Deer feet

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When I was planning my Christmas baking this year I asked J if he wanted me to bake anything special, maybe something from his family or a Christmas cookie I normally don't make and he immediately told me he wanted Deer feet. Apparently his grandmother used to bake these every year for Christmas. I emailed MIL and she was happy to send me the recipe.

Her instructions specifically said the cookies would spread in the oven so make sure not to make them too big. I'm not sure what I did wrong (if anything) but my cookies didn't spread at all! When the first batch came out of the oven I looked at something that mostly resembled a worm, not at all what they were supposed to look like. I baked mine on parchment paper (I tried baking them on ungreased cookie sheet as the instructions said and I didn't see any difference, no matter what method I used my cookies wouldn't spread at all).

Cookie fail or a worm?

The instructions also said to use a cookie press but that's when I ended up with the worm-shaped cookies. After testing a few methods I found the best one for me was to use a piping bag but without the tip. That way my cookies were 3/4 inch wide.

So they might have been a bit of a hassle but the end result was good and according to J they look and taste 'like they are supposed to'.
Source: J's grandmother

Ingredients:
2 egg whites
7 Tbs sugar
1 1/4 cup fine coconut

1 cup icing sugar
2 Tbs very strong coffee, cold
2 Tbs butter, soft

2 squares (60 g) semi-sweet chocolate

Directions:
Beat egg whites stiff, gradually add sugar while beating. Mixture should be very stiff. Fold in coconut gently using a spatula. Shape mixture into fingers using a cookie press/icing gun (or a piping bag), approx. 3 x 3/8 inches (8 x 1 cm). (According to MIL they will spread but like I said mine did NOT. I found 3 x 3/4 inches to be a better size. Maybe make just one first and test to see if yours spread?)

Bake on an UNGREASED cookie sheet in 375F (190 'C) for about 8 minutes. (supposedly they will slide all over the pan and make one big puddle if you grease it, I don't know since I never tried. Parchment paper worked fine for me)

Let cool mostly on the cookie sheet and then remove carefully with a metal spatula (they brake easily). Cool completely. Mix icing sugar, coffee and butter to make the filling. Place cookies in pairs with filling in between. Dip each end in melted chocolate.

Saffron biscotti (or why you should be VERY careful if you ever change a recipe)

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These saffron biscotti have been a Christmas favourite in my family for the last couple of years. Sweet saffron buns (also known as Lucia buns) are a traditional Christmas treat in Sweden and this is a modern spin off.

I decided to bring these to a Christmas party one of my friends hosted. Unfortunately I didn't have enough saffron at home so I decided to just make half a batch. I figured I would make a second half-batch and flavour them differently. Before starting I figured out the amounts I would need of everything and even wrote them down on a piece of paper so I wouldn't mess up. Well, somehow even with these precautions I managed to forget to half the butter. After adding all the dry ingredients I ended up with something like a very greasy batter, not the thick dough that it normally makes. That's when I realized I had used the full amount of butter!

What to do? Pour it out and start from the beginning? No, remember I didn't have any more saffron. Just add the full amount of all the ingredients? Well I thought about doing that but decided against it since that would drown the saffron flavour. I ended up with a compromise adding about half of 'the missing amount' of dry ingredients. It worked and they ended up OK. Not great but OK. Lesson learned - always make sure to use half of ALL the ingredients when halving a recipe.

Ingredients:
3½ oz. (100 g) butter
1 ½ tsp (1 g) saffron
2 2 eggs
1.5 ~½ cup (150 ml) sugar
5 ~2 cups (500 ml) all-purpose flour
1.5 1 ½ tsp baking powder
1.5 ½ cup (150 ml) almonds, with the skins removed
Raw sugar

Set the oven for 350F (175'C). Melt the butter together with the saffron, pour into a bowl and stir in the eggs. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients and the almonds. Carefully add the dry ingredients to the butter-egg mix. Shape the dough into 3 lengths and put them on a baking sheet. Sprinkle raw sugar over. Bake in the middle of the oven for approx. 25 minutes.

Remove the cookies from the oven and lower the temperature to 250F (125'C). Cut the lengths in ½ inch (1 cm) slices and put them back on the baking sheet, cut side down. Dry the cookies in the middle of the oven for approx. 10 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave the biscotti inside until the oven has cooled down (or over night).


I also made half a batch of gingerbread flavoured biscotti. This time I remembered to only use half the butter and ended up with the right type of dough. I used the same recipe as above, just omitted the saffron and added 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, 2 teaspoons of ginger and ½ teaspoon cardamom. They were delicious (still not as good as the real saffron ones though)

Source: A Piece of Cake by Leila Lindholm

Shortbread

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My mother can't bake at all even if her life depended on it. I remember with horror how every year in December she would try to bake some simple cookies for Christmas - it usually ended with her angry and cranky (we soon learned to stay away from home on bake days) and with the cookies looking like something the dog would have left behind. Somehow the apple seems to have fallen quite far from the tree since I do love to bake and the results are usually fairly good and needless to say my mother doesn't even attempt to bake anymore - the Christmas baking is now my job.


My mother's favourite cookies have always been shortbread (though she never even attempted to bake them herself) so a few years ago I decided to surprise her with some. I searched all over the internet to find a good recipe but finally settled for one on the BBC web page - I figured mom's favourite store bought shortbread are Scottish made and I wanted to get mine as close to the original as possible. That meant not chocolate, not nuts and no vanilla essence. Just butter, caster sugar and flour. The result? Double thumbs up from mom

from BBC

Ingredients:
4 oz (125 g) butter
2 oz (55 g) caster sugar
6 oz (180 g) plain flour

Directions:
Heat the oven to 375F (190 'C). Beat the butter and the sugar together until pale. Stir in the flour to get a smooth paste. Turn on to a work surface and gently roll out until the paste is ½ inch (1 cm) thick and use a cookie cutter or press into an 8 inch (20 cm) square pan and smooth and make pinpricks all over. Chill in refrigerator for 20 minutes. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until pale golden. If using a pan let it cool for a few minutes and then with a knife cut out fingers (makes 12-24 depending on your preferred size). Cool on a wire rack.

Pepparkakor (Swedish Gingerbread)

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This is my sister-in-laws recipe for gingerbread cookies. They are incredibly light and crispy (especially when she makes them - I cannot understand how she can make them so thin and perfect every single time). They have a slightly different flavouring than the normal Swedish gingerbread - as these have only ginger and a touch of lemon. For a more 'true' version of Swedish gingerbread you can use the same recipe but omit the lemon oil and add 1 tablespoon of cinnamon and ½ teaspoon of cloves (as I was googling recipes to find the *right* spices I found that the recipes tend to vary quite a bit - some have cardamon, some have cloves some have both. Pretty much all of them seamed to have ginger and cinnamon though. And to make things even more confusing the ratios between the different spices were not the same in all the recipes - I guess you just have to come up with your own favourite).

I make the dough the day before and then let it rest in the fridge for a day or two. This recipe yields around 250 cookies but I have successfully halved it some years. 250 cookies take quite some time to bake and it really makes too many for us to eat. My sister-in-law - aka. the queen of gingerbread - told me she usually doubles the recipes though!!!

To make them as thin as possible I like to use a non-stick or silicone rolling pin and the only way I managed to get them thin yet still keep their shape is to roll the dough out right on the non-stick baking sheet or sil-pat. Otherwise I find they always break or loose their shapes when I move them from the table and onto the baking sheet.

This is obviously a Swedish recipe that I've translated so all the original measurements were metric. The imperial measurements are rounded up/down to the closest 'normal' measurement - the difference wasn't too big though - we're talking one or two tablespoons up or down pretty much, don't think it should make too much of a difference. Or just do it metric style!

Ingredients:
~3/4 cup (200 ml) heavy cream
~2 cups (450 ml) dark brown sugar
~3/4 cup (200 ml) molasses
1 - 1½ Tbs ground ginger
1/4 tsp lemon oil (lemon essence)
1 Tbs baking soda
~5 cups (~1.2 L) all-purpose flour

Day 1: Whip the cream stiffly. Add dark brown sugar and molasses and stir for about 10 minutes. Add lemon oil, ginger, baking soda and most of the flour (4 ½ cup or 1 litre or so) and mix. It should make a rather stiff heavy dough. If necessary add a bit more flour. Wrap in plastic and let it rest in the fridge over night.

Day 2: Knead the dough on a slightly floured surface (or do what I do and use a sil-pat/teflon baking sheet). Take a small piece of the dough and roll out thinly (I like them really thin, like 1/10 inch or even thinner). If you don't have a non-stick surface to roll them out on make sure to use a lot of flour or they will stick to your surface. Cut out cookies using cookie cutters (not only do I want mine thin but I also prefer them rather small so I only use small cookie cutters, around 2 inches). Bake in 350F (175'C) for 5-10 minutes (depending on thickness, size and your oven). Let the cookies cool on the sheet before moving them. Be sure they are completely cool before putting them in a lidded cookie jar/box. Enjoy!