Christmas Kitchen

» Santa Double Chocolate Spiced Cookies

Ingredients

• 70g cold, chopped unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup sifted icing sugar
• 3/4 cup sifted plain flour
• 2 tablespoons sifted dutch cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon mixed spice
• 2 lightly beaten egg yolks
• ½ cup of choc chips

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.
2. Place butter, icing sugar, flour, cocoa powder, mixed spice,choc chips and egg yolks in a food processor and process until mixture forms a ball.
3. Remove, cover in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 20- 30 minutes.
4. Roll tablespoonfuls of mixture into balls, then place on the tray.
5. Bake for 8-10 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

» Leek and Potato Soup

Ingredients

• 3 leeks, trimmed, washed, chopped
• 300 ml of fresh double cream
• 30 g butter or margarine
• Salt and pepper
• 750g potatoes, peeled, chopped
• 1 litre chicken stock

Method

1. Boil potatoes until soft and drain
2. Place leeks in a large pan add half of your stock and all the butter/margarine and bring to a boil then simmer until leeks are nice and soft.
3. Add potatoes to leeks and cook for a further 5 minutes adding your last ½ of the stock
4. Add a little salt and a lot off pepper (to your own taste)
5. With a stick mixer blend all together until it is smooth
6. Add 250 ml of cream and mix in (if the soup is to thick you can add milk to thin down a little ,I like this soup nice and thick)
7. Serve hot or cold adding further cream in the centre ,serve with hot crusty bread rolls