ROOTS & WINGS

44. Sloth Christmas Cookies

You might have guessed that after the "43. St. Nick's Day Cookies" -"Frenzy" I didn't have much energy left for fancy stuff. (Should have paid heed to that earlier.)

So I browsed the remaining (see "43. St. Nick's Day Cookies" ) Christmas cooking / bakery books for yummy yet SIMPLE recipes, and got lucky at a VERY special Christmas baking book I also used for three of the previous Yums. Why special?

Well, being a Muslima didn't keep Turkish cook / baker Fatmanur Kilic from writing 50 fabelhafte Weihnachtswunder (50 marvelous Christmas (bakery) miracles). And she's right by saying that even if Muslims don't actually celebrate Christmas they aren't unemotional klutzes, and can enjoy the festive sentiment of Christmas... and especially the cooking / baking aspect as food transcends culture and religion and so unites people.

AMEN!

And so it's only logical that I start with Fatma's shortcrust pastries of which I did three versions, one by her and two by me.




SLOTH CHRISTMAS COOKIES


Serves: ~ 35 each version => ~ 100 in total

Prep Time: ~ 3 hrs PLUS: dough resting overnight; INCLUDING: prepping of fillings

Degree of Difficulty: Easy



WE NEED


DOUGH

300 gr / 10.5 oz. SOFT butter
1 egg yolk
120 gr / 4.25 oz. icing sugar
2 tsp vanilla paste OR: 2 pcks. => 16 gr / 0.6 oz. vanilla sugar
420 gr / 14.75 oz. flour


BRATAPFEL:

1 apple
1-2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp gingerbread spice I made it MYSELF


GINGERBREAD SPICE

3 tbsp cinnamon CEYLON, as the cheaper CASSIA contains too much Cumarin which at regular use can damage the liver

1.5 tsp cloves
1 tsp EACH ground ginger, cardamom, allspice, coriander + nutmeg


Grind which needs to be ground – In MY case: cloves, allspice, nutmeg – thoroughly mix spices and fill them into an airtight glass.



ORANGE-LEMON:

1 orange
1 lemon



PISTACHIO-CRANBERRY:

70 gr / 2.5 oz. cranberries
60 gr / 2 oz. pistachios




WE DO


1. BRATAPFEL: Wash hot, deseed + finely cube the apple. 5 mm / 0.2 in. MAXIMUM. Transfer the cubes into a non-stick pan, add the brown sugar + gingerbread spice, and bake. KEEP AN EYE on it, otherwise you've might've had Bratapfel and a pan for the longest time. The bratapfel is done when the juice of the apple has boiled away. Remove the pan from the heat and let the contents cool completely.


2. ORANGE-LEMON: Wash hot + grate the orange + lemon. Press out the orange + lemon for a healthy drink / tea addition.


3. CRANBERRY-PISTACHIO: Finely chop pistachios + cranberries. The latter also only 5 mm / 0,2 in .ALSO, I "roughly chopped" the pistachios in the food processor



4. DOUGH:

a) In a bowl, whisk together butter, egg yolk, icing sugar + vanilla, then add the flour and knead everything
into a smooth dough.

b) Divide the dough into 3 equally big portions and work the fillings into each portion. I did so by hand but I guess you can do so with a kitchen machine. But SLOWLY & GENTLY

c) Roll the doughs into 1-2 rolls each with about 5 cm / 2 in. in diameter, wrap them into clingfilm and let them rest in the fridge overnight.



5. BAKE DAY: preheat the oven to 170°C / 340°F and line two baking sheets with baking paper. {c}Cut the dough rolls into 5 mm / 0.2 in. slices, and place them on the baking sheets.

Bake them for 10-12 minutes OR until golden (brown. As every oven is different that can take longer/shorter – and since NOTHING burns quicker than shortcrust... KEEP AN EYE ON THEM.

Let them cool completely on a cake / oven rack... and keep them in an airtight container / tin.




THAT seemed a little... sparse, though – and didn't fill the cookie box decently – so I did some more, out of Christina Bauer – Weihnachten mit Christina (Christmas with Christina), which were trickier to make than the recipe read. BUT: they were worth it.


GINGERBREAD COOKIES


Serves: 35+

Prep Time: ~ 3 hrs PLUS: dough resting 24 hrs + cool off / drying of icing times

Degree of Difficulty: Intermediate (tricky)



WE NEED


COOKIES

320 gr / 2 US cups 2.8 oz. flour Actually whole rye, but that was out and I used spelt
2 eggs
140 gr / 5 oz. icing sugar
70 gr / 2.5 oz. honey In the second batch, made the 21. I only used 30 gr / 2 oz. as only that was left – NO difference.

25 gr / 1 oz. apple sauce Apple slices in the gingerbread box causes them to stay fresh longer. With the sauce in the dough you need NO extra apple to keep them fresh.

8-10 gr / 0.3 oz. baking powder / soda
4 gr / 0.15 oz. cocoa powder
4 gr / 0.15 oz. gingerbread spice



BRUSH

1 egg
1 tsp milk


ICING

1 egg WHITE
~ 150 gr / 5 oz. icing sugar RECIPE => 250 gr / 8.8 oz., but mine was already "good" = slightly viscous with less sugar. MAYBE use the FULL amount given in the recipe if you want to use an icing bag



WE DO

1. Put all ingredients into a bowl and mix them into a moist, crumbly mass, then knead it into a firm dough.

THIS is the TRICKY part

When you mix too thorough it gets too sticky + viscous, which happened to ME the first round and where I had to work in another 150 gr / 5 oz. flour so it was usable at all... and the result were gingerbread ROLLS (instead of cookies).

The SECOND round on 12/20, I started mixing the ingredients with the kneading hooks of my hand mixer until they were JUST combining, then did the rest by hand and that only until it JUST SO held together. That did the TRICK.



2. Let the dough rest 24 hrs. Don't worry, in that time you can bake the other cookies.



The next day...


3. Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Whisk together egg + milk for the brush.


4. Shape the dough into 15 gr / 0.5 oz. (1 cm / 0.5 in.) balls, then lightly press them flat and place them on the baking sheets with a little space between. Moist / flour your hands regularly as the dough's still quite a sticky poop


5. Toward the end of the ball rolling, preheat the oven to 170°C / 340°F, and – while it's heating – brush the cookies with the milk-egg-mix.


6. Bake the cookies in the middle of the oven for about 10 minutes. The FIRST round took 12 minutes, the one on 12/20 only 9, so KEEP AN EYE on them!


7. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool completely on a cake / oven rack.


8. Make the ICING: put the egg white into a bowl and sieve the icing sugar on top in 4-6 – depending on how much sugar you need – portions, gently whisking it into the egg white. That way it doesn't go lumpy


9. When the cookies have cooled off, brush them with the icing. You can use an icing bag, with a SMALL/TINY nozzle, too, or – like me – a teaspoon + brush. Your choice. Let the icing dry.



GUTEN HUNGER & YUMMY WEIHNACHTEN!