It’s time to make Christmas biscuits with the kids! Here are a few family recipes from Belgium, Slovakia and the United States. These biscuits make great little presents, so wrap them up warmly and give them to friends and family with your best Christmas wishes.
Looking for more ideas for your festive meals? Go to the Daily Life section:
https://www.cana.org/en/category/daily-life/
From Belgium, Bonne-Maman’s Speculoos
Muriel shares her grandmother’s recipe with us
Ingredients
750g flour
500g brown sugar
375g butter
10g cinnamon
3 cloves, crushed or powdered
2 whole eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
125g almond powder or flaked almonds
Mix everything together.
Form the dough into a large roll and leave to rest overnight.
Cut slices of dough and roll and leave to rest overnight.
Cut slices of dough and roll out into small rounds on a baking tray
Bake for 15/20 minutes at 180°.
From Slovakia, Dana’s Christmas biscuits
Linecké koláčiky slovenské: Linzer biscuits from Slovakia
Ingredients
300g pastry flour (T55)
200g butter
100g caster sugar
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons
lemon zest
1 packet vanilla sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
red jam (redcurrant, raspberry)
50g icing sugar (for dusting)
a drop of rum
Mix the ingredients for the dough. The dough is easy to work with. It should be sprinkled with about 30g of flour. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Divide the dough in half and work it in this way:
- Place a baking sheet or greaseproof paper on the baking tray and roll out to a thickness of about 3 mm.
- I cut out plains forms with holes. There should be an equal number of plain shapes and shapes with holes.
- I bake for about 7 minutes in an oven preheated to 170°C. The biscuits should be nice and shiny. I take them out of the oven when the edges of the biscuits turn pink.
- Using a fine sieve, I then sprinkle the biscuits with powdered sugar.
- Leave the biscuits to cool.
To finish, I coat the plain biscuits with warmed jam and a drop of rum. I place the biscuits with the holes in them. This is how I finished the little cake: it’s very pretty!
Nut rolls: Orechové rožky
Ingredients
300g white flour (T55)
200g butter
100g icing sugar
100g ground walnuts
2 egg yolks
Dough: shift the flour and sugar, add the softened butter or ghee, egg yolks and ground walnuts into a bowl and work into a dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for one hour.
Divide the dough into several parts and shape into a roll of 1 cm in diameter. Divide the dough into 6 cim pieces and shape into small rolls. Place the rolls on a baking tray lined with baking parchment.
Bake in the oven at 180°C for around 20 minutes until pink. While still warm, roll the rolls in a mixture of icing sugar and vanilla sugar. They’re delicious and moist! Enjoy!
From the United States, Susan’s great recipes
Viennese balls
Turn the oven on to 140°.
Soften 230g butter. Add 50g sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and vanilla sugar, 120g almond powder. Mix well. Form into balls of approximately. Roll in caster sugar. Place on greaseproof paper on the baking tray. Bake for 35 mins at 140°. Leave to cool and roll again in caster sugar.
Chewy Noels
Turn the oven on to 175°. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in the bottom of your baking dish (22 x 22 cm or 9×9 inch). Beat 2 eggs with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla sugar, 250 g brown sugar, two pinches of salt, a pinch of sodium bicarbonate and 100 g walnut pieces. Mix well and pour over your dish to a depth of 1.5 to 2 cm. Leave to cook for around 25 mins (until the pastry is firm when you touch it). Cut out squares in the dish itself and sprinkle with icing sugar before storing in a tin.