5 ways to celebrate Christmas with Irrewarra Bakery this year

Christmas is a delightful time to celebrate with family and friends. Good food and drink is part of any great gathering, and our speciality Christmas range is a perfect accompaniment for moments of celebration and togetherness. Let us lend a hand with your festive season planning as we uncover five ways you can celebrate a very merry Christmas with Irrewarra.

1. Enjoy a handcrafted Mince Tart on Christmas Eve

Our Fruit Mince Tarts are handmade to a traditional recipe in the Irrewarra farm stables bakery. The buttery pastry made from local ingredients is filled with Granny Smith apples macerated in French brandy together with currants, raisins, sultanas, prunes, dates and a touch of spice. You'll find no harsh mixed peel in our tarts – only a fine grating of orange zest (and a hint of nostalgia!) They are wonderful to enjoy with a creamy coffee or a tipple of sweet muscat wine on Christmas Eve or heated and served as a dessert on Christmas Day with cream or brandy butter. Our Fruit Mince Tarts continue to be baked daily and shipped to stores fresh from our ovens. We recommend calling ahead at your nearest stockist to check availability to ensure you don’t miss out on these tarts of Christmas joy.

2. Devour Australia’s most loved Granola for breakfast

Our crunchy and luxurious slow-roasted Granola is the perfect start to a busy Christmas morning! Our More Nuts and Honey Granola is packed with all the flavour and nutrition you’ll need to get you through the high levels of family excitement throughout the day – and if you’re looking for a vegan option, try our Almond and Coconut Granola. We like to think of this mix as ‘Summer in a bag’ – lighter in flavour than our other varieties, but still full of almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, coconut and seeds. It’s a great addition to a smoothie bowl or to top off fresh yoghurt and summer berries.

3. Enjoy our Christmas Fruit and Nut Loaf for morning tea

A much-anticipated annual treat, our Christmas Fruit and Nut Loaf is available for a limited time in selected Victorian stores in the week before Christmas. It’s a rich artisan sourdough loaf that is positively bursting with plump and juicy raisins, sultanas, currants, citrus peel, crunchy walnuts and whole almonds, as well as our own blend of four festive spices. The sourdough base undergoes the same fermentation process as all our breads – and it’s this long proving time, combined with generous amounts of nuts, fruit and subtly balanced spices that make this a truly special loaf to share with family on Christmas morning. We recommend serving thick, toasted slices with cultured or brandy butter as a decadent morning treat.

4. Reveal our Panforte as a Christmas table centrepiece

Our beautifully wrapped chocolate Panforte is perfect as a ready-made gift or centrepiece dessert! Slice it finely or into small wedges and enjoy with coffee, or present it whole in the centre of the table with a light dusting of icing sugar.

The process we go through to create this special seasonal treat is time-honoured. Together with sliced figs and roasted almonds, we gently melt our quality chocolate and bring local Victorian honey and sugar to ‘softball’ stage, before mixing. Then there is a small window of time that requires all hands on deck to press the sweet, chewy mixture into the molds before it sets. Each year our panforte production provides a beautiful moment of comradery between our bakers, who work together quickly to hand press each one.

Our Chocolate Almond and Fig Chocolate Panforte is still being baked fresh and is available through our Victorian stockists.

5. Enjoy our delicious ChocolateOat Biscuits at any time of day!

Made by hand using traditional recipes, our super crunchy Chocolate Oat Biscuits biscuits are full of Australian oats, delicious golden syrup and fresh local butter. We loved the originals so much that we even expanded the range to feature classic ANZAC and Macadamia Oat varieties! With a delightful crunch and crispy snap, these biscuits are perfect to enjoy with a coffee while watching the kids unwrap their presents, with a strong cup of tea between meals, or even as a special treat left out for Santa overnight.