These tasty bakes to celebrate the coming of Christmas will keep on giving a little bit of joy the whole way through the festive period.
With the festive season finally arriving here are some recipe to enjoy making over the holiday season with the family.
Using a cookie press can be particular useful in creating that Christmas wreath shape and getting you into the festive mood.
If you aren’t so keen on icing you can sprinkle each biscuit with a little demerara sugar before baking. This adds a pleasing crunch and caramel note to the cookie.
Chocolate and ginger biscotti
Makes 30
Ingredients
- 200g (1½ cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 1tsp baking powder
- Pinch of fine sea salt
- 100g (½ cup) soft light brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 50g (1¾oz) dark chocolate, chopped
- 50g (1¾oz) almonds, chopped
- 75g (2½oz) candied ginger, chopped
- 1–2tbsp demerara sugar, for sprinkling
Method
- Heat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas Mark 4/350F and line a large baking sheet with nonstick baking parchment.
- Put all of the ingredients into a large bowl and stir them together with a wooden spoon until a dense, damp dough forms.
- Spoon the dough on to the lined sheet and shape into a log about 25 centimetres long and around eight to 10 centimetres in diameter. The dough is pretty tacky and so won’t look all that neat, but will even out in the oven. Sprinkle demerara over the top. Bake for 25-30 minutes until firm to the touch and just golden – it should be cooked through but not hard, more like a firm sponge in texture with a crisper outer edge.
- Transfer on to a wire rack to cool completely – this is important as the chocolate also needs to be cool before you cut the biscuits or they will end up being a streaky mess.
- Set the lined baking sheet aside, ready for the second bake, and reduce oven temperature to 150C/130C Fan/ Gas Mark 2/300F. On a chopping board, and using a sharp serrated bread knife, cut the log into slices seven and a half millimetres thick. Arrange tightly on the lined baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes, turning them all over halfway through, until crisp on both sides.
- Take out of the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Stored in an airtight container, these will keep for a month or more.
Christmas spiced shortbread
Makes 80–100
Ingredients
- 275g (2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 50g (¹⁄₃ cup) cornflour (cornstarch)
- 50g (½ cup minus 1tbsp) ground almonds (almond flour)
- 50g (½ cup minus 1tbsp) ground hazelnuts
- 250g (1 cup plus 2tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temp, cut into 2cm / ¾ in cubes
- 175g (¾ cup plus 2tbsp) soft light brown sugar
- Pinch of fine sea salt
- 2tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp ground anise (or a drop of anise extract)
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp milk for the glaze
- 100g (scant ¾ cup) icing (confectioners’) sugar, sifted
- 25ml (scant 2tbsp) just boiled water
Method
- Heat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas Mark 4/350F and line two baking sheets with nonstick baking parchment.
- Put all the ingredients into the mixing bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat to a soft, pliable dough on a low speed for a couple of minutes. (If making by hand, put both flours, the ground almonds and ground hazelnuts into a large bowl, then work the butter in with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Mix through the sugar, salt and spices. Add the vanilla extract and milk, and bring the dough together with your hands. Knead for three minutes until pliable.)
- If using a cookie press, select your preferred shape, then stuff the dough into the top. Hold the press over a prepared baking sheet and click the handle to release one cookie. Repeat this process, placing each cookie one centimetre apart to allow for spreading.
- If using the mincer method, choose the desired attachment and place your dough in the funnel. Crank the handle with one hand, holding the other hand just below the spout to support the dough as it comes out. When the dough protrudes by six centimetres, cut it off and place it on a baking sheet. Repeat this process, spacing the biscuits one centimetre apart, until both sheets are full. Bake for eight to 10 minutes until just golden.
- If you don’t have a mincer or cookie press and are making the biscuits by hand, take small, walnut-sized pieces of dough and roll them into sausage shapes around five centimetres long. Place them two centimetres apart on the sheets.
- Press a fork gently into the top edge of each biscuit and drag it down the length of the dough, flattening and lengthening it as you go. Bake as above, but allow at least 10 minutes (hand-formed biscuits tend to be thicker and so take longer to bake).
- While the biscuits are baking, put the icing sugar into a bowl, pour in the just-boiled water and mix vigorously until a glossy glaze forms.
- Allow the cooked biscuits to cool for a minute before transferring to a wire rack.
- Using a pastry brush, glaze each biscuit while still warm. Repeat the whole process again with any remaining dough. Store in an airtight container for up to four weeks.
Advent: Festive German Bakes To Celebrate The Coming Of Christmas by Anja Dunk is published by Quadrille, priced £25. Photography Anja Dunk. Available now.
