12 Bakes of Christmas – the rest…

Over the past 12 days, I’ve given you my 12 Bakes of Christmas – the baking that happens each year in Chez Tracey. I’ve also told you about the potato scones that we simply can’t Christmas without. But yet, there’s more.

The Pav

I make Nigella’s Lemon Pavlova whenever we entertain friends during the Christmas season. It’s fail-safe and while these pics don’t do it justice, tartly squidgily fabulous. The recipe is here.

Christmas Cocktails

Our current fave is Nigella’s Lycheeni, but this year we’ll also be giving her Poinsettia a go too.

The Christmas Cherries

One of my strongest childhood memories is driving back from Tumbarumba in the summer in the days before air conditioning in the car. Dad would have the Boxing Day test (cricket) on the radio and we’d be eating cherries and spitting the seeds out the window.

They’re expensive this year, but absolutely will be on the table.

The Christmas Prawns

I might be a tad biased, but Mooloolaba King Prawns are the best prawns in the whole world – and well worth queuing for on Christmas Eve.

We won’t be having them on the lunch table this year, but they’ll be piled high in a bowl on Boxing Day.

The Christmas Ham

Despite the heat, the main event on Christmas Day is roast turkey with all the trimmings – including sprouts.I have no decent photos of the ham (note to self for next year) but the glaze I use is below. We always buy a half leg of ham (most of the hams sold in Australia are cooked), but this quantity is enough for a full leg.

I’m not going to give you precise instructions other than to say you need to remove the rind (it’s easier than you think – check out a youtube video if you need to) before glazing it. Don’t worry, you don’t need to remove the rind from the shank part.

Ginger Glazed Christmas Ham

• 365 g ginger marmalade. We use Buderim ginger marmalade because it’s local. If you can’t get ginger marmalade, use an ordinary marmalade with extra fresh ginger
• 1/3 cup grated fresh ginger
• 1/3 cup (80ml) maple syrup
• 1/2 cup (110g) firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup (250ml) dry ginger ale
• 1 tablespoon hot English mustard
• 2 tablespoon cloves

Put everything other than the cloves into a saucepan, bring it to the boil, reduce the heat to medium, and let it simmer away for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, make sure the shelf in the oven is placed okay to accommodate your ham (trust me, I’ve been caught out by this before and ended up cooking the too big for the oven ham in the barbeque), and preheat the oven to 180C. I always line the tin I’m using with plenty of foil to protect it.

Score the fat on your ham into diamonds and place a clove in the centre of some of the diamonds. Wrap some foil around the shank and place your ham in the tin. Brush the ham with half of the mixture, saving the rest for basting. Bake for about 1 1/4 hours, basting every 20 minutes.