Today’s Christmas Project Experiment (in advance of Christmas morning, in case it turned out to be a complete disaster) was this Spiced Cinnamon Cardamom Swirl Wreath…. essentially a whole lot of little cinnamon buns arranged ad then baked together in a wreath. You can pull it apart, taking a little or big swirl as you please. It’s absolutely delicious and came out pretty much as I expected (there is always that moment when you put it into the oven and the baking puts it out of your control, and you wonder if it will stay as pretty as it un-baked, but it did end up quite nice). Yay for experiments gone right!
I saw a photo of Clementine Jam the other day and just had to make it — and tis the season as all sorts of mandarins and other citrus fruit are in season — check out the color! It is simply fantastic and likely the brightest colored jam that I have ever seen. And it tastes good too. It is a little bitter, but that can often be the case with citrus jams and preserves, but it will be spectacular on toast. Oooooh, or on pancakes. Yummy and seasonal.
Long time followers of my website know that the other thing that I have a tendency to make around Christmas Time (in addition to the mountains of cookies) is candy, chocolates or fudge. Sometimes Caramels, sometimes Fudge, sometimes Truffles. So this year, I went with another couple of types of fudge: Coffee Toffee Crunch Fudge and Cookies+Cream Fudge. It’s a super-simply, absolutely foolproof fudge recipe that turns out great every time. And ready in a very short time frame. Try it!
It’s Santa Lucia Day, a part of the Swedish tradition in the run up to Christmas. Apparently it’s called Saint Lucy’s Day in the US, but I haven’t heard it called that much. Anyway, part of the tradition for this day is making of these Saffron rolls, shaped like an S. They are lovely, not too sweet and have a great cardamom and saffron flavor. Quite easy to make and lovely served just out of the oven for breakfast or with afternoon coffee/tea.
Every year when I make my Christmas Cookies, I try out one or two new recipes. Or new-to-me recipes. Some are traditional cookies, some are modern cookies. One of the two new types that I made this year are these: Speculaas (Dutch) aka Spekulatius (German). They are a traditional Dutch spice cookie, usually rolled very thin and then imprinted with a design. While I have a few imprinting rolling pins, my dough wasn’t cooperating particularly, so instead of the imprinting pin, I went with a Christmas-y cookie stamp. All the same in the end. These cookies are very nice, a lovely traditional spice and will definitely stay in the cookie madness repertoire.