How to make a Chocolate Christmas fruit cake

To make your Christmas celebrations cheerful, Chef Ranveer Brar has created some decadent treats. 

Caramel gingerbread cookies

Ingredients:

For the cookies:

• ½ cup butter, softened
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup Hershey's caramel syrup
• 1½ cup refined flour
• ¾ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ginger powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• ¼ tsp clove powder
• ¼ tsp nutmeg powder

Other ingredients:

• ½ cup white chocolate, melted

Method:

• In a large mixing bowl combine butter, sugar and start beating with a hand blender till soft and creamy.
• Add Hershey’s caramel syrup and mix again till well combined. Now add in refined flour, baking powder, baking soda and all the spices. Give a nice mix with a spatula till all combined.
• Dust your hands with refined flour and smooth out dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 mins.
• Take the dough out of refrigerator and sprinkle flour over dough and rolling pin. Roll dough to a ¼ inch thickness. Use additional flour to avoid sticking.
• Line a baking tray with butter paper and pre-heat the oven at 170°C.
• Cut out cookies with a ginger man cookie cutter or any other desired cutter.
• Place the cookies 1 ½ inches apart. Bake the cookies in batches. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 160°C for 7-10 minutes.
• Remove cookie sheet from oven and allow the cookies to stand until the cookies are firm enough to move to a wire rack.
• Decorate the cookies with melted white chocolate.

Chocolate Christmas fruit cake

Ingredients:

For soaking:

• ¾ cup dry fruits and nuts (tutti frutti, cherries, raisins, almonds)
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 tsp rum essence (optional)
• 2 tsp orange zest
• 1 tsp candied ginger (optional)
• ½ tsp cinnamon powder
• 2 tbsp wheat flour

For cake:

• 1 cup ragi flour
• 1 cup wheat flour
• ½ cup Hershey's cocoa powder
• ⅓ cup sugar
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• A pinch of salt
• ½ cup Hershey’s chocolate syrup
• 1 cup milk
• ¾ cup melted butter
• ¼ cup icing sugar

Method:

• For soaked fruits, take dry fruits and nuts in a bowl. Pour in orange juice and rum essence. Add in orange zest, candied ginger and cinnamon powder. Mix everything well. Let this rest for 2-3 hours.
• For the cake, take a bowl and add in all the dry ingredients. Mix well.
• Now pour in chocolate syrup, milk and melted butter. Combine everything well, ensure there are no lumps in the batter.
• Toss the soaked fruits with 2 tbsp wheat flour. This keeps the fruits from settling down while baking. Add in the soaked fruits and mix everything well. Batter should be of thick pouring consistency.
• Line a cake tin with butter paper. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Pour the cake batter in the lined tin. Tap it gently to remove air bubbles. Bake for 35 minutes or until the knife comes out completely clean. De-mould the cake and let it cool down to room temperature. Dust the fruit cake with icing sugar and serve.