrooms
PREP TIME 45 Min
COOK TIME 1 Hr
READY IN 1 Hr 45 Min
Original recipe yield 36 mushrooms
INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
* 1/2 cup egg whites
* 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
* 4 ounces chocolate confectioners’ coating
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees F (110 degrees C). Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
2. In a large glass or metal bowl, use an electric mixer to whip egg whites until foamy. Add cream of tartar, salt, and vanilla. Continue whipping until the whites hold soft peaks. Gradually sprinkle in the sugar so that it does not sink to the bottom, and continue whipping until the mixture holds stiff shiny peaks.
3. Place a round tip into a pastry bag, and fill the bag half way with the meringue. To pipe the mushroom caps, squeeze out round mounds of meringue onto one of the prepared cookie sheets. Pull the bag off to the side to avoid making peaks on the top. For the stems, press out a tiny bit of meringue onto the other sheet, then pull the bag straight up. They should resemble candy kisses. Do not worry about making all of the pieces exactly the same. The mushrooms will look more natural if the pieces are different sizes. Dust the mushroom caps lightly with cocoa using a small sifter or strainer.
4. Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until the caps are dry enough to easily remove from the cookie sheets. Set aside to cool completely. Melt the coating chocolate in a metal bowl over simmering water, or in a glass bowl in the microwave, stirring occasionally until smooth.
5. Poke a small hole in the bottom of a mushroom cap. Spread chocolate over the bottom of the cap. Dip the tip of a stem in chocolate, and press lightly into the hole. When the chocolate sets, they will hold together. Repeat with remaining pieces. Store at room temperature in a dry place or tin.
Ref: Allrecipes.com
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Starlight Sugar Cookies (Cookie Mix)
PREP TIME 20 Min
READY IN 1 Hr 30 Min
Original recipe yield 2 dozen cookies
INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
* 1 (1 pound 1.5 ounce) pouch Betty Crocker® sugar cookie mix
* 1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
* 2 tablespoons Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
* 1 egg
* 1 (16 ounce) container Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy creamy white frosting
* Betty Crocker® decorating icing (assorted colors)
* Betty Crocker® decorating sprinkles and sugars (assorted colors)
DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. In medium bowl, stir cookie mix, melted butter, flour and egg until soft dough forms.
2. On floured surface, roll dough to about 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with about 3-inch cookie cutters. On ungreased cookie sheets, place cutouts 1 inch apart.
3. Bake 7 to 9 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets. Cool completely, about 15 minutes.
4. Spread frosting on cooled cookies. Decorate as desired with icing, sprinkles and sugars.
Ref: Allrecipes.com
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Christmas Pudding
These look fabulous and are quick and easy to make. They would make a great gift arranged on tissue paper in paper cases in one of the lovely gift boxes you can buy at Christmas.
Ingredients
85g/3oz unsalted butter
110g/4oz plain chocolate
85g/3oz raisins or dried cranberries, cut in half
2 tbsp brandy, port or orange juice
370g/13oz ready-made ginger cake
Preparation time 1-2 hours
Cooking time less than 10 mins
For the decoration:
30g/1oz ready-to-roll icing (or marzipan)
green food colouring and red food colouring
mini red sugar balls (optional)
tube of red writing icing
Instructions:
1. Soak the raisins or cranberries in brandy, port or orange juice for about half an hour.
2. Melt the butter and chocolate either over a pan of simmering water or in a microwave.
3. Stir in the raisins or cranberries and their liquid, then crumble in the cake. Mix and leave to cool slightly. Place in the fridge for about 1 hour to firm up, then roll into 10 walnut-sized balls.
4. To decorate: colour 55g/2oz of the icing green, roll out on a surface dusted with icing sugar and cut into holly leaves using mini cutters (if you don’t have any cutters, cut small diamond shapes from the green icing for the leaves.)
5. Colour 15g/½oz of the icing red and roll into berries (or use red sugar balls instead – you can buy multi-coloured sugar balls from the cake decorating department of some supermarkets).
6. Roll out the remaining white icing or marzipan and cut out 10 wiggly circles for the brandy butter effect on top of each pudding. Decorate with the holly leaves and berries (dampen icing underneath to stick onto the cake).
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Christmas Ginger Stars
Preparation time 30 mins to 1 hour
Cooking time less than 10 mins
Ingredients:
For the biscuits
65g/2oz butter
50g/2oz soft brown sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
150g/5¼oz plain flour, sifted, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
To decorate
tube ready-made white icing (available in the baking sections of most supermarkets)
edible silver balls (optional)
silver ribbon
Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
2. For the biscuits, beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl using an electric whisk until pale and fluffy.
3. Add the golden syrup, flour, ground ginger and bicarbonate of soda and beat together to form a dough. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
4. Roll the dough out on a floured work surface to about 0.5cm/¼in thick. Cut into star shapes using cookie cutters, working from the outside edges of the dough into the centre, cutting as close together as possible. Re-roll the trimmings and continue cutting out stars until all the dough is used up.
5. Place the stars onto baking sheets lined with baking paper. Make a hole in each star near the top using the end of a straw.
6. Transfer the tray to the oven and bake for about eight minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes on the tray, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. To decorate the biscuits, ice the biscuits using a tube of white icing and top with some edible silver balls, if you like. Thread a silver ribbon through the holes in the tops of the biscuits and tie in a loop so that you can hang them on the tree.
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Rudolph Baked Potato
Preparation time less than 30 mins
Cooking time 30 mins to 1 hour
This is a great way to make baked potatoes into a special treat and children will have a lot of fun helping you decorate them. For an alternative filling with a Christmas flavour you could mix the potato flesh with shredded turkey and cranberry sauce.
Ingredients
4 medium potatoes with a good round shape (approx. 175g/6oz each)
For filling 1:
2 tbsp cream cheese
4 tbsp milk
a generous knob of butter
40g/1½oz cheddar cheese, grated
1 tbsp snipped chives
salt and freshly ground black pepper
For filling 2:
½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp tomato ketchup
a knob of butter
150g/5oz tin baked beans
4 chipolata sausages
Decoration:
frozen peas, for the eyes
cherry tomatoes, for the nose
twirly-shaped potato snacks, for the antlers
Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
2. Wash the potatoes, pat dry and prick the skins a few times with a fork. Bake in a preheated oven for 45-50 minutes until soft.
3. Cut the potatoes in half and scoop out the flesh.
4. Filling 1: mash together with the cream cheese, milk, butter, cheddar cheese and chives, season to taste and spoon this mixture back into the skins.
5.Filling 2: mash the potato flesh together with a knob of butter, the tomato ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and season to taste.
6. Cut the sausages into bite-sized pieces and mix into the potatoes together with the baked beans.
7. Heat through and decorate as Rudolph using a cherry tomato for the nose, peas for the eyes and potato snacks for the antlers
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Sparkly Christmas Tree Cake
Preparation time less than 30 mins
Cooking time no cooking required
This recipe was written by Angela Nilsen.
Ingredients:
750g/1lb 10oz royal icing or 650g/1lb 7oz ready-to-roll icing
3m ribbon
edible coloured and gold balls
Instructions:
1. Attach the balls on to the top of the cake with royal icing. Use the coloured ones for branches, gold for the trunk.
2. Tie the ribbon around the cake.
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Stained Glass Window Biscuits
Preparation time less than 30 mins
Cooking time 10 to 30 mins
Ingredients
For the biscuits
350g/12oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
2 tsp ground ginger
100g/3½oz butter
175g/6oz soft brown sugar
1 free-range egg, beaten
4 tbsp golden syrup
packet wrapped fruit-flavoured boiled sweets in different colours
To decorate
tube ready-made white icing (available in the baking sections of most supermarkets) (optional)
narrow ribbon
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
2. For the biscuits, mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and ginger together in a bowl.
3. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, then stir in the sugar.
4. In another bowl, beat together the egg and golden syrup, then pour this mixture into the flour mixture and mix to make a smooth dough, kneading lightly with your hands.
5. Crush the sweets in their wrappers using a rolling pin.
6. Roll the dough out on a floured work surface to about 0.5cm/¼in thick, then cut into shapes using a selection of Christmas-themed cookie cutters. Transfer the biscuits to baking sheets lined with baking paper.
7. Cut out shapes in the centre of each biscuit, making sure you leave a good edge all around the biscuit. Completely fill the hole in each biscuit with crushed boiled sweets.
8. Make a hole at the top of each biscuit using a drinking straw so that you will be able to thread a ribbon through it later. Bake the biscuits in the oven for 10-12 minutes, or until golden-brown.
9. Remove the biscuits from the oven. While they’re still warm, check that the holes are still there – if not, push a straw through again. Do not remove the biscuits from the baking tray until they have cooled because the boiled sweets need to harden. Once the sweets have hardened, gently lift the biscuits onto a wire rack with a palette knife to finish cooling.
10. If you like, you can decorate the biscuits with piped white icing. Thread ribbons through the holes in the biscuits to make loops for hanging from the tree
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Mini Swiss Roll Crackers
Preparation time less than 30 mins
Cooking time no cooking required
Ingredients%
