Christmas cookie/biscuit making

[mimosa]

Hi there!

I am always looking for new Christmas cookie recipes or links...I like making cookie platters at Christmas time...and it's always fun to find a new gem.

So, if you bake...

Maybe I'll share some of mine too...

ME

[TRavine]

Wonderful topic, Mim!

Do you people know vanilla crescents? I'm not sure if they are an Austrian thing or known internationally. They are quite the traditional thing here. My great grandma's cousin used to work as a cook for some fancy Austrian Count a hundred years ago and the secret recipe of vanilla crescents she made specifically for him is still in use in our family today.
I even veganized it, which is easy (you only have to swap the butter for margarine, as the recipe doesn't contain milk or eggs). I'll ask my mom to send it to me tomorrow, then you can have it, if you like.

[mimosa]

Wonderful topic, Mim!

Do you people know vanilla crescents? I'm not sure if they are an Austrian thing or known internationally. They are quite the traditional thing here. My great grandma's cousin used to work as a cook for some fancy Austrian Count a hundred years ago and the secret recipe of vanilla crescents she made specifically for him is still in use in our family today.
I even veganized it, which is easy (you only have to swap the butter for margarine, as the recipe doesn't contain milk or eggs). I'll ask my mom to send it to me tomorrow, then you can have it, if you like.

Yes! Do you dip them in chocolate or put sprinkles on them, too? I always think I'd like to try them out, and then I run out of time with all the other things...

Anyway, what I also like is having someone's recipe...ya know? Instead of some magazine recipe...like "this recipe comes from my friend's mom" or "this recipe is a family heirloom"..."this is my oma's recipe", that sort of thing. Those are always the best.

ME

[TRavine]

Alright, so - it was HARD getting that recipe out of my mom in any way that makes sense. Looks like scales and exact measurements have been considered overrated in our family for a couple of centuries, and I was faced with stuff like: "You just take a couple of handfuls of...and preheat the oven to...well until it's warm..."

I'm trying my best to get all of this puzzled together and translated into English correctly.

You'll need:
140 grams of sugar
280 grams of finely ground nuts (walnuts and/or hazelnuts)
420 grams of butter or margarine
560 grams of flour

(You can also do only half of the portion for a start - just divide all the measurements by two).

For the coating:
about 16 grams of vanilla sugar
about 150 grams of powdered sugar

1, Leave the butter or margarine out at room temperature for a while, until it's soft.

2, Put all the ingredients together and knead them with your hands until they form a dough.

3, Roll the dough into a ball, put it on a plate and cover it with some sandwich paper or a cloth.

4, Leave it to rest for at least one hour in a cool place. (You can also leave it longer, or even overnight).

5, Put the dough on a floured surface, wait for a few minutes until it is not too cold anymore, and then cut it into four quarters.

6, Take each quarter, warm it a little with your hands, knead lightly and then form a roll out of each, which should be about 2cms in diameter.

7, Take a knife and cut off 2cm pieces off each roll.

8, Take each little piece (2cm x 2cm) form a little ball and then roll it out into another tiny roll and bend the edges until they form a crescent. (The dough can be a bit tricky sometimes. If it's crumbly, just leave it in your hand for a few seconds, until it's softer - but don't warm it too long, or it will get sticky. It may take a bit until you figure out the right way - it's a matter of practise.)

"Like so like that" - according to my mom:

9, Put the crescents onto a baking sheet, layed out with baking paper.

10, Preheat the oven to 170° C.

11, Put the tray in the oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes.
Depending on the size of your crescents and type of your oven, they can be done pretty quickly. Make sure to not leave them in for too long ("it's more like drying than baking", according to my mom). As soon as the ends of the crescents are getting a bit darker, they are done.

12, Take out of the oven and leave them to cool for a little while.

13, Put the vanilla sugar and powdered sugar in a bowl and then put the (still slightly warm) crescents in and gently move them around to cover them with the sugar all over.

14, Leave them to cool completely. Done.

They sometimes tend to get a bit crumbly (that's normal - it's how they're supposed to be!)

This is what they are supposed to look like, once they're done:

Oh, and this is my great grandma's cousin, Barbara, who invented that recipe.

[merry]

Wow those look amazing!

I LOVE the drawing! and the photograph of Barbara

Thanks to Tom's Mum, a woman I have things in common with as I rarely weigh anything either, unless it's cakes for a baking show.

I will try and make some and post a pic of the result (which I doubt will look like those )

Great topic, Mim!

[merry]

This is not my recipe and it's muffins not cookies but I did make these one year and they were nice.

To veganise it you'd swap the milk for vegan 'milk' and the butter for marge, I guess - not sure about the egg though, maybe one could leave it out entirely and use an equivalent of extra 'milk' - I think that would work? The important thing is the flavours of Christmas - spices and citrus - filling the house at Christmas and I also like the idea of involving the children, and getting most of it ready in advance for a breakfast treat.

do think that part of creating a family life is establishing those shared rituals, as
important as getting out the same old familiar box of decorations for the tree each year.
Now, it’s true that children are too excited about their presents to take a lively interest in
breakfast on Christmas Day, but consider making these all the same: there’s something
so warmly reassuring in knowing that soon this cinnamon-sweet smell of baking and
oranges will come to signify Christmas morning to them.

You may find it easier to measure out the cranberries, flour, baking powder,
bicarb and sugar the night before, so that all you’ve got to do is mix together the orange
juice, milk and eggs, melt the butter and combine all the ingredients on Christmas
morning itself.


for the muffins:
200g plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
75g demerara sugar
good grating fresh nutmeg
1 clementine or small orange
approximately 50ml milk
60g unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
150g dried cranberries
12-bun muffin tin with papers

for the topping:
2 teaspoons demerara sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon


Preheat the oven to 200ºC/gas mark 6.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, bicarb and sugar, and grate over a generous amount of fresh nutmeg. Squeeze the orange or clementine juice into a measuring jug, then pour in milk on top till it comes up to the 150ml mark. Add the melted butter and the egg, and beat to combine. Pour the jug of liquid ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and stir till the ingredients are more or less combined, remembering that a lumpy batter makes light muffins. (Bearing this in mind, you could easily get the children to make up the mixture.) Last of all, lightly fold in the cranberries and fill the muffin cases or cups. The amount of cranberries specified here makes for heavily fruited muffins; if you want them sparser, use half the amount.

Mix together the demerara sugar and ground cinnamon and sprinkle over the tops of the muffins. Stick them in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, by which time the air should be thick with the promise of good things and the good things themselves golden-brown and ready to be eaten – as they are, or broken open and spread heapingly, mouthful by mouthful, with unsalted butter and marmalade.

Makes 12.

[mimosa]

Wow, Tom! Thank you! I appreciate it so much.
What an effort... I cook like that but I don't bake that.
Thank you for trying to get the recipe. I am glad I have a kitchen scale. Dutch people also use a scale...i have a recipe that I wanted that also comes on grams. We generally use the American imperial system as well as some metric.

ME

[TRavine]

I LOVE the drawing!

I suspected you would. My mom sent it, after explaining the whole thing in a complicated way and me being like: "You do know I'mma have to translate that into English?!"

And that muffin recipe sounds delicious!! I actually think it could work entirely without an egg. Either that or one could use a spoon of soy flour or chickpea flour with a tiny bit of sparkling water. I also have vegan egg powder (which is basically just starch with a tinge of egg flavouring) which could be put in.

Wow, Tom! Thank you! I appreciate it so much.
What an effort... I cook like that but I don't bake that.
Thank you for trying to get the recipe. I am glad I have a kitchen scale. Dutch people also use a scale...i have a recipe that I wanted that also comes on grams. We generally use the American imperial system as well as some metric.

ME

You are very welcome, Mim!
I suspected you might be using a different measurement system. Maybe it's easier to just have google translate it into what is best for you.

[mimosa]

there was some random egg substitute recipe that works with flax...only allowed up to two eggs...like (ground?) flax seed and water soaked...have you heard of that? one egg equals 1/4 cup...uh 60 ml.

Do you all seriously bake where you have measure everything on a kitchen scale? I have pre-measures measuring spoons and cups and we just scoop and dump/pour. Or maybe it's the aunthentic way to bake by weight...lol.

Obviously in a case where you make something all the time, you'll know what it looks like measured and it's a "here, this is looks right" and do it.

I might have try the muffins, merry, I don't think I've really done anything with orange anything...pumpkin, blueberry, banana, apple, chocolate, coffee, spice, etc.

ME

[TRavine]

there was some random egg substitute recipe that works with flax...only allowed up to two eggs...like (ground?) flax seed and water soaked...have you heard of that? one egg equals 1/4 cup...uh 60 ml.

Do you all seriously bake where you have measure everything on a kitchen scale? I have pre-measures measuring spoons and cups and we just scoop and dump/pour. Or maybe it's the aunthentic way to bake by weight...lol.

Obviously in a case where you make something all the time, you'll know what it looks like measured and it's a "here, this is looks right" and do it.

I might have try the muffins, merry, I don't think I've really done anything with orange anything...pumpkin, blueberry, banana, apple, chocolate, coffee, spice, etc.

ME

Oh yes, my mom has used soaked flax seeds as egg replacement a few times. Worked really well! There are so many ways to do it. You can also replace the egg with a tablespoon of applesauce or mashed banana.

Haha, yeah I think like 95 per cent of our recipes here use measurements in grams. It has only been in recent years that measuring cups became more popular here.
(They are mighty convenient though!)

[mimosa]

Oh yes, my mom has used soaked flax seeds as egg replacement a few times. Worked really well! There are so many ways to do it. You can also replace the egg with a tablespoon of applesauce or mashed banana.

Haha, yeah I think like 95 per cent of our recipes here use measurements in grams. It has only been in recent years that measuring cups became more popular here.
(They are mighty convenient though!)

Then you can't just quickly mix something up....that would certainly change the way I made a double batch of muffins for school in the morning when the mood strikes me. I'm using a time crunch to get it done so the kids can grab and go. I can't see weighing 4 c cups of flour. I really can't imagine baking any other way...LOL.

I find it so interesting. Real pastry chefs do measure by weight, I believe. But here in North America, and most of use the American imperial system to bake, not the metric system. If I read a recipe in a Canadian magazine, it'll be metric or a hodgepodge of both, I've noticed.

So any recipes that I share will be that way then. Y'all will have to buy measuring cups (for liquid and dry).

ME

[TRavine]

So any recipes that I share will be that way then. Y'all will have to buy measuring cups (for liquid and dry).

ME

I have actually wanted to get some for a while. I don't really bake myself. I do love to cook but baking always seems an effort...maybe because of the skales...lol So I might try it your way, Mim. Maybe I'll do it more often then.

[mimosa]

So any recipes that I share will be that way then. Y'all will have to buy measuring cups (for liquid and dry).

ME

I have actually wanted to get some for a while. I don't really bake myself. I do love to cook but baking always seems an effort...maybe because of the skales...lol So I might try it your way, Mim. Maybe I'll do it more often then.

Yes you should.
I would not bake nearly as much if I had to weigh everything. You know much time that takes?! :o My dad would say that's a pants full of work. :?

ME

[mimosa]

Great topic, Mim!

Hi merry,

I'm quoting you because I know you were interested in this from the very beginning. Here's the info post and then I'll add some of my photos.

Why don't I start out with the premise of starting this thread, which is....I love to bake Christmas cookies. I'm still needing to get psyched up. Somehow it isn't Christmas until December, but then it gets late and I have to rush especially if I'm trying to get a platter for my eldest son's birthday, which is in mid-December. I managed to make a tray for his grade 10 year (Grade 11 and 12 were Covid Christmases....groan) and it went over very well.

With an edited blurb which originates from my copy and paste from other forums (FB or otherwise) where this discussion started. But it sets up my state of mind when it comes to planning and baking of Christmas cookies.

I like simple cookies. Sometimes I will try one or two things that require more work. And this is what I have sent to someone asking about my cookie trays.

So I usually like to have a selection of flavours. Chocolate, peanut butter, pecan or almond, fruit, caramel, coconut, spice, oatmeal, coffee, mint, etc... I also like to have a selection of quins bought at a specialty kitchen store to decorate. I used to make chocolates, but I don't do that so much anymore. Reuben remembers and he'd like me to get back into it. I always buy Christmas Rice Krispies...the boxes are getting smaller for the same cost, so that's an outrage, but anyway...I make several batches of ChRK squares every year.

So, here are the ones that I have used, some year after year...most of them have dairy, gluten, egg, nuts; it's how I roll, and our family is blessed not to have allergies or sensitivities to anything...so far.

www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/date-delights -- one of our favourites!
www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/anise-icebox-cookies (freshly ground star anise is sooooo awesome, and you might not need as much)
www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/surprise-meringues (I mix skor bits in them too)
or toffee meringue drops from the same site. www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/toffee-meringue-drops/
www.tasteofhome.com/rec.../candy-cane-blossom-cookies (I don't roll them in candy cane, I mix it in the dough, and I use between 6-8 mini candy canes)
www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/strawberry-cream-cookies
www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/fudge-puddles (I make double the dough, because there is lots of fudge filling)
www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/walnut-thumbprints (double the dough for that one too)
-- I like them a lot, but my kids not so much
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/chunky-pecan-bars/ I use chocolate chips.
hiddenponies.com/.../saturday-sweets-gingerbread.../
hiddenponies.com/2011/12/whipped-dipped-shortbread/ (I do not dip them; I might even make them smaller and decorate half with happy sprinkles)
hiddenponies.com/2012/03/saturday-sweets-fudge-revel-bars-starbucks-bar-knockoff/

My favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with Christmas M&Ms.
Brownie recipe with icing decorated with quins (like colourful Christmas lights, or snowflakes e.g.) but I usually use this one: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/ric ... -brownies/ A double batch fits a 9"x13" baking pan.
Chocolate haystacks -- cook on the stovetop with oats and coconut; you can buy them in the store in the bakery department, and it's a common through-the-year cookie that I make.
7-layer squares, peppermint meringues, gingerbread or sugar cookies that are frosted with fun colours, a quick fudge recipe, butterscotch confetti squares (those pb things with the coloured marshmallows)
I make Dutch boterkoek (butter cake) cut in wedges...hardly anyone here (except people of European descent) has anything like that.

Anyway, it depends on the time available, the target date, if I want to try other recipes from my large resource stash. I make enough for my kids to sample, and then put 12-18 away for various trays (church, hospital, and others) Sometimes I have to make more...I know the kids are always freaking out when more than a dozen containers come out for the set up...so it's probably better to squirrel more away...but then 7 cookies (7 kids) make the cookies go like crazy. My kids are also pretty particular as well. Reuben and I decided that for a platter there needs to be 75% chocolate of some sort. It is always the non-chocolate items that are left on the tray at church/wedding/party functions...interesting experiment.

I have a couple of Dutch recipes that I hope to make that take a bit more effort: gevulde koeken and bokkepootjes -- almond filled cookies and "goat's feet". Bokkepootjes are long coconut meringue cookie sandwich cookies with a coffee filling and dipped in bittersweet chocolate. Those you probably can't freeze. And they are better homemade...they look brown and crumbled in the Dutch store. (I'll post those later when I have a bit more time).

AND...I want make Tom's mom's vanilla crescents...

How's that to get started? If you see something specific in the pictures let me know and I'll share the recipe if it's not already. And I might have also forgotten some of choices over the years. The bottom photo is the first one I ever made; it was when Malachi was in the PICU recently trached and vented. I missed three years (2016 I had a baby and 2020 was a covid year) and made two small trays last year because sharing food was only just coming back in.

ME

[merry]

Mimosa, those look absolutely gorgeous! honestly, stunning! How appetising they all look!

I laughed that Reuben thinks you should get back to making chocolates - I bet he does!

How lovely of you to make those cookies for the people looking after Malachi

Do you want this topic moved to the Christmas forum? Up to you.

[TRavine]

These ALL look so delicious! Seriously, I need to try making some of them!!!

I think my mom and I will start baking this coming weekend. It's about time!

[mimosa]

Mimosa, those look absolutely gorgeous! honestly, stunning! How appetising they all look!

I laughed that Reuben thinks you should get back to making chocolates - I bet he does!

How lovely of you to make those cookies for the people looking after Malachi

Do you want this topic moved to the Christmas forum? Up to you.

Well, I was hoping to get your kitchen topic moving with Christmas baking...and it wasn't really a Miller topic needing its own space. I don't know your full audience/contributors. So if you think it'll "move" better in the Christmas forum, go right ahead.

I've baked for a coffee social at church, but nothing for Christmas yet.

These ALL look so delicious! Seriously, I need to try making some of them!!!

I think my mom and I will start baking this coming weekend. It's about time!

Tom, if you can veganize the recipes I've shared, I will call you a magician! They all have gluten, eggs, dairy, and some have nuts. I don't know how else it works. The following recipe is an adaptable one for vegans, I believe.

CHOCOLATE HAYSTACKS

Measure 1/2 c butter or margarine (I bet coconut oil would even work), 2 c sugar, 1/2 c milk (use whatever you would use) and 4 tbsp cocoa powder in large saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil for about 2 minutes. Take off the heat and add 1 tsp vanilla. Add in 2 1/2 - 3 cups oats and 1 c shredded coconut...drop by tbsp onto a waxed-paper surface to set. This should make a about 30-35 or so.

I couldn't find the recipe book -- LOVE community cookbooks...so this is off the top of my head.

This turns out differently every time...sometimes it's just right, sometimes drier, or not as cocoa-y because I might add another tbsp. Start with 2 1/2 c of oats, but I might have to add more. I've even used black cocoa or a blend. Sometimes it doesn't set as well as I would like. I've tweaked it the way I like it. They are on every platter in the post.

ME

[TRavine]

Tom, if you can veganize the recipes I've shared, I will call you a magician! They all have gluten, eggs, dairy, and some have nuts. I don't know how else it works.

Oh, no worries, Mim I pride myself on the fact that I haven't yet come across a recipe I couldn't veganize (I even veganized beef roulade and devilled eggs once, lol). It might not taste 100% exactly the same, but I'll manage a good 95% most of the time.

Here's part of last year's Christmas Dinner: Chicken salad, open salmon sandwiches, egg salad crackers and Wiener Schnitzel...all vegan

Gluten and nuts are fine. I might write down some vegan versions of the recipes you posted, just for the fun of trying to switch the ingredients.

CHOCOLATE HAYSTACKS

Measure 1/2 c butter or margarine (I bet coconut oil would even work), 2 c sugar, 1/2 c milk (use whatever you would use) and 4 tbsp cocoa powder in large saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil for about 2 minutes. Take off the heat and add 1 tsp vanilla. Add in 2 1/2 - 3 cups oats and 1 c shredded coconut...drop by tbsp onto a waxed-paper surface to set. This should make a about 30-35 or so.

Those sound delicious indeed!!

[mimosa]

This is not my recipe and it's muffins not cookies but I did make these one year and they were nice.


for the muffins:
200g plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
75g demerara sugar
good grating fresh nutmeg
1 clementine or small orange
approximately 50ml milk
60g unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
150g dried cranberries
12-bun muffin tin with papers

for the topping:
2 teaspoons demerara sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon


Preheat the oven to 200ºC/gas mark 6.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, bicarb and sugar, and grate over a generous amount of fresh nutmeg. Squeeze the orange or clementine juice into a measuring jug, then pour in milk on top till it comes up to the 150ml mark. Add the melted butter and the egg, and beat to combine. Pour the jug of liquid ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and stir till the ingredients are more or less combined, remembering that a lumpy batter makes light muffins. (Bearing this in mind, you could easily get the children to make up the mixture.) Last of all, lightly fold in the cranberries and fill the muffin cases or cups. The amount of cranberries specified here makes for heavily fruited muffins; if you want them sparser, use half the amount.

Mix together the demerara sugar and ground cinnamon and sprinkle over the tops of the muffins. Stick them in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, by which time the air should be thick with the promise of good things and the good things themselves golden-brown and ready to be eaten – as they are, or broken open and spread heapingly, mouthful by mouthful, with unsalted butter and marmalade.

Makes 12.

merry,

Do you think that they would be better with regular cranberries? I guess the thing to do would be to make them with dried cranberries first, and then try with regular cranberries, and decide which one you like better.

Tom, I have printed out the recipe...

I've looked at some of the weights...

140...hmmm...125 g is probably 1/2 c...so it could be 1/3 c.
280...250 g because that would be 1/2 a cup, so maybe heaping.
420 g...well...454 is 8 oz which is a cup.
560 g...500 is probably 2 c...so this would be 1 1/4 c flour?

I guess I'll weigh and put in a measuring cup to see.

In my mom's family, this way of cooking/baking is called "quakking"...some Dutch dialect or maybe just the vH family's style of speech...lol. At least I know what that is, and I can do that too.

I feel like I should get started today on some kind of baking today. I have four egg whites from last week, four egg yolks, because G didn't know how many egg whites I had in there and so did P, and a half can of pumpkin. So I can make pumpkin loaf. Not Christmas-y, but I have company tomorrow, and baking is always cheaper than buying (well...maybe that's up for debate these days...lol.). And, at least I know what's in it.

ME

[merry]

Frozen cranberries are probably better than fresh, (same with blueberries) as fresh burst in the heat (think of blueberry muffins which are... BLUE )

Tom that vegan feast looks amazing and is very clever!

I bet your Pumpkin Loaf went down well, Mim

This forum (Hell's Kitchen) is always quiet so let's keep this lovely topic right where it is to make it look busy!