Sammy & Bella sign up with Sunbeam
Reality TV stars and celebrity chefs Sammy and Bella Jakubiak have signed up with Sunbeam to encourage Aussies to embrace 2016’s Christmas baking trends.
As part of the campaign, the former MKR winners and sisters have created a number of recipes to help get Aussies inspired and into the Christmas spirit. The recipes, which include an easy microwaveable Christmas pudding, a layered almond and grape pavlova wreath, a raisin and almond baba cake and a rum n’ raisin chocolate salami are inspired by a combination of archived family recipes, traditional Polish desserts and classic Christmas desserts.
While in previous years we’ve seen unusual dessert combos and fusions, according to Sammy and Bella, 2016 is all about the return of old favourites.
Sammy commented: “We usually celebrate Christmas with our family and a mix of Polish and Australian traditions. Unsurprisingly food is at the centre of our family Christmas celebrations – helping to bring everyone together at the end of the year.
“This year, we’re really excited to bring back some of the old classics that have been in hiding for a while, like Christmas pudding and cake, and give them a modern Aussie twist!”.
The girls, who admit to having sweet-tooths, say the partnership is perfect, given their passion for cooking and baking.
Sammy added: “We get such a thrill cooking for other people, which is what the Christmas spirit is all about. We start well in advance by pulling out old recipes and getting inspiration from our favourite blogs and magazines. We then think about how we can add our own touch to a recipe. It’s always fun going through old recipes and looking at ways to make them even better,”.
Another Christmas trend that Sammy and Bella forecast is edible gifts: “A really easy and thoughtful gift idea is to give home-made food” says Sammy. “Cookies and slices for example are fairly simple and can be packaged up as gifts individually or together – not to mention, they are fun to make and decorate!”
Sammy and Bella’s Microwaveable Christmas pudding (Serves 8)
Christmas pudding is probably the most popular of all Christmas desserts. Originally being a Northern hemisphere Christmas tradition, us Aussies have still picked it up and integrated it into our Summer Christmas. But how many of us actually make our own Christmas pudding? Most of us are tempted to just buy one from our local supermarket because it can take so long. We decided to create a quick and easy microwaveable pudding that can be cooked in just ten minutes – and the mincemeat only takes an hour.
Best of all, it tastes deliciously juicy and satisfying – as if you’ve been preparing this pudding for weeks! Top with a lashing of brandy custard for best results.
So this year there are no excuses for store bought puddings and all the reason to impress with your own home made version! – Sammy Jakubiak
Ingredients
For the mincemeat
375g Sunbeam Mixed Fruit
50ml brandy
125g brown sugar
zest and juice of ½ lemon
1 apple grated
½ tsp ground nutmeg
For the pudding
600g home made Mincemeat
grated rind and juice of 1 orange
2 tbsp brandy
50g self raising flour
50 white bread crumbs, preferably fresh
1 egg
100g butter melted
Garnish
Icing sugar, sifted
Vanilla brandy custard
Method
1. Place the Sunbeam Mix fruit and all the other ingredients for the mince meat in a bowl and allow to soak for at least one hour.
2. Once soaked, add the mince meat mixture into a glass heat proof bowl. Add in the rest of the pudding ingredients and mix well to combine. At this point you can either transfer the mix to a pudding basin or flatten the mixture into the current heat proof bowl. Cover with a circle of grease proof paper and microwave for 8-10mintues on high.
3. All to stand for 5 minutes before turning out. Serve with a dusting of icing sugar and vanilla brandy custard. Enjoy!
