The christmas cooking has begun!

With school finished for the year, we had some time on the weekend to start our Christmas cooking.
Yesterday afternoon I tried a new recipe, Portuguese Christmas Cake and two batches of chocolate chip cookies. I know that the chocolate chip cookies are not very christmassy, but this years cooking list was a joint effort.

Starting a little later than usual, our baking list is just as long as previous years.

christmas cookie list

snickerdoodles (because they make these in the Barbie movie: "A Christmas Carol")
swiss chocolate christmas cookies
lebkuchen
jasmine’s sparkly stars (the recipe for these is in my daughters princess book)
gingerbread people
scottish shortbread
dutch shortbread
vanilla christmas trees
chocolate chip cookies
monkey face cookies (the recipe for this is from the "Anne of Green Gables Treasury")
honey cookies 

christmas cooking list

stollen
fruit mince tarts
rum balls
cherry ripe slice
christmas cake

I haven't even thought about the other christmas cooking that I need to do. There is food to take along to a Christmas Eve barbecue, Christmas Day breakfast and lunch, a Boxing Day barbecue, a New Years Eve barbecue and a New Years Day Picnic.

Today we will be out all day for a children's birthday party, tomorrow I will take a quiet moment and sit with some recipe books for inspiration. Because really... it is just 9 more sleeps!

What are you cooking this Christmas? Do you have any favourite Christmas recipes?

Dutch Speculaas Biscuits

I first fell in love with these Dutch biscuits when I moved to Brisbane and worked next door to an amazing continental delicatessen. There were so many unknown treats to be discovered under it's roof.

We ate them often.

It was only a few years ago that I baked speculaas for myself. Where we live now, they are not so readily available. After baking them at home, it is impossible to go back to the store bought variety. I usually make them only for Christmas. I have always used this flower cookie cutter for some reason, but next year I might invest in one of these gorgeous windmill molds.

Out of the four batches of different biscuits I cooked the other day, these were the most satisfying. The dough formed well and was very easy to work with, we had these made in no time. Not to mention, they are delicious.
Speculaas

makes 20 - 30 biscuits

• 125 grams unsalted butter (softened)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons rum
• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground aniseed
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1 egg white (lightly beaten)
• 2 tablespoons slivered almonds

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees. Grease and prepare baking trays. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the rum and mix well. Gradually sift in the flour, baking powder and all of the spices, stirring until well combined. Bring the dough into a ball and then transfer to a well floured bench to knead for a couple of minutes. Roll the dough out to a thickness of 5mm. Cut out your shapes with a cookie cutter (dutch windmills are traditional) or even into rectangles with a sharp knife. Brush the biscuits with egg white and sprinkle with almonds. Bake for 12 minutes or until they are golden brown and firm. Allow to cool on the trays.

'On Line Biccie/Cookie Exchange'

The lovely Kimmie has asked me to be part of her 'On Line Biccie/Cookie Exchange'. However I don't really bake any biscuits that fall into her two categories:

Let us all share our favourite biccie/cookie recipes. It can fall into one of two categories.

1. A favourite biccie/cookie recipe that has been handed down through the generations in your family.

or

2. A favourite biccie/cookie recipe that has become a holiday tradition in your families home. You know the one, it's not quite Christmas without it.

I would love to say that a biscuit recipe I cook had been passed down from generation to generation, but it hasn't. I don't remember my Nana or Granny ever baking cookies and my working mother never did (correct me if I'm wrong Mum) Nope, during my seventies childhood it was all store bought Arnotts biscuits for me - except when I went to the neighbours place for afternoon tea.

As for a traditional Christmas recipe? Our Christmases would never be the same without Cherry Ripe Slice and Rum Balls. But they are not biscuits.

However....

As luck would have it, this years Christmas cooking is all about the cookies!!

I am wanting to make Christmas cookies a tradition for my own family. So with a collection of favourites that I have baked for gifts over the years, this week I will be cooking them again and therefore creating our own Christmas favourites.

Each day for the next seven days I will (hopefully) post a new Christmas cookie recipe. Maybe one of them will become your favourite too.

Today I will leave you with the new recipe I tried last Christmas for the first time, Sticky Date and Orange Cookies - yummo! The picture above is of Danish Butter Biscuits, I will post this recipe tomorrow.

If you have a family Christmas cookie recipe you want to share or are just after some cookie inspiration, pop over to Serendipity Cafe.