December | JamJarJan

What was in Jan's Pan?
December

DECEMBER FESTIVITIES 2025
The kitchen is in chaos again, but this time it’s Christmas chaos.

There’s nothing quite like Christmas cooking with carols in the background and a mulled beverage in hand. I love the run-up during December, baking for the big day, keeping a constant supply of goodies for pre-Christmas guests or naughty night-time nibbles.

First job, right at the beginning of December, is a production line of mini Christmas fruit cakes. Topped with marzipan and decorated with fondant they're ideal for gifting during the month. I use my go to Good Housekeeping recipe which includes 70% dark chocolate chips to counteract the sweetness of the fruit which had partied overnight with a tipple or two to make it well-pumped and boozy. It’s much quicker and more energy efficient to make individual cakes in 10cm glass ramekins. They take a fraction of the time to cook, 40-50mins at 140C Fan, and then there's the fun of decorating each one individually with marzipan and fondant, getting creative with the Christmas cutters.

There was no marzipan in my usually over-stocked cupboard, but I do always have plenty of ground almonds to hand. Home-made marzipan is not the faff that you may think it is. Just 100g ground almonds, 100g each of icing and caster sugar and an egg lightly kneaded into a paste with some almond essence means there's no need to head out to buy and debate the pros and cons of golden versus white shop-bought (add yellow colour if you must).

Then there's the fun of dusting off the Christmas decorations and putting them up, which usually means mince pies and Christmas tunes to accompany the big transformation to glitzy Santa's grotto. This year the Chefs arrived and immediately embarked on a gingerbread house project, so there was a good sprinkling of icing sugar and ginger goodness mixed in with the tinsel. Always to the tunes of my 100 Best Christmas CD (no other will do) and the 80s-80s Christmas on internet radio (a great find - check it out!). They used Dame Mary’s recipe on BBC Food which includes all the templates you need.

As usual with their madcap projects, there was plenty of dough left over, and they know how I hate to see anything go to waste.

Another batch of stained glass window biscuits (boiled sweets for 'glass') ensued, and a batch of mince pies. Yes! Gingerbread rather than sweet pastry is a revelation with the sweet mincemeat and adds extra spicy deliciousness. I decorate with holly leaves and a whole cranberry to add tartness to the sweet mincemeat. Finally, the mess of ginger biscuit crumbs and shavings they created was put to good use into gingerbread truffles. Added to a basic ganache made with a 50:50 ratio of cream to chocolate with some chopped stem ginger and a splash of ginger liqueur, and rolled in the remaining dust, they were incredibly moreish.

Truffles make the perfect gift of course, and so this year's annual Christmas workshop with friends was spent with a relaxing and fun afternoon around the kitchen island unit making various combinations of white and milk chocolate truffles. We raided the drinks cupboard for cointreau, rum and kahlua and experimented to find the best way to make lots of truffles with the least amount of mess. A melon baller or a teaspoon measuring spoon helps to give the right size and shape of ganache, and once the truffle mix has all been scooped out into rounds it's easy to lightly roll the chocolate in the coating using just the tips of your fingers. We used coconut, cocoa, chocolate strands or raspberry powder to give a variety of truffles to bag up for gifts (if we could only resist polishing them off ourselves of course).

These are the recipes we used, which give plenty of mix to play with. Bag them up into pretty Christmas bags, label them up and give them to your loved ones - they'll love you even more.

WHITE CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES
(BBC Good Food)

Makes 35-45 truffles depending on size

300g white chocolate chips
120ml double cream
30g unsalted butter
½ tsp rose water, 2 tsp vanilla paste, 2tsp coffee flavour, or 1-2 tbsp liqueur of your choice (brandy, Cointreau or hazelnut liqueur work well, or gin and lime!), finely chopped pistachios, desiccated coconut, cocoa, raspberry powder or sprinkles to decorate

Method
Melt the chocolate, cream and butter in a heatproof bowl over a small pan of just simmering water, or in the microwave in short blasts, stirring regularly.

Stir in any flavourings you like. Transfer to a small baking dish or shallow container, allow to cool, then chill for 4 hours

Shape the truffles. Scoop truffles from the set mixture using a melon baller or teaspoon measure and and drop onto a lined tray, using another teaspoon if necessary and handling as little as possible

Spread the coatings onto a large plate and gently roll the truffles to coat them using the tips of your fingers only.

Return to the fridge to chill and set completely.

Keep chilled for a week, but serve at room temperature for the best results.

DARK CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES
(Joanna Farrow 'Chocolate')

makes approx 30-40 depending on size

125ml double cream

250g plain chocolate roughly chopped, or use chocolate chips

2 tbsp liqueur such as Cointreau, brandy or coffee flavoured liqueur

Cocoa to dust or vermicelli

Gently heat the cream and pour over the chocolate in a bowl, stirring to melt.

Stir in the flavourings of your choice. Transfer to a small baking dish or shallow container, allow to cool, then chill for 4 hours

Shape the truffles using two teaspoons. A large melon baller or a rounded teaspoon measuring spoon is useful to help shape them. Scoop truffles from the set mixture and and drop onto a lined tray, using another teaspoon if necessary and handling as little as possible

Spread the coatings onto a large plate and gently roll the truffles to coat them using the tips of your fingers only.

Return to the fridge to chill and set completely.

Keep chilled for a week, but serve at room temperature for the best results.

Student son is back from his first uni term so it's back to stocking up the cupboards again to satisfy his constant craving for calories. He's enjoying a rest from the challenge of catering for himself and has settled back into home comforts very quickly. No doubt I'll be making a big batch of Christmas sausage rolls, both meat for Mr Carnivore, and veggie ones made with plenty of cheese which not even the meat-eaters can resist. Chestnuts and cranberries are a must at Christmas so no doubt I'll experiment with flavours and incorporate them into the fillings one way or another. That's a job for Christmas eve, along with homemade cranberry sauce, a must have for my Christmas dinner.

Take 300g fresh cranberrries, juice and zest of 2 clementines, 100g soft brown sugar and 2tbsp Grand Marnier. Add a good grating of fresh ginger and a cinnamon stick. Simmer until the cranberries soften and burst, around 5mins. Allow to cool and add 1tbsp more booze for an alcoholic hit. Keep in a sterilised jar in the fridge for around a week, ready to accompany the big meal with plenty left for snacking with turkey or cheese leftovers.

Meanwhile, the Chefs are working their socks off, catering for the Christmas crowds. But this year they have the unquestionable delight of having Christmas day off as the glamorous high-end department store they work in is closed for the day before the onslaught of the Boxing day sales. So not content with a day off from cooking they are cooking Christmas dinner for us instead, and I for one can't wait.

Christmas calories don't count, right...??

Happy Christmas everyone, and thanks for reading!!

December 2025

2025 has been quite a year, with some fabulous food experiences along the way, and here is the final month in all its Christmassy glory.

Chocolate seems to have featured heavily this year and I am officially now a chocolate snob, with craft chocolate top of the chocs. OK, so I still wouldn’t refuse some of the mass produced bars for old times sake, but the sugar heavy mainstream stuff certainly doesn’t hit the spot in the same way as it used to. Read on to hear about my trip to Pump Street chocolate at the beginning of December.

We have had some cracking meals over Christmas, though the difference between the way chefs and home economists cook was highlighted yet again. Everything takes twice as long (poor Student Son didn’t get his last supper before his 8pm train because Cheffy son was being, well, cheffy) and uses many more pieces of equipment.

Also the amount of oil and butter used when pan-frying and butter-basting and finishing-in-the-oven leaves us with the worst kind of greasy pots and pans. But, of course, everything tastes exceptional, and is always well worth the extra washing up (chefs may do a lot of cleaning as part of the job, but they do generally have some poor minion to do the worst of it), so potwasher was a small price to pay for our Michelin starred meals.

But I didn't have to cook a thing all Christmas, which was a pleasant change from generally taking on the role of chief cook and bottle-washer.

We double turkeyed with full Christmas dinners on both Xmas and Boxing Day. Having driven Cheffy son into London on Christmas morning we went on for dinner at our lovely Pastry Chef's parents for Christmas dinner, so we saw the sunrise and Oxford Street lights before the celebrations even began. As Cheffy Son missed out, it was rinse and repeat on Boxing Day as yet again he spent his day off on a busman’s holiday and we were treated to turkey, and beef, and all the trimmings for the five of us together.

The only entertaining I did was a post Xmas curry night: massaman beef in the slow cooker, and a butternut squash chickpea and spinach curry with the spicing based on a Sri Lankan recipe from my Hoppers cookbook - all pre-prepped, the best kind of entertaining, so the cooks can enjoy the evening too. Good company and relaxed eating leads to great conversation, and the evening didn’t disappoint.

Christmas Food gifting is big in our family of foodies, and this year I found a great recipe for panforte, so read on to find out more. It’s been a year full of Great Taste - both judging and finding exciting new products and suppliers, read back for recommendations of some fabulous products from mainly small producers, including some local heroes. There will, no doubt, be more recommendations to come in 2026.

And it’s not Xmas without Brussels Sprouts and chestnuts in my view (and clementines in the end of a Xmas stocking for tradition‘s sake, of course) so read on for recipe ideas and airfryer tips.

Another year of looking after the Guild of Food Awards means it’s a wonderful way to see all the latest food books. My top book of the year has to be Nicola Lamb’s ‘Sift’ which wiped the board at all the food awards, and rightly so. I’ve made many of the recipes and they all work, and her deep dive into techniques satisfies my inner nerd. If you want to raise your baking to another level, this book is definitely one to invest in.

And talking of books and recipes that always work, of course this year it was the inimitable Dame Mary's 90th, and she’s never been busier. I’ve always said that a creative cooking career ensures longevity (think Delia, Marguerite Patten, even Hub’s gran only lost the will to live once she stopped cooking at the age of 102). If I continue cooking and have half their energy when I’m thier age I’ll be more than happy.

It was also the year that saw the sad demise of delicious. Magazine, which has featured in my life in one way or another over the last 22 years, and many other food publications bit the dust. But food writing is very much still alive and kicking, and much as I prefer print to online, that is the way of the world as we know it. So I hope that you have enjoyed my small contribution over the last year and will join me on many more food adventures in 2026.

What's in Jan's pan November 2025

A YEAR OF CHOCOLATE

2025 has certainly been the year of the chocolate bean.
Starting with the Great Taste workshop in February (see archives), held by Spencer Hyman of Cocoa Runners, with a visit to their chocolate fair in October, it ended with a visit to Pump Street chocolate in Suffolk. The chance to be immersed in chocolate (now there’s a thought) was too much to resist, so I signed up and set off to Suffolk to satisfy my curiosity and cravings.

Pump Street Bakery was set up by father and daughter Chris and Jo Brennan 15 years ago in the small but perfectly formed village of Orford in Suffolk. This tiny village is a food-lover’s haven, and boasts not only this fabulous bakery (and the castle on the hill made famous by Ed Sheeran’s song), but also the Butley Orford Oysterage, Pinney’s smokehouse for amazing smoked fish and cheeses, and the Crown and Castle hotel, which was put on the map by Guild of Food Writers Chairman Ruth Watson when she owned it back in the day.

And now, across the road from the pretty pink Pump House bakery is the Pump House chocolate shop. This seemed the natural progression for these creative bakers seeking a new challenge: the marriage of two passions, using bakery additions such as sourdough crumbs and cinnamon buns in the quality craft chocolate they sourced from single origin farms. It’s this that gives them their USP.

Once we’d perused the shop and purchased our wares we wended our way to Woodbridge. This is the site of the chocolate factory and as soon as the doors were opened we were welcomed by a warm waft of roasting beans and conched chocolate - what greater welcome could you wish for?

Now, you may not realise, but chocolate beans are fermented, which means of course that chocolate very much comes under the banner of ‘good for you food’ (you see, I bring good news). This process starts on the farm, all of which are hand picked to ensure their provenance, from Jamaica to the Solomon Islands via Ecuador, and many of whom are in fact so tiny they know all the producers by name.

Once the dried and fermented beans arrive at the factory they are hand sorted and roasted to bring out the best qualities of the beans. They are still using an old patisserie oven but it seems to do the trick, for now.

The next step is breaking and winnowing the beans to separate the nibs from the shells, before they move to the grinding and conching room, where the beans spend 3-4 days in a Cocotown conching machine, to release and develop the flavours. This is all down to friction, not heat, so they bump and grind down in Cocotown until silky smooth. But there’s a good 30 days to wait before the chocolate is ready to eat (aren’t all the best things worth the wait?) and before that the chocolate must be tempered (yes, all good chocolate is good tempered, as will you be once you taste it). Tempering is a process where you heat and cool the chocolate to very specific temperatures to allow the chocolate crystals to stabilise to give that crisp snap and shiny finish, which is, of course, what makes it stand out from any old bog standard commercial chocolate (I’m naming no names).

Once the inclusions are added and the bars are formed they are wrapped in the distinctive pink packaging at a rate of 1000 bars/hour by 3 ladies, and it is clear that at every stage of the process a little bit of love and care is added, as every member of staff is clearly invested in producing the best product possible. They say that chocolate releases endorphins, and I believe that even the smell of it may set you off, as I‘m not sure I’ve ever seen such a happy work force, and we certainly all left with a smile on our faces.
But the fun didn’t end there, as we headed to the bake house and workshop, where David Wright aka @thebreaducator leads bakery and chocolate workshops. He’d made a huge pillowy focaccia made from sustainable YQ (yield and quantity) wheat which we fell on (and bounced off) to soak up his homemade soup served with all kinds of sprinkles (additions are clearly their forte), before he let us loose in the workshop to make our own chocolate bars….

We all felt we’d got the golden ticket as we channeled our inner Charlie Bucket and chose our own inclusions to make the bar of our dreams, with perfectly tempered fruity flavoured chocolate from Haiti.
Needless to say, my bar hardly lasted the journey home, but I savoured every mouthful and I’m definitely a craft chocolate convert. I urge you to visit if you’re in that neck of the woods, and you too can be an Oompa Loompa for a day.
Pump Street Bakery and Chocolate

https://pumpstreetchocolate.com/

Chocolate is never far from my thoughts, and this month means advent calendars are top of the shopping list. On top of the usual Maltesers and Lindt were the joys of a Harrod‘s advent calendar (bottom middle) full of fruity nutty mendiants and chocolate wafers, and a box of Chef Adam Handling’s beautifully glazed and silky smooth chocolate truffles all to myself, courtesy of Cheffy son. He knows me too well.

Food gifts are the way forward

As a food obsessed family we have got to the stage where we no longer need any more clutter round the house, but can always welcome a new taste sensation. As a result we all made up hampers of local delicacies for each other. We had cheese from the Goodwood estate from my sister in West Sussex, we had Devon delights from the Sidmouth branch of the family, and we supported their local delis too, by sending this hamper plus cheeses to them from Prime and Preserved Deli

https://www.primeandpreserved.co.uk/

We're sill waiting for feedback on the Brussel Sprout pickled eggs, or perhaps they haven't been brave enough to try them yet!

Nothing quite beats homemade gifts either, and during my Christmas reading both Mark Hix and Claire Thomson of @5oclockapron fame suggested homemade Panforte. With so much dried fruit and nuts in the house, plus honey and chocolate I was able to whip this up nougaty, chocolatey delight for a last minute gift, along with some white chocolate shards sprinkled with rose petals and pistachios. Ok, so not everyone has these so easily to hand (I have a particularly well stocked larder thanks to all my food projects) but both were so very much cheaper to make than buy, and easy to elevate by putting into a cellophane bag, wrapping with ribbon and labelling with a suitable gift tag (I take no chances and put all allergens on there too).

Mincemeat shortbread squares were on the menu too, which made a great alternative to mince pies, again stacked into cellophane bags with a gift ribbon. And all those plums I froze in the summer came in useful for plum chutney to go with the Christmas cheeseboard.

A home made gift is a win win all round, a little bit of love in a gift bag.

What's in Jan's Airfyer?

Chestnuts shout Christmas to me, and sadly it seems to be the only time that the supermarkets stock them. But if you find yourself with a supply then the air fryer is a great way to roast them.

Make a small cross in the shell on either side of the nut - take care as they can be slippery beasts and shoot out of your grip. Roast on 200C for 10-15minutes, shaking as you go. Peel the skins and savour the creamy roasty toasty nut inside. Not quite 'chestnuts roasting on an open fire' but not a bad alternative.

I made use of the dehydrator setting again overnight to create orange slices for a pre Xmas cocktails party. They make pretty additions to G&T or Aperol Spritz, but I definitely need to invest in some racks to maximise the space when the oven is on so long, or revert to the dehydrator setting on my oven instead.

What's in Jan's Veg Box?

Love 'em or hate 'em, Christmas is the time to bring out the sprouts. And long gone are the days of soggy sulphuric beige mini cabbages, now you can steam 'em, fry 'em, shred 'emtil the green glows in all its glory, and and if you thought you didn't like them try one of these suggestions. And there’s no need to cut a cross in the stem as we were taught back in the day - they need minimum cooking, so treat them with the respect they deserve.

My favourite Christmas treatment for Brussels sprouts is fried with bacon and chestnuts (it's chestnuts all the way for me when it gets to the festive season).

Halve larger Brussels and lightly steam or blanch.

Fry some bacon or lardons to release the fat and soften some shallot slices.

Add in the Brussels and cook until lightly charred. Add some ready peeled chestnuts (vacuum packed are the best here) with a splash of madeira wine over a high heat, to bring it all together. Serve alongside your meat of choice for the Christmas celebrations. Veggies can omit the bacon of course.

I had the most delicious meal at Ember restaurant in Hertford, https://emberhertford.co.uk/. The latest restaurant to grace the iconic Egyptian building located on Fore Street it serves platters of steak cooked on a charcoal grill to share. The group was divided on the side orders to go with the sliced sirloin for sharing, but we ordered one of each vegetable dish accompaniment. The Brussel sprouts and whiskey cream were enough to make even the abstainers convert. To make these at home, I would steam whole sprouts then fry until charred, add whiskey and reduce for a couple of minutes, then stir in cream and bubble through until it clings to the sprouts.

For our own Christmas dinner we had finely shredded Brussels fried with bacon then golden slow cooked caramelised onions were stirred in to make the mixture sweet and unctuous. All courtesy of the Chefs, who took over on Boxing Day.

Try one of these brilliant Brussels and you’ll change your mind for good.