I am a shadow of my former self. Never did I ever think I'd become the type of person to say "perhaps it would make a nice change to bake some savoury treats for Christmas." *
Apparently, this is me now. Earlier this week I caught myself saying "that border planting is still looking lovely and green for December" and yesterday I was genuinely thrilled to receive a car boot liner from Santa. I'm fully embracing my middle-aged era.
Back to the baking, I made savoury biscuits to accompany caramelised red onion chutney (also homemade) to give as Christmas presents to family this year. I tried two different Mary Berry recipes from her "Baking Bible" book: rich, cheesy biscuits and Dorchester biscuits. Both were delicious but the former was more aesthetically pleasing than the latter.
I must admit I'm too lazy to type out the recipes, largely because I am currently pinned down by a happy, sleeping cat and finding the book would require moving the cat. Mary's "Baking Bible" is easily my most used baking book so instead I'll encourage you to either buy a copy or dust it off your book shelf.
I tried two chutney recipes too: this one from Tesco and the other from Curly's Cooking (I think... I looked up so many recipes I can't fully remember.) Personally I preferred the second one. The garlic felt too dominant in the first one although still a perfectly edible chutney. Annoyingly I couldn't find the red onion chutney recipe I've used previously in my recipe files and the blog has closed down. Ah well.
*I haven't completely lost the plot as I still made my annual batch of tablet (fudge) and perverted gingerbread Santas and dinosaurs.
Keeping it real with my complete lack of styling in my ugly kitchen.
Merry Christmas/ happy end of December to everyone!