Monthly Archives

December 2015

Cookies, Desserts, Sweet Snacks

The Christmas Cookies (Weihnachtsgebäck)

Christmas Cookies. Weihnachtsgebäck. It’s actually what I am most “famous” for. For those who don’t know the story, every year I bake thousands of Christmas Cookies over a three week or so period (this year it was around 6000, over 19 days — 115 hours in total). There are 19 types this year, 17 of which are “standards” and a few new ones to try out.

The recipes have all been on this site for a number of years, and they are scattered through many entries. I thought that it might be helpful for people who want to make their own cookies and are searching for the recipes to have them all in one place, so here are all the links. Happy Baking!
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Breakfast/Brunch, Sweet Snacks

Swedish Holiday Wreath

More pre-Christmas baking experiments in the works. Because I mostly give food gifts, I have to test out my recipes before making the final “masterpieces”. Some of them work well right off the bat, like this one. The saffron, orange, cinnamon and ginger work well, and I like the way the pearl sugar looks a little like snow, something we are missing this December in New England (yes, that is a little bit of a complaint … I like a little snow leading into Christmas!). Cardamom always reminds me of a family friend from Sweden. Happy memories!
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Candy

Chewy Gingerbread (and/or) Butter Rum Caramels

It’s been a while since I posted…. Egads! Almost a month. The cookie baking was in full swing in November (we’ll come back to that) and then I was traveling for a couple of weeks. But I am back. Never fear. And it’s getting to be Christmas and as some of you know, in addition to the Cookie Maddens, I try to make some candy or truffles every year. This year, I’ve made these lovely semi-soft and chewy caramel candies — melt in your mouth good! There are two variations: gingerbread (love!) and butter rum. Each batch makes about 50 caramels. Great stocking stuffers!
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