How To Cook Traditional Christmas Cookies
Christmas is the time of miracles, angels and gingerbread cookies
Christmas and New Year are two the most expected holidays of the year. There some many various dishes that housewives cook for the holidays. And one of the traditional dishes is Christmas cookies or gingerbread, the recipe of which our essay service experts are going to present you in this essay on “How to cook traditional Christmas cookies”.
Christmas cookies: what kind of dainty is it?
Probably, each of us has seen at least one time a movie, events of which take place during the summer holidays, and has seen that an obligatory attribute of a holiday table is cookies of different forms and shapes. Also you have probably seen gingerbread houses decorated with candies, powdered sugar and icing. However, not every person knows that almost every nation, especially European, has its own traditions in making suchlike cookies. Someone makes cookies with kitchen herbs and spices, someone makes them with different kinds of nuts. But the fact that the cookies are a symbol of the holiday is commonly accepted. Christmas cookies, the recipe of which you can easily learn, will become not only delicious dainty, but also decoration of your Christmas tree and a good gift.
A bit of history
Christmas is a holiday rich with traditions, including culinary. In our century of globalization many traditions are intertwined with each other. As we have already said, gingerbread cookies are a symbol of Christmas in Europe, and lately they become more and more widespread over the world. The cookies are made at home by the housewives, in the stores and Christmas markets, are presented as a gift to friends and relatives.
Ginger pastries are famous in Europe since the times of the Crusades. Since that time people started to call European holiday fairs “gingery”, and all kinds of dough with ginger turned into obligatory dishes on the Christmas table.
Ginger is a very useful spice originally from North India. Before Christ it was already used in China for medical purpose. Confucius mentioned ginger. It was also well-known in Arab countries. It was brought to Europe along with other spices from the East. Suchlike kitchen herbs cost a lot in those times, so only “rich and famous” could allow themselves to buy ginger. Later the seafaring developed greatly and it became cheaper to transport spices and almost everyone could afford them in necessary amount.
The history of gingerbread has its roots in the Foggy Albion. There is a legend that the English monks were the first who started to add ginger to bakery products. In the XI century a monk by the name of Patrick kneaded the dough, to which he added the spices that his brother brought from a crusade. He baked the cookies of different forms (angels, crosses, saints). Everyone liked the cookies, especially the abbot, who asked the monk to bake the cookies to decorate the Christmas tree. However, at that time the cookies were very plain, they were round, oval and did not look like the modern culinary masterpieces.
The tradition to make the cookies of concrete forms was created in the XIX century. Exactly then people started to create architectural masterpieces from the ginger dough, such as houses and even entire gingerbread towns. By the way, if you are interested in history of Christmas, read the essay on history and origin of Christmas celebration on our website. We present really interesting essays of high quality, so you will like them for sure.
Christmas cookies in Europe
In Germany biscuits with spices are especially popular. It is believed that Nuremberg is the ginger capital, here gingerbread and cookies are turned into real masterpieces. Serious bakers’ guilds of gingerbread cookies exist in Germany, England and France. In Latvia they bake “piparkūkas” with spices, what is literally translated as cookies with “pepper”. In England they bake gingerbread from ginger dough, which they eat with cream, butter and sour cream. It is very tasty and high-calorie, but in winter when the body requires more abundant food this is the best option.
Christmas pastry
Christmas is a heartwarming family holiday. Today it is more heartwarming than other holidays, which are often celebrated not with the close ones, not with someone whom we really take care about. That is why a holiday table is prepared very carefully. We want to give the best to people we love, to our close ones.
In France on a holiday table they served their traditional dish, a cake called “Christmas log”, in Great Britain it is pudding. Each country has its own traditions. However, Christmas cookies are a kind of pastry that is cooked on Christmas in all the countries. Housewives bake different kinds of biscuits in most European countries and especially in the English-speaking countries. Today suchlike cookies become more popular in the Eastern Europe and Asia as well. Our custom writing service wishes you happy holidays. And to make the holiday even better, we present you the most tasty and pretty simple recipes of Christmas cookies.
Christmas cookies recipe
The unique feature of such cookies is that they are cooked with adding of different spices and kitchen herbs: ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, star anise, and even black pepper. Spicy flavored biscuits do not grow stale if they are made correctly. There are several main varieties of this dainty, each of which has its own characteristic components. We are going to present you the most famous of them.
Gingerbread. To make this kind of cookies you need to add half teaspoon of ginger, cinnamon and cardamom to the basic components. Butter (100 g.) is mixed with 100 g. of sugar and one egg. Then one cup of flour and spice are added. After that you need to roll out the dough and cut out different figures. Ten minutes at 180 degrees they need to be baked.
Honey cookies. Combine flour (600 g.) with one teaspoon of soda and add 150 g. of grated butter and cut it all together. Add two tablespoons of sour cream, sugar (150 g.) and honey (also 150 g.), three eggs and some cinnamon. Mix everything, roll our and bake in the same way as gingerbread.
Almond cookies. Beat fours eggs with 200 g. of sugar, add 200 g. of ground almonds and lemon zest. Add 250 g. of flour and one teaspoon of baking powder. The dough will be stiff. It is necessary to roll it out bake as it is described in two previous recipes. Such Christmas cookies smell very deliciously and have amazing taste.
Christmas cookies: small tricks and secrets
To make the cookies, recipes of which we have given previously, a real decoration of your holiday, you need to follow some simple tips. For example, if you want to hang them on the Christmas tree as a decoration, before putting them in the oven, make little holes in dough with the help of a straw for juices and cocktails.
If you have baked Christmas cookies that do not contain citrus note, but you want to feel it and add somehow, it is possible to do this. You need to place ready cookies into a container with orange peel and change it every day.
Icing for cookies
Cookies are usually decorated with icing. It is very easy to make it and decorate the cookies. The ingredients required are the following:
- one egg white;
- one cup of powdered sugar;
- lemon juice (half teaspoon).
All the ingredients need to be whipped on till the consistency of air and firm foam. First you beat one egg white with powdered sugar and add some lemon juice, then beat the other egg whites. In case you are not satisfied with white icing, you can add the desired colour of food coloring. The cookies can be painted and decorated in any way you like. Only after that they should be placed in the warm oven to dry a little.
Cook the Christmas cookies for your family and, having gathered at a table drinking tea, you will feel the real family warmth and comfort! Merry Christmas!