Christmas Snack Boxes.

It feels as though I haven't written a post in forever! In the last couple of months, I have finished my Uni degree, become a qualified teacher, and simply enjoying my free time with loved ones. As Christmas has just passed, I have been madly rushing around cooking and preparing various gifts for people.

As some of you may know, I love Christmas and everything that comes with it! In the past few years, I have put together biscuit boxes and lolly baskets for very special people in my life. This year, I decided to create a 'snack box'. Once again, I was inspired by something I saw in Donna Hay. In fact, nearly my entire Christmas spread was Donna Hay inspired. Obsessed, I know. 

Today's post will focus on my snack boxes. In the next couple of weeks, I plan to share a few other Christmas-y things I baked to make the day extra special! 

When thinking of goodies to include in my snack box, I narrowed my thoughts down to treats I categorise as 'snacks'. They were: nuts, truffles, chocolate, biscuits and lollies. I used these categories to decide what I was going to cook! My snack boxes comprised of:

White Chocolate Pistachio and Cranberry Bark

I actually found this recipe on an ad for baking paper in a magazine. I normally pay no attention to these ads, and complain about how much space they take up in quite often expensive magazines!! However, the picture took my fancy, and actually inspired me to make this entire snack box. Basically, all you do is melt some chocolate of your choice (I used white chocolate), and sprinkle crushed pistachio and cranberries on top. When it has set, you just roughly crack the chocolate into pieces. It's as easy as that! 

Honeycomb

As I made honeycomb last year, I wasn't going to do it again. However, my little cousin put in a special request for some, so I couldn't let her down! 

Christmas Candied Nuts

As I am not a huge fan of nuts, I don't often cook with them. However, I was keen to experiment and see what I could create. I was inspired by a recipe I saw which featured pecan nuts. As we only had a small packet in the cupboard, I added cashews and peanuts into the mix. To make these candied nuts, you simply whisk up an egg white, a drop of vanilla essence and a tablespoon of water until it's foamy. Coat the nuts in this mixture, and toss in brown sugar, white sugar and cinnamon. Bake on an oven tray for around 40 minutes.

Apricot Truffles

Apricot truffles are an old fashioned favourite, so I didn't think I could go wrong with these (Especially with the oldies)! Basically, combine crushed arrowroot biscuits, apricots, condensed milk and coconut and roll into balls. I coated some of mine in white chocolate to look a little fancier! 

Dark Chocolate and Espresso Shortbread

Shortbread is the epitome of Christmas, so I couldn't look past it at this time of the year. However, I didn't want to make plain, boring shortbread. I googled 'interesting variations of shortbread', and came up with this recipe! Essentially, this is a chocolate shortbread with a hint of espresso. I then dipped each end in white and dark chocolate. Too easy!! 

I wrapped up each box in white tulle which looked so pretty! I think my loved ones appreciated the gesture, as they knew a lot of love went into each creation! 

I hope you have had a very Merry Christmas!

Until next time, happy baking.

xx