Everybody Needs Good Neighbours

This year I decided I wanted to give our neighbours gifts to say thanks for being good neighbours.  It really makes such a difference having nice neighbours, as my sister Ruth found out when she moved in next to a horrible nosy woman who hunts through her rubbish and reads her mail.  But I love being able to run across and borrow a lawnmower or lend a cup of sugar, help switch the power back on when a fuse has shorted or swap stories about redback infestations.  

When we were growing up our parents made a point of getting to know their neighbours.  As is fairly typical in Australia we had a Greek family next door, an Irish-Indian and an Italian family over the road, and Aunty Al and Eileen - two dear old ladies who were like surrogate grandparents to us.  Our back fence even had a gate in it leading to Eileen’s yard so we could play there whenever we wanted, and she let us have a patch in her veggie garden and shares in the plums from her tree.  The Greek neighbours often gave us home-made koulourakia at Easter time, which I loved, so in that vein I decided to give my neighbours some home-made goodies - Christmas pudding truffles and ginger snowflake biscuits.  Behold!

Ingredients

    500g light fruitcake or Christmas pudding
    100g dark chocolate melts, melted
    60ml (1/4 cup) brandy
    2 tbs apricot jam
    250g dark chocolate melts, extra
    60g copha, chopped
    150g white chocolate melts, melted
    Red and green glace cherries, finely chopped, to decorate

Method

Crumble the cake into a bowl.  Stir in the dark chocolate, brandy and jam. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes or until slightly firm.

Line 2 large baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Roll 2-teaspoonful quantities of cake mixture into balls and place on the lined trays. Place in the fridge for 1 hour or until firm.

Melt the extra dark chocolate and copha together.  Line 2 baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Use a truffle dipper or fork to dip truffles in the chocolate mixture to coat, shake off excess and place on 1 lined tray. Refrigerate until set, then decorate with white chocolate and glace cherries.

Ingredients

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup golden syrup

1/3 cup honey

80g butter

1 egg

1 t ginger

2 t cinnamon

1 t bicarb soda

2 3/4 cups plain flour

Method

Melt the butter, sugar, honey & golden syrup in the microwave until butter has no lumps.  Stir in the egg, spices and bicarb soda, then sift in the flour.  Roll mixture into ball, cover in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 30 mins.

Roll out mixture and cut out shapes, decorate with icing (1 egg white + enough icing sugar to make a smooth mixture.  It sets harder than if you use water).