Edible Christmas Gifts - Hot Chocolate Sticks

With just a week and a bit to go until Christmas, it is highly likely that, for some of you, present-based panic has set in. If you read our blog a few weeks ago, you may have got some lovely vanilla extract ready, but if you fancy something a little more traditional, we’ve got the perfect edible gift for you – Hot Chocolate sticks.

These delightful little sweet treats are perfect for the Christmas season – not only are they a delicious and thoughtful gift, they are also a wonderful warming treat to enjoy during a long cold January, post-Christmas.

This recipe can be done in one of two ways – one which can be made with normal bars of chocolate, which you can get from your local supermarket, but is best done with a blender, and one for which you don’t need a blender which is made with cacao butter and raw cocoa powder.

Recipe 1

Ingredients

• 50g Cocoa butter - 1kg is about £15
• 100g Raw cacao powder - 1kg is about £13 BUT you can make it with normal cocoa powder
• 1 can (normally 397g) Condensed milk
• Double cream
• Icing sugar, to sweeten, to taste

Method

• Weigh out all your ingredients
• Put your cocoa butter in a bain marie (a heatproof bowl over a pan of boiling water)
• Add the cocoa powder.
• Mix until smooth.
• Add the cream and continue to mix.
• Add the condensed milk and keep mixing.
• Taste, and add icing sugar if you want it to be sweeter.
• Coat the inside of your moulds with coconut oil or some other mild-tasting oil.
• Pour the mix into moulds and allow to cool in the fridge for 1 hour
• Then add the sticks.
• Allow to cool entirely in the fridge overnight.
• Remove from moulds, wrap in cellophane.

Top Tip – add some fun extras like spices - how about powdered cinnamon to make it Christmassy?! – or little marshmallows, like we've done below.

Recipe 2

Ingredients

• 600g of bar chocolate (dark, milk, or white) – you could do a mix
• 375g condensed milk
• 125ml Double Cream

Method

• Pour condensed milk and double cream into a pan, mix a bit then heat it GENTLY on medium heat until it starts to simmer
• Make sure it doesn’t stick – keep stirring it.
• Blitz up your chocolate in a blender or – if you don’t have a blender – just chop/bash it up as small as possible. You are aiming for a powder-like consistency if you can so it will melt as quickly as possible.
• Turn the temperature right down on your cream and condensed milk mixture.
• Pour your blitzed up chocolate into a heat-proof bowl and add in your cream and condensed milk mixture.
• Mix thoroughly, making sure there are no lumps.
• Pour into moulds – or into a normal deep baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper, to be cut into squares later.
• Pop your moulds or tray in the fridge for 3-4 hours.
• After 4 hours, pop in your sticks, then put back in the fridge overnight.

Top Tip – Use three different kinds of chocolate, split your cream and condensed mixture into three, and make different coloured layers, like we've done below – or you could make swirly patterns in it. It’s up to you!

To use either of these lovely chocolate sticks, all you need to do is heat up a cup of milk and swirl the stick through it for the perfect wintry hot chocolate. (Or, don’t bother with the sticks at all, and just enjoy it as a delicious, rich pudding!) Have fun!

Merry Christmas Markets!

Nothing says Merry Christmas like a tasty foodie gift. Thankfully, Carine will be selling a multitude of delicious stocking fillers at a number of Christmas Markets across London this month.

This Friday she will be heading to Wimbledon High School from 3-5:30pm and these are some of the delicious things you can hope to find… if you get there quick enough!

Hot Chocolate Sticks

Choose from triple chocolate or chocolate with marshmallows – these cocoa treats are perfect for winter. Simply swirl them into a cup of warm milk for the best hot chocolate yet.

And, even better, tune into the blog or our YouTube channel next week, and we’ll show you how to make a version of these yourself!

The Green Sauce

Curious about this “green sauce” we keep talking about? The top-seller in Carine’s Marie’s Little Jar line will be available to sample at each of her Christmas markets!

Also available will be her hot-hot-hot chilli sauce, The Red Sauce. With a delicious, aromatic flavour like nothing you’ve come across before, this one is not for the fainthearted!

Peanut Candy

A childhood favourite from her home in Cameroon, if you’ve never had peanut candy before you are in for a treat! These Peanuts roasted with sugar are the ultimate moreish nibble. You may want to get more than one packet…

Carine will also be selling lovingly-packaged Christmas hampers so, if you can’t pick just one thing…you don’t have to! The ideal Christmas gift for a food-loving someone who wants to try something a little different. 

Come say hello in Wimbledon on Friday or keep your eye on our Twitter account for other upcoming markets!

Edible Christmas Gifts - Vanilla Essence

I don’t want to alarm anyone but… there is exactly one month to go until Christmas. 4 short weeks which may not leave you enough time to get the perfect Christmas gifts for the special people in your life. So Carine is here to help! Instead of frantically hitting the shops last minute, plan ahead and make some of your presents this year. And what could be better than a home-made gift? 

A home-made gift you can eat!

This week we are going to show you how to make Vanilla Extract. It is incredibly simple, looks lovely, and will end up being a genuinely useful thing for all your family and friends who like to bake or cook.

Below are some examples of the vanilla extract you can get in the supermarket. Even the cheapest is over a pound and you only get a measly 35ml – we are going to show you how you can make more than 5 times that for a fraction of the price. We suggest you make this for multiple friends and family members to keep the cost down even more.

What you need

1) Glass bottle – You can go for any size. We have chosen to go for 200ml, as it looks a little more expensive and generous- but you can always make multiple little bottles or whatever you feel like. A 200ml bottle can cost you as little as 73p, like the one we found here, or as much as £2.90 and higher, if you go for a decorative or novelty bottle like this adorable Christmas tree one. 

2) Cheap vodka – And we do mean cheap, the cheapest you can find – we’re going for alcohol here rather than flavour, the flavour will all be from the vanilla.

3) Vanilla Beans – These don’t have to be expensive, but they can be when you buy them in the supermarket. Instead, buy them online where you can find deals like this – 20 beans for less than a tenner (that’s around 50p per bean!) And with these you can make 10-20 bottles.

Method

1. Pour your cheap vodka into your bottle until it is three-quarters full.
2. Slice your pod in half and scrape out the seeds.
3. Add the seeds to the bottle.
4. Add the pod itself.
5. Do this with 2 pods, if you’re feeling super-generous.
6. Fill up to the top with the rest of the vodka.
7. Close the bottle and leave for 4-6 weeks – the longer the better really – shaking the bottle gently every day.

Carine's Vanilla Essence after 2 weeks.

And that’s it really! Add a bow and pop it in a cellophane bag or nice box and there you go – a quirky, thoughtful, useful Christmas gift. So put down the cheap perfume/cufflinks and get on with it!

And to watch Carine do it herself, head to our YouTube channel!