All Things Christmas (3 page)

Speculaas
-
St. Nicholas Cookies

In Holland these spicy ginger cookies are traditionally made using a St. Nicholas mold and served on the feast day of St Nicholas, December 6
th
. The name of these cookies is derived from the Latin word
speculum
, meaning mirror. Since the cookies were formed in a carved wooden mold,
the cookie becomes
a mirror image of the mold. A similar cookie can be found year round in grocery stores as Dutch Windmill Cookies.

Ingredients
:

3 C all-purpose flour

1 ½ tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground cloves

1 tsp. ground ginger

1/8 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp. salt

1 C butter, softened

1 ¼ C packed brown sugar

1 egg

½ C sliced almonds

Preparation:

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the flour with spices, baking powder and salt and set aside. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar at high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and mix well. Stir in by hand half the flour mixture then add the remaining flour and almonds. Mix with a wooden spoon or knead with hands. Divide the dough into four parts, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for several hours. (If you are using a mold, chill it as
well.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease two cookie sheets. Remove one quarter of the dough from the refrigerator and flatten it with your hands. Oil your mold and lightly flour it. Using your fingers, press dough firmly into the mold. Trim any excess with a knife. Transfer the cookies onto greased cookie sheets with a spatula, spacing them about one inch apart. Re-refrigerate dough trimmings to be rerolled later. Lightly flour but do not re-oil cookie mold and repea
t process with remaining dough.

When the cookie sheets are full, bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.
Cool on a rack and store in a covered tin.

Pfeffernüsse
Cookies

These German cookies, often served at Christmas, most likely became associated with Advent because they are typically baked several weeks early. This is because the flavor of
Pfeffernüsse
deepens and sharpens with age. So if you plan to enjoy these easy-to-make cookies at Christmas, you’ll want to bake them a
round the first week of Advent.

Ingredients
:

1 C butter

1 C sugar

2 large eggs

½ C white corn syrup

½ C molasses

1-2 tsp.
anise extract
(depending upon preference)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon
allspice

½ teaspoon cloves

½ teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/3 cup warm water (from the tap, or
micro-waved for a few seconds)

6½ cups flour

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F, and pl
ace rack in center of the oven.

Cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl that is large enough to hold all ingredients. One at a time, beat in eggs, corn syrup, molasses, anise extract and spices. Dissolve baking soda in warm water, add to mixture, and beat again. Add flour and mix until all ingredients are well incorporated. The dough should be somewhat stiff. You may wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for half and hour or so, or
continue if you’re in a hurry.

Take a handful of dough and roll it into a long cylindrical sausage shape about one inch in diameter.  Repeat until you’ve formed all the dough into cylinders. Pinch off one-inch pieces of dough from the cylinders and roll
between your hands to make
small balls. Place dough balls onto greased baking sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. The cookies are done when baked through and starting to brown on top. Roll cookies in powdered sugar while still warm, cool and s
tore in an airtight container.

Aging:

Pfeffernüsse
will store well in airtight containers at room temperature. They will keep up to 8 weeks.
Pfeffernüsse
are quite soft when first baked, but quickly become harder. As they age they absorb moisture and soften somewhat. If you can’t resist dipping into the stash, when they are in their hard stage,
Pfeffernüsse
make a par
ticularly good dunking cookie.

Nussecken

Nut cakes or bars are popular German bakery products. Cut on the diagonal, they are often called
Nussecken
,
or nut triangles. Nuts, butter and sugar make this nut bar recipe with a butter crust very rich, so cut them small. You can bake these nut bars in an 8 x 8 or 7 x 11 inch pan, or double th
e recipe for a 9 x 13 inch pan.

Ingredients:

Crust
:

5 Tbsp. butter or margarine

1/3 C sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1 C plus 3 T. flour

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

2-3 T apricot jam

Preparation:

Cream sugar and
butter,
beat in egg and vanilla extract. Combine flour, baking powder and salt and add to butter mixture, making a dough. Press the dough into a greased pan.
The bigger the pan, the thinner the bars.
Spread the dough with apricot jam
and set aside.

Filling
:

7 Tbsp. butter

½ C sugar

1 tsp. extract

2 Tbsp. water

1 C ground hazelnuts

3/4 C chopped hazelnuts

Preparation:

Bring butter, sugar and water to a boil on the stove. Stir and cook for several minutes until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is foamy. Stir in all the nuts and remove from heat. Spoon the filling over the crust and smooth. Bake in a preheated, 350 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until light brown around the edges and set in the middle. Cool completely then chill.

Decorati
ng:

Cut the bars into squares then across the diagonal, making triangles. Remove the cookies to a work
surface lined with waxed paper.

Melt 1 C chocolate chips with 1 Tbsp. butter in the microwave at 15 second intervals, stirring after each until smooth and hot. Dip the bottoms of the nut bars into the hot chocolate and remove excess chocolate with a table knife or similar tool. (Some people also dip the edges or corners.) Place back on the parchment paper and allow the chocolate to harden. After the cookies have cooled, store them in an airtight tin between layers of wax paper. You may also freeze them.

Dresdner
Stollen

This famous fruited
yeast
bread, an early form of fruitcake, was originally produced as food to be eaten during the Advent fast. The first
Christstollen
, named such because it was meant to resemble a swaddled baby Jesus, appeared in
Naumburg
in 1329.
Stollen
has been sold at the Dresden Christmas
market since the 15th century.

Each year the city of Dresden puts on a
Stollen
Festival to celebrate the food that takes its name from the Saxon city. In imitation of the gigantic
Stollen
baked in the city in 1730 on the occasion of Augustus the Strong's grand festival of baroque proportions, each year the bakers of Dresden produce a 7,000 pound
stollen
. It is cut into half-pound sectio
ns and served at the festival.

Ingredients:

½ C golden raisins

½ C currants

½ C diced citron

½ C chopped candied or glace cherries

2 Tbsp. rum or brandy

4 ½ C all-purpose flour, plus additional ½ C as needed

2 pkg. active dry yeast 1/3 c. sugar

1 ½ tsp. salt

½ C milk

4 Tbsp. butter, cut up

1 tsp. grated lemon rind

2 eggs

½ Tsp. almond extract

½ C (2 oz.) slivered blanched almonds

Butter, softened

Powdered sugar

Preparation:

Combine raisins, currants, citron, cherries and rum in medium bowl and let stand 1 hour.

Stir together 2 cups of the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in large bowl.
Heat milk, ½ cup water, butter and lemon rind in small saucepan over low heat just until warm (115 to 120 degrees).
Add to flour mixture along with eggs and almond extract. Beat at low speed of electric mixer until flour is moistened. Beat at medium speed 3 minutes.

Stir 1/2 cup flour into fruit mixture. Stir fruit mixture, almonds and enough remaining flour into batter to make moderately stiff dough. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 to 8 minutes. Shape into ball and place in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover and let rise in warm place (80 to 85 degrees) until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.