SANTA DUST RECIPES

Steps:

• Heat the butter, syrup and sugar together in a small pan until melted, stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool slightly.
• Mix together the bicarb, ginger, cinnamon and flour in a large bowl. Pour in the buttery syrup mixture and stir to combine, then use your hands to bring together to form a dough. Add up to 1 tbsp of milk to combine if needed. The dough will be soft at this point, but it’ll firm up in the fridge.
• Put the dough on a sheet of baking parchment, shape into a rectangle, and lay another sheet of parchment on top of it. Roll the dough out to a thickness of ½cm. Transfer to a baking sheet to keep it flat, leaving the parchment in place, then chill in the fridge for 1 hr.
• Heat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5 and line a large baking sheet with more baking parchment. Remove the dough from the fridge and cut out shapes using a cookie cutter. We used 9cm stars, but you can choose any shape. We also made some with smaller stars cut out of the centre to thread ribbon through and hang from a Christmas tree.
• Place the shapes, spread apart, on the lined baking sheet, and bake for 10-12 mins. (Depending on the size of the cutters you use, they might need a few minutes more or less cooking in the oven). Leave to cool completely on the baking sheet.
• Meanwhile, mix the icing sugar with 1-2 tbsp water – you want to create a consistency that’s thick and pipeable, and not too thin or it will run. Decorate the cooled biscuits with the icing using a piping bag with a thin nozzle. Find out how to make a piping bag.

Steps:

• For the red velvet crust: Adjust the oven racks to the middle and bottom of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Spray a 13-by-9-inch metal baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place a double layer of parchment into the pan so that it overhangs the long sides; spray the parchment with cooking spray.
• Add half of the cookies to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the cookies resemble crumbs. Drizzle in half of the butter and half of the red dye, pulsing until it's all incorporated. Remove the first batch to a large bowl and repeat the with the remaining cookies, butter and dye. Combine both batches, then pour the cookie mixture into the prepared baking pan, using your hands to press the crust down to make one even layer. Bake for 10 minutes.
• For the filling: Beat the cream cheese, granulated sugar and vanilla together in a stand mixer using a paddle attachment. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the sour cream and mix again. Pour the filling over the crust and smooth the top.
• Put a large roasting pan with water on the bottom rack of the oven and put the pan with the cheesecake on the top rack. Bake until the cheesecake is set and no longer jiggly, about 45 minutes.
• Turn off the oven, open the oven door and allow the pan to sit in the open oven for 15 minutes. Remove and allow to cool for at least 2 hours. Once cooled at room temperature, refrigerate to chill for another 2 hours.
• To assemble: Remove the cheesecake from the baking pan. Using a 2-inch round pastry cutter, carefully punch out 15 cheesecake circles. Remove them to a serving platter. Refrigerate while you make the mascarpone cream.
• For the whipped mascarpone cream: Add the cream to the bowl of a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and whip to stiff peaks. Add the mascarpone and confectioners' sugar and mix until well combined and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a number 12 pastry tip.
• For the Santa hats: Pipe a rim of the mascarpone cream around the top of each cheesecake circle. Put an inverted strawberry into the center of each and top with a tiny blob of the mascarpone cream. Chill to set.
• To assemble the snow scene: Arrange the Santa hats on a cake stand, place the miniature Christmas trees, reindeer and sleigh and cowboy Christmas figurines around and dust with confectioners' sugar snow.