No cupcakes today but I thought I’d give you instead a chutney recipe that I am definitely loving! This year I decided to hand-made the Christmas gifts to my family and friends in Spain. I only get to see them once a year and a scarf or a tee seemed too impersonal… I wanted something that would remind them of me all year long!

So I decided to do chutneys and curds for all of them (yup that was a fun couple of days in the kitchen!). I made the sticker tags a while before and then I only had to cook and jar! 😀

The flavours were: lemon curd, orange curd, chocolate ganache (with a special white chocolate with cookies and raisins for my mom!), spicy tomato relish and apple/date chutney.

My favourite was this last one so here goes the recipe!

Apple & Date Chutney Recipe

• 3kg apples (I like pippin apples the best but any cooking apples will do)
• 6  onions
• 1kg deboned dates
• 250ml balsamic vinegar
• 600ml apple cider vinegar
• 8 tbs of mustard (you can use mustard seeds if you like them)
• 300g  brown sugar
• 500ml water
• A bit of oil
• You can also add nuts and raisins if you like

1. Chop and dice onions, apples and dates
2. Put a big cooking pot on low heat and add the oil, the two vinegars, sugar, mustard seeds and water.  Stir until the sugar dissolves.
3.  Add the chopped  ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon.  Turn the heat up and bring to the boil.
4. The mixture will need at least 45minutes to cook. Continue stirring occasionally until the mixture is thick but you can still see chunks of the fruit. It will be done when no liquid remains and the texture is thick but a bit gooey.

Then, if you are going to keep the chutney (probably after making such a big quantity!), pour the mix into warm, sterilised jars while still hot and cover immediately.  This will make the chutney last longer although not more than a year… Hope you like it!!

I also made the stickers… had a lot of fun with them! ;D