Christmas – the season for overindulgence. There’s Christmas dinner, tins of chocolates and unhealthy nibbles everywhere you look. Therefore, fruit can be a welcoming sight after the heavy dinners and treats!
Below we’ve compiled some festive ways to use fruit this Christmas. Whether you’re eating them, using them for drinks or creating garlands packed full of citrus and spicy scents, the possibilities go on and on!
Hot Mulled Apple Cider
If Christmas were a drink, this is what we imagine it would taste like. Warming and subtly spicy in flavour, hot mulled apple cider is the perfect drink for the festive day itself – here’s how to make it!
For 4 servings, you will need 1400ml of pure apple juice or apple cider, 1 cinnamon stick, half an orange, 2 and a half cloves and 2 star anise. Next? All you need to do is combine all the ingredients in a saucepan, simmer until warm and savour the Christmassy smell!
To serve in apple cups: slice the top of four apples off. Next, ensuring you have a rim of a decent thickness (around 1cm thick), start outlining where you want to cut and scoop out the inside of the apple using a spoon. If your apple doesn’t stand up straight, cut some apple off the bottom until flat. Brushing the inside of the apple with some lemon juice also stops the apples going brown!
Strawberry Santas
Perfect for adult guests and children alike, these strawberry Santas couldn’t be simpler to make! All you need are some strawberries (of course), some chocolate chips, marscapone cheese, vanilla extract and powdered sugar! For around 12 strawberries, make the frosting by mixing 200g powdered sugar with 55g of marscapone cheese and ¼ tsp vanilla extract together until smooth.
Chop the leaves off the strawberries to allow them to stand and cut off their ‘hats’. Simply pipe or dollop the frosting in between the Santas’ hats, once on top and finally stick the chocolate chips into the frosting for eyes!
Fruity Stars
A quick and easy festive table filler that’ll be a hit with any younger guests – these watermelon stars on a stick are certain to awaken the magic of Christmas! Simply use a star shaped cutter to cut out your star shapes in your watermelon, pierce onto wooden skewers along with some blueberries, marshmallows and any other fruit you fancy!
Festive Fruity Pancakes
Celebrate Christmas morning properly with these fun festive, fruity pancakes! To recreate this incredible Santa pancake, simply decorate with red raspberries for the hat and nose, chopped bananas for the beard, blueberries for the eyes and whipped cream for the hat’s lining and pom pom.
Boozy Wine Pears
To create these gloriously boozy pears, all you need is a bottle of red wine of your choice, 200g of golden caster sugar, 2 cinnamon sticks, 1 vanilla pod and 4 peeled pears!
First, pour the wine, caster sugar, cinnamon and the vanilla pod (halved lengthways and halved across) in to pan.
Slowly heat until the caster sugar has dissolved completely.
Place the pears into the syrup, ensuring they are covered and allow them to simmer for 20 to 30 minutes.
Finally, remove the pears and boil the syrup for a further 30 minutes and allow to cool before serving!
Orange and Cinnamon Garlands
Christmas garlands are the ultimate Christmas decoration, not only do they look great, but the process of drying out citrus fruit will make your home smell incredibly festive!
You will need a selection of oranges, satsumas and cinnamon along with some ribbon and string to make these garlands. For in-depth instructions on how to create a beautiful smelling Christmas garland, take a look at this article.
The post Festive Fruit Ideas! appeared first on V8 UK.