Food & Drink 13
Preheat the oven to a 175 degree Celsius. Meanwhile, roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to 34 mm thickness. 1,5 kg all-purpose flour 1,5 teaspoon soda ground spices (nutmeg, cloves, pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger) to taste 0,5 kg honey 110 g unsalted melted butter
Cut the dough with your own choice of cookie cutters or use a sharp knife to cut your own shapes. Bake them on a buttered sheet for 4 to 5 minutes or until lightly browned. When you remove the cookies from the oven, they will be really soft but will harden quickly as they cool.
4 eggs 200 g sugar (to caramelise)
In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, soda and the spices, and mix with all other ingredients except the sugar. Place the sugar in a dry pan over medium-to-low heat and wait until it starts melting. Do not stir. It will gradually caramelise. When it is fully caramelised, turn off the heat and wait for a few minutes. Then add 0,5 cup of hot water. When it has cooled down sufficiently, add it to the spiced flour mixture and gently mix to make a soft and pliable dough.
Traditionally, the cookie dough is made 2 to 3 weeks in advance of baking and should be stored in the fridge. If you do not have time to prepare ahead, it is still possible to bake shortly after making the dough, although obviously the former is preferable.
Decorating the cookies is the most fun part of the baking experience. Invite your friends over, make some seasonal drinks, play your favourite Christmas tunes. You can make traditional icing with icing sugar and water, adding edible dyes to produce your own colour palette. Or you may buy edible decorations in most supermarkets and you may also use additional decorations such as nuts, dry fruit, icing and coloured sugar.
The icing is basically powdered sugar with heavy cream or milk. To make colours you add natural things like coco for brown, egg yolk for yellow, beetroot juice for pink and red, spinach for dark green, green peas for light green and so on. The great thing about Christmas Cookies is that they last for months in an airtight container, so all this work really pays off. I hope you enjoy making these cookies as much as I and my friends have. Happy Christmas!
NO TO JEMY (LET'S EAT) has emerged owing to a continuous need to experience through cooking, the culinary aspect of life. After 8 years of running a family restaurant "TOGA" in Poznań, Paulina moved to Wrocław. Here she created the first dinner club in Wroclaw which is a great way of meeting new people and tasting different, experimental and delicious dishes from all over the world in good company and a unique atmosphere. She also caters for for home parties, even romantic dinner for two together with business meetings, wedding receptions, etc.,) Paulina uses natural and regional products (she is a member of SLOW FOOD WLKP and WLKP Culinary Heritage) as well as those brought from far away. Most of her recipes were collected during her travels around the world or were revealed by her friends or even newly created in her own kitchen. She believes that you can never have enough culinary experimentation.
The Wrocław International
January 2013