To celebrate the Carriageworks Christmas Market we’ve asked some friends of the Market to share their top Christmas tips and recipes with us. Pepe and Melissa run Carriageworks Farmers Market stall Pepe Saya and make some of Sydney’s finest butter.

What dish will be the feature on your Christmas table?
Buttermilk Roast Chicken

It isn’t Christmas without:
Pavlova Roulade

What gift from the Carriageworks Farmers Market would you most like to receive?
Some flowers for our Christmas table. (Try Mayfarm Flowers or Jonima Flowers seasonal blooms.)

The best Christmas song of all time is:
Robert Palmer’s “Coming Home for Christmas”

Recipe: Pepe Saya’s Salted Butter Caramels

Ingredients:
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 vanilla bean pod scrapped and deseeded
1/2 cup golden syrup or rice syrup
1 cup of sugar
4 tbsp Pepe Saya Cultured Butter, cubed and at room temperature
400g milk chocolate
Sprinkle of Olsson’s Smoked Salt

Method:

1. Line a 23cm loaf pan with grease proof baking paper.
2. In a small saucepan heat the cream, 2 tablespoons of butter and vanilla until it begins to boil. Remove from heat, cover and set aside.
3. In a medium heavy based saucepan with a thermometer attached, add the syrup and sugar and cook, stirring gently, to make sure the sugar melts smoothly. Only stir as necessary just so it doesn’t overheat in any one spot. Cook the syrup until it reaches 150 degrees on your thermometer. The best way to do this is to make sure your thermometer is submerged in the syrup as much as possible.
4. Turn off the heat and gently stir n the warm cream until nice and smooth.
5. Turn the head on again and cook the mix until it reaches about 125 degrees on your thermometer.
6. Remove the pan from the heat, take out the thermometer, and now stir in the cubes of Pepe Saya butter until melted and the mixture is smooth.
7. Pour the mixture into your pan and let cool completely. Once cool, lift the caramel out of the pan, peel away the bakers paper and slice the bar of caramel with a sharp knife into bite size rectangles.
8. Melt and temper your chocolate in a bowl sitting in a saucepan over simmering water not allowing the water to come into contact with the bowl. hen your chocolate is smooth and silky use a skewer to prod the caramel and dip into your chocolate covering all sides.
9. Place onto grease proof paper and sprinkle each one with a little salt and allow to set. Enjoy!

The Carriageworks Christmas Market is on Sat 21 Dec.