You may have finished the leftovers from your Christmas dinner by now, but there’s a good chance that you’re still spoilt for choice when it comes to sweet treats like chocolate. Whether it be an uneaten advent calendar, hollow Santa shapes, or a collection of your least favourite box chocolate leftover, there’s almost always some lurking around the house in the lead-up to the new year. Fortunately, there are plenty of easy recipes you can make using a mixture of all three – and they’re good enough to serve on New Year’s Eve.
Celebration brownies
Whether your empty Celebrations box contains a handful of Milky Way – the nation’s “least favourite” flavour, or you’ve got a nutty mix of Snickers and Bounty to work with, this brownie recipe is the tastiest way to use them all up.
Inspired by Nigella Lawson’s chocolate traybake cake, the unique batter is a “different” and “easy” way to make a quick dessert that serves up to 16, all in one pan.
Ingredients
- 75g milk chocolate broken into chunks
- 75g dark chocolate broken into chunks
- 125g unsalted butter
- 150g soft light brown sugar
- Two eggs
- 100g self-raising flour
- 200g leftover chocolate pieces/ Celebrations
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Taming Twins food writer, Sarah Rossi, explained that good quality ingredients are key to getting the best flavours, adding that you should “always use butter, not margarine”, as there is “no comparison”.
While the mum-turned-recipe blogger used leftover Celebrations chocolates, she noted that you can substitute “any leftover chocolate filling” for the same weight (200g).
Method
Start by preheating the oven to 180C, then, in a heavy saucepan, add the milk and dark chocolate along with the butter and sugar. Melt slowly over very low heat and stir regularly. Once you have a smooth, silky liquid, remove it from the heat and leave the batter to cool for 10 minutes.
Add the eggs and flour to the chocolate liquid and beat until combined. Pour half of the batter into a small non-stick roasting pan (around nine inches square) lined with baking paper.
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Smooth out and position the Celebrations on top and cover with the rest of the mixture. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
Sarah said: “It’s so important not to overcook chocolate brownies. The trick is to bring them out of the oven just before they are cooked through when they still have a bit of a ‘wobble’. Then, leave them to go cold and firm before you cut them.”
Chocolate tiffin
Best known for its unique mix of raisins, chocolate and biscuit, tiffin is one of the easiest sweet treats to make with whatever is left in your cupboard after Christmas.
Customising this recipe can be done by adding extra chunks of box chocolates, using flavoured squares for melting, or experimenting with a mixture of different biscuits.
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Ingredients
According to BBC GoodFood, you will need:
- 150g butter, cubed, plus extra for the tin
- Three tablespoons of caster sugar
- Three tablespoons of golden syrup
- Six teaspoons of cocoa powder
- 225g biscuits, crushed
- A handful of raisins
- 110g milk chocolate
- 110g dark chocolate
Method
Line a 15-20cm tin with baking parchment and melt the butter, sugar, syrup and cocoa in a large saucepan. Add the crushed biscuits and stir until combined.
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and press down with the back of a spoon. Microwave both chocolates in short 20-second bursts, stirring frequently until melted. Pour in the tin and smooth with a palette knife to coat the base.
Chill the tin in the fridge for at least two hours, or overnight. Once set, run a kitchen knife under the hot tap then cut into squares.
Chocolate truffles
Ingredients:
- 400g chocolate – preferably Lindt
- 180ml heavy or double cream
- Half a teaspoon of vanilla essence
- 30g unsalted butter
- Cocoa powder fo dusting (approx. 40g)
Microwave leftover Christmas chocolate so it’s almost totally melted and set aside for a few minutes. Pour the cream into a pan over medium heat and whisk lightly until it starts to boil. Remove it from the heat and add the vanilla along with the almost-melted chocolate.
Gently stir in one direction until combined and add the butter once melted. Cover the bowl with cling film pressed on top of the mixture and leave to sit for 30 minutes.
Once thoroughly chilled, remove from the fridge and scoop out teaspoon-sized chunks the size of a 50p coin. Roll into balls before placing on a parchment-lined tray. You can dust your hands in cocoa powder to make it easier to handle the soft chocolate, which should be left to sit for 15mins after being rolled. Coat in more cocoa powder before serving.
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