Dazz Switalla Flavour Secrets No.1 The Strand Chef www.no1thestrand.co.nz

As it's called the silly season, we often find ourselves going nuts with a mix of stress and endless rushing around getting things done before the big day.

Some of the best secret Santa or affordable gifts you just simply must give are the ones you make yourself.

So as nuts and fruit are often associated with Christmas, I thought it would be nice to share my easy as chocolate panforte recipe.

It's traditionally eaten in Italy with a strong coffee any time of the year. It will keep well and looks great wrapped in some cellophane as a small home-made gift.

The fact you can actually make something so yummy will impress even those fair-weather, fussy friends who think you're a talentless waste of space.

You a can choose any mix of nuts and add in any type of dried, candied fruit to personalise your panforte. The recipe is all most fail safe.

Chocolate Panforte

Makes 1 large 16-22 portions

Ingredients

1 Tbsp cocoa powder

1 ½ cups flour

3 cups mixed nuts – cashews, macadamia, Brazil nuts, almonds and hazelnuts – roughly chopped and oven-roasted

1 cup dried, candied fruits – figs, peaches, mangos, papaya etc –chopped

2 tsp ginger

1 pinch nutmeg

1 tsp mixed spice

130gdark chocolate, broken into small pieces

1 heaped cup caster sugar

1 cup honey

Method

Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius, then line a 22 cm cake tin with greaseproof paper, then grease and dust with cocoa powder.

Sift flour, cocoa and spices together and add dried fruits and chopped nuts.

Toss in the chocolate pieces also.

Slowly bring sugar and honey to a boil and simmer until a soft ball is formed when a little is dropped in cold water.

Add honey mix to the bowl and stir well until all ingredients are amalgamated, then pat into the cake tin with milk-dipped hands – careful as this will be very hot!

Bake in the middle of the oven for about 35 minutes and allow to cool before slicing into small wedges. A little goes a long way.