Looking at the Statscounter, I realize that the time has come when hundreds of our readers search for Christmas biscuits and pastries again. So I thought to put more recipes up. If you haven't seen my posts from previous years, do have a look, there are many more delicious traditional Czech Christmas pastries and cookies recipes. Bon apetit!
Please note all these biscuits will need to be stored for a period of time in cool temperatures (5-10C) to allow for the flavours and texture to develop fully
GINGER FLOWERS
INGREDIENTS 4 eggs, 6 yolks, 500g caster sugar, 550g flour, 2 tablespoons ground ginger
In a mixer or a mixing bowl, beat the whole eggs, the yolks and the sugar till fluffy. Fold in flour and ginger.
Put the mixture onto a lightly floured board and work gently into a smooth pastry. Roll out gently to about a 5mm thick – do not use much pressure or the resulting biscuits will go hard. Cut out flower (or other) shapes. Put these onto a greased baking tray, or a tray lined with baking paper. Leave to stand for several hours, or overnight.
Baking:
Put your tray into a fairly hot oven, to allow the biscuits to quickly rise – but then turn the temperature down so they don't turn brown – they should be golden colour.
Decorating:
When totally cooled, brush them over with egg white, and (optional) use the egg white to stick a small piece of candied ginger on the top.
Store in paper shoe box or similar for 3 weeks or longer in a cool place.
YUMMY HAZELNUT STARS
INGREDIENTS:
for the pastry:
400g flour, 170g icing sugar, 150g unsalted butter, 2 eggs, 4-5 tablespoons soured cream, 2 sachets vanilla sugar, pinch of salt (optional)
for the topping:
160g hazelnuts - ground, 80g marzipan, 4 level tablespoons icing sugar, 2 egg yolks, 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
160g hazelnuts - ground, 80g marzipan, 4 level tablespoons icing sugar, 2 egg yolks, 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
METHOD
Mix all the pastry ingredients together to a smooth consistency, form a ball and leave it in the fridge for an hour or so.
Shred or grate the marzipan, and mix it with the yolks. Add sugar, juice and nuts.
Roll the pastry to 4-5 mm thickness, cut out star shapes, place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper, and brush with egg white. Spoon a small heap of the topping on each star. Optionally, place a whole hazelnut on top.
Bake at around 180C for 15 minutes, leave to cool and store in an airtight container in a cool place for two to three weeks.
FRUITY/NUTTY GINGERBREADS
INGREDIENTS
Pastry:
2 cups milk, 6 tablespoons honey, 4-5 tablespoons melted butter, 200g caster sugar, 2 eggs.
600g flour, 2 sachets raising powder, 100g ground hazelnuts, 100g ground almonds, 100g ground walnuts, 100g sweet candied fruit (raisins or sultanas, orange and lemon peel, or similar mix), 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground cloves., largish pinch of ground star-anise, 2 tablespoons cocoa, grated lemon rind to taste.
Icing: 300g icing sugar, 2 egg whites, 2 teaspoons lemon juice or rum.
METHOD
In a pan, gently melt butter, stir in milk, honey and sugar. When cooled down, mix in the eggs.
Put all the dry ingredients onto a floured board, mix through and add the honey-milk mix. Work into a pastry, adding more flour if too sticky.
Form a ball, cover in cling wrap, and leave in the fridge for a minimum of three hours – or overnight.
Next, roll the pastry to about 5mm thick, and cut out shapes. Place your shapes onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Bake in low to medium oven – check that the honey isn't caramelising or the biscuits will turn bitter.
When cooled, before removing biscuits from the tray, pour a thin layer of sugar icing over the upper part of the biscuits.
Leave in a tissue-paper lined paper box, in a cool place for two to three weeks.
HEART-WARMING CHOCOLATE HEARTS
INGREDIENTS
Pastry:
300g flour, 150g icing sugar, 150g ground hazelnuts, 150g butter, 150g grated bitter chocolate, 2 eggs, 1tbsp orange peel, large pinch cinnamon.
Filling: cranberry or apricot jam – or Nutella
Topping: melted chocolate
METHOD
Mix sugar and eggs, add the flour, nuts, and butter. Add lemon rind and cinnamon, turn onto a floured board and work into a smooth pastry while adding the chocolate flakes. Form a ball, wrap it in cling-film and leave in the fringe for an hour or so.
Roll the pastry out quite thin – 3mm, and cut out heart shapes. Place these onto a baking tray lined with baking paper, and bake in a moderate oven (170C approx) for about 10-15 minutes.
When cool, spread half of the hearts with the jam or nutella, put the other hearts on top like sandwich, and pour on melted chocolate.
These biscuits need to be stored in an airtight container in a cool place for a week.
ALMOND DELIGHTS
(THESE DO NOT REQUIRE BAKING)
INGREDIENTS
400g skinned ground almonds, 160g icing sugar, 80g melted white chocolate, 40g powdered milk, 2 egg-whites, 4-5 drops of almond essence, icing.
METHOD
Mix the sugar with the egg-whites, add almonds, powdered milk, melted chocolate and almond essence. Put the mixture between two greaseproof paper sheets or foil, and roll to about 3mm thick.
Gently peel off the top paper and cut shapes from the rolled-out pastry. Leave these to dry for at least three hours.
When dry, use your imagination in decorating – white icing with coloured balls, or just plain roasted almond flakes...
DATE SURPRISE
(THESE DO NOT REQUIRE BAKING)
INGREDIENTS
Pastry:
300g ground almonds, 200g ground walnuts, 160g icing sugar, 150g ground butter biscuits, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 6 tablespoons brandy or rum, optional pinch cinnamon.
Icing: melted dark chocolate, half a date for each biscuit
METHOD
In a mixing bowl mix all the pastry ingredients. Roll out between two sheets of greaseproof paper or foil., to about 3mm thick.
Gently peel off the top paper, cut out diamond shapes and leave them to dry out till the next day.
Decorate with a date covered with melted dark chocolate.
Leave in an airtight container for a week or so.
DATE PURSES
(THESE DO NOT REQUIRE BAKING)
INGREDIENTS
500g dates, 200g marzipan, 80g cooking chocolate, tablespoon butter.
Cut each date lengthwise, remove stone and replace with a piece of marzipan. Dip into melted chocolate and leave on a wire-mash stand to harden. Store in fridge.
MOROCCAN GRILLAGE
INGREDIENTS
500g mixed peel, 500g mixed nuts, 500g sugar (or less if peel is very sweet), 600g flour, 1/2l whipping cream
Melted dark chocolate as icing.
METHOD
Chop the candied fruit and nuts and mix them with the sugar and the flour. Bring the cream to boil and remove from heat straight away. Pour the cream into the mix, and let it stand to cool.
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2 comments:
Christmas biscuits? Awesome! This is what I like about Christmas other than ham and the candy cane. So glad to have found some rcipes for this amazing treats. From chocolates to dates to almonds to hazelnuts to gingers, these are all awesome for the yuletide season. And all are easy and convenient to do as well. I do bake for recreation and for fun nad this treats will add to my cooklists even if it is not Christmas. Just reading this recipes makes my mouth water. Can't wait to try these. Thanks!
Good to have some feedback - I can tell from the Statscounter how huge the number of people who come to our site precisely for recipes, but you are the only one to've actually bothered to tell me so. Please let me know if your baking was successful - and do look at the other biscuit recipes furter back in the blog, some of them are yummy - I made three kinds yesterday: with the snow outside it is all part of Christmassiness......
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