6 Christmas Treats That Prove the Benefits of a Stone Worktop

It’s the most wonderful time of the year… and the most heavy going on your kitchen!  The whole Christmas season basically relies upon food and drink. So it’s a busy time for any kitchen – is yours up to the challenge? If you have chosen a stone worktop in your kitchen then you will find that, yes, you’ll be giving Mary Berry a run for her money. So which Christmas treats are so much more straightforward to prepare with a marble, granite or quartz work surface?

Mince Pies

And anything that involves pastry, actually. The naturally cool temperature of stone makes rolling and kneading far easier. Especially when all around you the kitchen is likely to be hotting up! Even if you’re short of time, mince pies are simple to construct yourself for perfectly homemade Christmas treats. The amount of rolling and cutting involved in making mince pies means that the coolness of the surface makes the whole process more hassle-free. Leaving you to enjoy more of the festive spirit!

Yule Log

Yule logs are a fun festive treat to bring your helper kitchen elves (or family) into the kitchen. Everyone loves a chocolate cake, and the helpers will love licking the mixing bowl even more! Or perhaps you’re more traditional and get together to stir in a silver sixpence to the Christmas pudding mixture. For family cooking, your marble kitchen island will come into its own. With space to gather together, your cooking experience is more social and more festive! 

Gingerbread House

We’re back in the realm of dough rolling here. A gingerbread or cinnamon biscuit house will fill your kitchen with the scents of the season and when constructed will provide a tasty centrepiece to your Christmas treats! It’s just the putting together that is the tricky bit! Your cool stone worktop will keep the biscuit dough workable as you shape the pieces into the right sizes and angles to fit together. For gingerbread biscuit houses, we’d advise following a plan to get the pieces right. As stone worktops are so strong and durable, it’s best not to use sharp knives to cut the pieces directly on your work surface: save your knives and use a plastic spatula instead!

Peppermint Bark

This is a classic from across the Atlantic. Like most Christmas treats it’s basically all the naughty things: a layer of peppermint-infused white chocolate under a layer of dark chocolate which has crushed candy cane sprinkled into it. It tastes amazing. However, as with any chocolate work, your kitchen worktop will need to balance the hot with the cold. In this, stone is the ideal material. A sealed granite surface will resist the base of hot pans, while remaining cool to the touch when it comes to manipulating the chocolate or candy. 

Roast Potatoes

A Christmas day classic – no dinner table is complete without a dish of tantalising roasties steaming away! Cooking the perfect potatoes relies on two things: texture and basting. If you’re the designated cook for your Christmas dinner, you’ll be well versed in the practice of basting: From turkey to pigs in blankets to roast potatoes and parsnips, everything required basting in hot oil. To avoid losing oven heat, you’ll need to take each dish out of the oven briefly to baste. If your worktop is quartz, granite or marble you’ll be able to rest the hot dish directly on the worktop instead of having to carry it across the kitchen. Small things can make a big difference!

Mulled Wine

Whether you infuse red wine from scratch with your own oranges, cinnamon and cloves or simply crack open a bottle of supermarket mulled wine, it’s likely that you heat the drink on your stove. You then serve it like you never otherwise serve wine – with a ladle! This inevitably involves spillage, however well aimed your pouring. When your worktop is constructed with stone, no matter how light in colour, any spillage will not stain. So, cheers!