Fun Fillers for Your Christmas Stocking

Here are a few ideas for Christmas stocking fillers if you are feeling a bit stuck. You will surely find something here for the food lovers in your life. I’d certainly be happy to find any of these in mine.

Drinking Chocolate Christmas Baubles

Hans Sloane is probably my favourite hot chocolate and I’ve tried a few over the years. It makes a rich and creamy beverage, even without the addition of milk and it is not overly sweet.  Made with water, these make excellent drinks for vegans or those with a dairy intolerance. You can read my previous reviews of Hans Sloane drinking chocolate Madagascar 67% and Ecuador 70% and Rich Dark (53%) and Natural Honey. Any of them make perfect stocking fillers.

The latest to come my way is this adorable Christmas Bauble full of 53% chocolate beads that rattle around when you shake it. The sight of a Christmas tree groaning under the weight of these substantial baubles would be a remarkable sight. When I tired of the spectacle, it would be good to know that I could pop them individually into mugs and liberate the contents with some hot water or milk. From tree to tea-tray in a trice. Perfect!

£2 per individually packaged bauble and they will arrive in time for Christmas if you order by 18 December. Alternatively the 270g packs cost between £4.49 and £5.49 and can be found at Tesco and Waitrose as well as online.

Personalised Cornishware Mug

I grew up with Cornish Blue and the plates, cups and jugs are still in regular use in my mother’s kitchen on the edge of Bodmin Moor. Though they are somewhat cracked and chipped these days. They hold a special place in my heart, though I now have a preference and yearning for Cornish Red.

This personalised mug adorned with my moniker I found especially appealing. It’s just the right size and has a chunky, hand warming quality about it – perfect for those bedtime mugs of cocoa I’m so fond of, or even chocolate tea. Next time maybe Santa will bring me a red one. £10 for an 8oz personalised Cornishware mug.

Totally Fudged

A new small batch fudge company run by Ed and Jim from a family kitchen in West Sussex is taking our fudge eating nation by storm – or if it isn’t, it ought to be. The ingredients are few with nothing in there for me to disapprove of.

Totally Fudged is a great name and a great product. Three flavours, three textures, three mouthwatering sweet fudgy delights. CT and I got to try all of them. Three 150g packs costs £9.

Double Chocolate – butter, sugar, milk, salt, evaporated milk, milk chocolate, dark chocolate.
A creamy yet firm and chewy fudge which is almost brownie like in texture. It has a good rich chocolate aroma and flavour and it isn’t overly sweet. Containing both milk and dark chocolate, I found this fudge really appealing.

Sea Salted Caramel – butter, light brown sugar, milk, sea salt, evaporated milk, white chocolate
This is the least sweet of the three, even though it has a definite caramel flavour. It has a grainier texture than the other two and reminds me of Scotch tablet. It has just the right amount of salt and the brown sugar and white chocolate add to the overall caramel taste.

Madagascan Vanilla – butter, sugar, milk, sea salt, evaporated milk, Madagascan vanilla.
This is the sweetest of all which is rather too sweet for me. It has a lovely flavour and texture with a rich creamy smell – rather reminiscent of an Indian sweet.

Personally, I would be delighted to find any of these in my Christmas stocking. They are all quite special and would make excellent gifts for the discerning foodie. Are you listening, CT?

Chocolate Soap

Having received my dose of antioxidants and minerals internally, how about applying chocolate externally? In this case in the form of soap. Made locally in Liskeard by Cornish Soapcakes, I was frothing at the mouth at the thought of trying this chocolate soap. Talk about great stocking fillers.

With its simple but effective packaging, this certainly looked good enough to eat when I opened it. Made with Green & Blacks chocolate rather than the usual cocoa butter. Is this a first for Liskeard and who knows, the world?

Cheese Making Kit

Cheese making is all the rage at the moment and Cheeky Monkey Cream Chargers have cleverly seized the opportunity and are making kits for home cheese making. I was sent a Goat (Chèvre) kit, which I’m excited to try, but haven’t quite found time to do so yet.

I adore goat’s cheese which is fabulous for cooking and pairs remarkably well with chocolate. You can see some of the recipes I’ve tried with this combination.

The kit comes with instructions, recipes, cheesecloth, citric acid, cheese-salt and herbs de Provence. It will make about 3 lb of chèvre. All I need to do is buy the milk and follow the instructions. I will report back when I have done so. There is a mozzarella and ricotta kit too, which sounds equally attractive. Both kits cost £6.

mberry – Miracle Fruit Tablets

The fruits of the miracle berry, Synsepalum dulcificum, a West African shrub, are compressed and dried into tablet form. The effects are the result of a taste modifying process caused by miraculin, a glycoprotein found in the berry’s flesh. So what does all this mean? The theory is, it turns sour and bitter flavours sweet.

CT and I gave it a go. We each let one tablet dissolve on our tongue. It took rather longer than I was expecting and tasted fruity with a berry like tartness. So far, unremarkable. Then we tried drinking some freshly squeezed lemon juice. Wow! We’d heard it was meant to make things taste different, but it was still a surprise to find the lemon juice tasted sweet, really sweet.

What fun. Fool your tongue like never before. An ideal party piece to amaze your friends at Christmas to go with the magic lantern show and other curiosities. Dickens would have loved these. Available from mberry at £12.99 for a pack of ten.

Crumb – Ruby Tandoh

For those that haven’t been following the Great British Bake-off, Ruby, a young law student, was a finalist in the 2013 competition and now writes regularly for the Guardian. For fans of this iconic programme, she will need no introduction. Her book Crumb is filled with enticing recipes for bakes of all kinds; they not only sound highly flavoursome, but are down to earth and fancy free. The law’s loss is our gain.

The book is both intelligently and clearly written, so it’s engaging as well as informative. The recipes are easy to follow and full instructions are given for the novice cook. Each chapter begins with a “how to” section explaining ingredients and techniques.

Answers are given throughout to many of the common questions which even experienced bakers may have: why is my cake too dense? Why is my bread too yeasty? Why is my Danish pastry leaking butter as it bakes?

Ruby is also good at demystifying those little tips and tricks that the experienced baker takes for granted. So what does it mean when you say a curd has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon? Well she shows you.

Innovative bakes and twists on old favourites abound, inspiring me to get off the computer and into the kitchen. So far I have only made a batch of wholemeal walnut cobs and a jar of her lemon curd; both were simple to make and delicious.

I have, of course, bookmarked a rather ambitious number of other recipes. These include: cherry stollen with pistachio marzipan, dark chocolate orange bourbons, blackberry ricotta cheesecake, chocolate lime mudcake and spiced chocolate tart. There you have it, my New Year’s resolutions.

Published by Chatto & Windus in September this year, the substantial 336p book costs £20.

Hotel Chocolat

Some festive chocolatey treats rolled in, just in time for Christmas – a stocking to fill a stocking it would seem.

Hotel Chocolat is the best High Street chocolatier out there and I do miss not being able to pop in to the Plymouth store with the regularity I was once able to.

Christmas Stocking

A box of chocolate reindeer made from the house special 40% milk chocolate was much appreciated as was the Christmas stocking filled with white, milk and caramel chocolate santas, presents and bells. Thank you Hotel Chocolat.

Cocoa Hand Cream

Chocolate comes in many forms and here it comes in the form of hand cream. What’s not to love about cocoa hand cream? It’s great for chocoholics who can now have an all round chocolate body experience, both inside and outside. The skin is, after all, the biggest organ of the body.

I love stocking fillers like this – useful, but just a bit different.

Like many of us hard working food bloggers, I don’t pay as much attention to my hands as I should. They get very dry from frequent washing. This isn’t helped by my gardening activities. This is because soil is notorious for drying out the skin.

As well as cocoa butter, the Revive hand cream contains shea butter, mango seed oil and honey. All good protective moisturising ingredients. The scent is pleasant, if a little strong for me and reminds me of bergamot.

A little goes a long way and massaged into hands and cuticles, it’s almost instantly absorbed, leaving my hands smooth but not at all greasy. The hand cream comes in a very smart paper handbag echoing the black and white packaging of the product, which itself has a silver cocoa bean printed both on the box and the tube.

Keep in Touch

Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you try any of the items featured in this guide to fun fillers for your Christmas stocking, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. If you have any good ideas, I’d love to hear about them too.

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You might also like this Christmas gift guide for food lovers post.

Choclette x