Home made sweets

I thought I would share some of my home-made sweets with you - not literally, unfortunately, since that would be rather difficult unless you lived nearby and popped in for a cuppa one day!

I made a selection of sweets for Christmas presents this year (2009 actually, so technically last year!) and gave them to my immediate family members in the cute little gift boxes pictured here. I bought the gift boxes flat-packed from Ebay and they are useful for anything that is difficult to wrap in the conventional way, so I will no doubt be going back for more soon!

I thought you might like to see the recipe for these tasty treats, too, so have included them here just in case.

The recipe for White Chocolate & Cranberry Fudge was taken from a free leaflet that came with the shopping one week from Tesco, and it was the first time I'd made it, but it was a huge success so I will be doing more throughout the year as birthday gifts for people.

White Chocolate & Cranberry Fudge

Ingredients:
350g (12oz) granulated sugar
25g (1oz) unsalted butter
175ml (6fl oz) can evaporated milk
100g (31/2oz) dried sweetened cranberries
300g (10oz) white chocolate, chopped.

Method:

• Cut a piece of baking parchment large enough to line a 1kg (2lb) loaf tin. (I used a rectangular shaped lasagne dish, which worked just as well!)
• Put the sugar, butter and evaporated milk in a large heavy based pan. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved completely.
• Bring to the boil, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. It is a good idea to set a timer for this.
• Immediately remove from the heat then add the cranberries and chocolate
• Allow the chocolate to melt (the smaller the pieces, the quicker it will melt) then quickly stir the mixture and pour straight into the tin/dish. It will thicken immediately.
• Spread into the tin/dish (I used a silicone spatula for this) and chill for an hour or so until firm. Cut into squares.
  

I then placed small squares of parchment paper in between layers of the fudge in these little boxes:



These would also make a lovely gift for your loved one on Valentine's Day! (or you could pretend they are for your loved one and help with the eating of them yourself!