Salt Dough Christmas Decorations

Looking for ways to have a thrifty Christmas? why not have a go at making your own Salt Dough Christmas Decorations,

Ingredients needed:
200ml water
10oz plain flour
10oz salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Method:
Mix it all the ingredients together then when you're ready roll the mixture out, cut into shapes with cookie/biscuit cutters, my personal favourites being Snowmen, Gingerbread Men and Bell shaped cookie cutters,

Place on a baking tray, make sure you have made a hole in the top of the decoration for the ribbon to go through afterwards, a cocktail stick is a good thing to use. (make sure you make the hole big enough as when you bake the dough the mixture will grow slightly)

A personal favourite of mine is to add a sprinkle of cinnamon to the mix before baking to make the decorations smell nice and Christmassy (don’t use too much though)

Bake in an oven at approx 180C for 20 minutes, then paint and/or varnish or add glitter to make your own unique decoration.

Perfect for giving as a gift, or if the kids have helped you, keeping for sentimental reasons, they can even be re-used for years to come.

If you are truly inspired by all things Christmas then take a look at 24studio.co.uk/christmas they stock a wide range of Christmas gifts, trees, cards, wrap and decorations almost all year round as well as Craft material and Craft kits.

Christmas Pudding Recipe

Christmas Pudding

Here's a recipe for Christmas pudding. Ideally you want to make the pudding in October and add alcohol at regular intervals in the weeks running up to Christmas for added flavour. Enough for 2 average sized puddings.

Ingredients

• 225g / 8oz caster sugar
• 110g / 4oz plain flour
• 225g / 8oz suet (can be vegetarian or traditional suet)
• 340g / 12oz sultanas
• 340g / 12oz raisins
• 225g / 8oz currants
• 110g / 4oz chopped candied peel
• 110g / 4oz breadcrumbs
• 55g / 2oz flaked almonds
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 5 beaten eggs
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• pinch of salt
• 150ml / 5fl oz brandy (or rum)

Method

• Lightly grease two 1.2 litre (2 pint) pudding basins with butter.
• Mix together all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
• Stir in the beaten eggs and brandy/rum, then mix well.
• Spoon the mix into the two basins. Cover with baking parchment and foil, then tie securely with string.
• Place your two pudding basins in a large steamer of boiling water, or large pan with inverted saucers at the bottom, and cover with a lid. Water leve should be around one third the height of the pudding basins.Boil for 5-6 hours, topping the boiling water up from time to time, if necessary. 
• Remove from heat and cool. Check the puddings are cooked and then refresh the baking parchment and foil covers with fresh ones and secure with string. 
• Store in a cool cupboard until Christmas, periodically unwrapping to create skewer holes and spoon in some extra booze. 
• On Christmas Day, to serve your Christmas puddings, steam for 2 hours and serve with brandy butter, rum sauce or cream.