RipeGifts have so much yummy stuff on their site, that's it's difficult to highlight just one product. The emphasis is very much on 'healthy decadence'! Take your pick from plenty of fab Christmas Hampers! A luxury gift hamper from Ripe Gifts really is the perfect Christmas treat. This speciality website, is changing the way we think about food hampers. Ripe Gifts offer a wide-range of sumptuous gifts containing an unusual mix of luxury nuts and honeys, dried fruit and moist Rich Fruit cake - perfect for the festive season.

The Hand finished, re-usable gift containers, deliver stunning presentation, as well as ensuring the contents arrive perfectly intact. In addition, each hamper comes with a hand-written message. For the record everything is vegetarian with a smattering of Vegan, gluten free and Organic and FairTrade for good measure.

Bendicks Bittertubes With BendicksÂ® Bitters just launched in bite sized tubes, it's now easier than ever to master the art of 'me time'! Forget

handbags, clothes and shoes - if you really want to invest in 'me', treat yourself to the very latest in choc-couture from BendicksÂ® and they make a great pressie too! The legendary BendicksÂ® Bittermint, a chocolate classic since 1931, remains wonderfully unchanged - with the same recipe and dark 95% cocoa solids chocolate. They have a stylish, new look and are available in Harrods, Selfridges, Tesco and Waitrose priced at £1.99 for 100g.

THURSDAY COTTAGE ALL-YEAR-ROUND CHRISTMAS PUDDING

More fruit, more cider, more cognac, more taste!

Thursday Cottage Christmas Pudding is packed full of whole vine fruit, sultanas, currents and raisins and is perfect for vegetarians, is preservative-free and totally nut-free.

But why only enjoy the rich, full flavour of this healthy and wholesome pudding at Christmas when quite possibly the indulgence of the festive season mean that your taste buds do not do full justice to the intricacies of the recipe? This is truly a delicious pudding to enjoy anytime. Thursday Cottage Christmas Pudding is handmade using a traditional recipe which is faithfully followed today. Sugar, spices, wheat breadcrumbs, palm oil, eggs, cider and cognac are all blended to give a perfectly balanced pudding that is light on the tongue and rich to taste.

Always a welcome gift, the Thursday Cottage 454g, 16oz, Christmas Pudding is beautifully presented in a traditional earthenware basin, already wrapped in muslin, pre-cooked and requiring only a thorough heating over steam to be ready for a taste experience not to be forgotten. Individual 4oz puddings can be heated in the microwave for total convenience.

Warburtons Chilled Winter Loaf Pudding with Cranberries

How about a Xmas spin on the traditional bread & butter pudding using Warburtons Winter Fruit Loaf - perfect for guests who don't like xmas pudding? Incidentally, the Winter Fruit Loaf is absolutely delicious just with a bit of butter!

What you need

â€¢ 2 slices Warburtons Winter Loaf
â€¢ 1 tbs dried cranberries (Craisins from Ocean Spray are ideal)
â€¢ Fresh cranberry juice
â€¢ Brandy (optional)

What to do

1. Sprinkle the cranberries in the base of a ramekin dish.
2. Roughly tear the slices of bread and place over the cranberries.
3. Mix a little brandy with some cranberry juice and pour over the bread, ensure the bread is fully soaked but not soggy. (For a deeper coloured pudding mix cranberry juice with a little blackcurrant juice).
4. Press the bread firmly down into the mould.
5. Chill for 1-2 hours in the refrigerator before turning the pudding out onto a serving plate.

For that extra Christmas touch, flambÃ© with brandy and serve with brandy butter.

(serves 4 and is a fantastic healthier alternative to traditional Christmas pudding)

Splenda Mulled Wine by Antony Worrall Thompson

The definitive winter-warming drink, normal mulled wine can be very calorific and includes a lot of sugar. SPLENDA (the low calorie sweetener) mulled wine contains one tenth of the calories found in normal mulled wine recipes, and retains all the taste of sugar. It has also been proven that a glass of red wine a day can be good for you, containing antioxidants that help maintain a healthy heart!

MULLED WINE

25g/1oz Splenda
600ml (1 pint) water
grated rind of 1 orange and 1 lemon
10 cloves
1 stick cinnamon
grating of nutmeg
8 cardamom pods
2 bottles red wine
spoons brandy-soaked sultanas

1. Dissolve the Splenda in the water. Add the remainder of the ingredients except the sultanas and simmer for 20 minutes. Do not allow to boil.

2. Strain the wine into toddy glasses each containing a few brandy-soaked sultanas. Enjoy!

Serves 8

Perfect roast potatoes are everyone's favourite, and the best way to impress friends and family, so Filippo Berio's in-house chef has created a recipe to make the perfect crisp and golden potatoes:

Roast Potatoes with Garlic

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: about 1 hour
Serves 4

Ingredients
900g/2lb potatoes, peeled
6 tbsp Filippo Berio Mild & Light Olive Oil
6-8 cloves garlic

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan 180C/400F/Gas Mark 6 and put a large roasting tin in the oven to heat.

2. Cut the potatoes into large, even chunks. Boil in salted water for 5 minutes. Drain, return to the pan, cover with the lid and shake the pan to roughen up the edges of the potatoes. Set aside.

3. Add the oil to the roasting tin and return to the oven for 2 minutes. Tip the potatoes into the hot oil, then turn to coat in oil. Roast for 30minutes. Turn over the potatoes, add the garlic cloves and roast for a further 25-30minutes or until crisp and golden. Serve immediately.

www.filippoberio.co.uk/recipes

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