If you’re not familiar with Christmas pudding, it is a dried fruit pudding that is traditionally served in the U.K. at Christmas for dessert, topped with brandy cream and garnished with holly (picture below). I noticed that not only do I have a distinct lack of cookies on this blog, but I am desperate need of Christmas cookies, so I just changed that. Chocolate lovers will love how chocolatey these cookies are and they’re not too sweet.
Holiday cookies for gifts
These cookies make great gifts for teachers or just to thank your local delivery man or a holiday party hostess gift. I’m also posting a white chocolate, pistachio and cranberry fudge later this week, which also makes a festive gift. The cookies are chocolate sugar cookies that I adapted from my friend Allie from Baking a Moment recipe. Allie is a very talented baker and she has great tips to get perfectly smooth cookies that don’t spread which is perfect for these cookies to get a perfectly round look. Thanks Allie! To reproduce the look of the cream that is drizzled over the pudding, I took a little help from Wilton.com and used their pre-packaged icing. The icing is easy to use and spreads beautifully and hardens quickly into a smooth frosting. The holly is made from fondant dyed green, also bought from Wilton and to cut the leaves I used this holly leaf plunger and the berries are red frosting. If you do choose to give these Christmas pudding cookies as gifts, you could nestle in a wooden box, like cute one I found. Or, place them in cellophane gift bags that are used for party favors that can be found in so many stores and secure them with pretty holiday ribbon. Fun gift and personalized giving. A delicious drink to enjoy with these cookies is Santa’s Spiked Rum Milk. And don’t forget to leave some for the man himself.
