Baking a selection of wonderful, fragrant Yuletide cookies is as essential to Christmas preparations as rustling up plum cakes, hanging stockings, listening to carols and putting up your magical tree.
Christmas cookies usually contain the best and prettiest of ingredients – plenty of butter, spices, lots of sugar, finest nuts, jam, raisins, cherries, sprinkles and icing.
Rediff Reader Shefali D'Souza shares her grandmother Joan D'Souza's Christmas recipes for three types gorgeous sweet goodies.
Photograph: Kind courtesy: Leon Brooks/Wikimedia Commons
Porcupine Cookies
Makes: 24 cookies
Ingredients
- ¼ cup butter
- 1/3 cup powdered or icing sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- ½ cup grated nuts, like almonds, cashews, walnuts
- 1 cup chopped seedless dates
- 1 cup grated desiccated coconut + extra for rolling the cookies in
- 1 tbsp maida or all-purpose flour
- Cherries, for decoration
Method
- Preheat an oven to 180°C.
- In a bowl, beat the butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs and the vanilla essence.
Mix well.
Stir in the maida.
Then, add the grated nuts, chopped dates, desiccated coconut.
Mix well to form a sticky dough.
- Spread the desiccated coconut for rolling on a plate or tray.
- Take small portions of the dough and roll into bite-sized balls using your hands.
Roll each ball in the extra desiccated coconut to coat evenly.
Press a cherry on top of each ball.
Place the balls on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the balls are firm and lightly golden around the edges.
Let the Porcupine Cookies to cool before transferring to a wire rack to cool further.
They should firm up as they cool.
- Store in an air-tight container.
Almond Flower Cookies
Makes: 15 to 20 cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter
- 1 cup maida or all-purpose flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup grated almonds
- Cherries, for decoration
Method
- In a bowl, beat the butter and the sugar until smooth.
Whisk in the eggs.
Add the maida and the grated almonds.
Mix into a smooth dough.
- Preheat an oven to 160°C.
- Fit a piping bag with a rose nozzle (or any nozzle you like) and fill it with the dough.
Pipe onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
You can also scoop out portions of the dough with a tablespoon and place on the baking tray too.
Flatten each cookies with your finger or use a cookie cutter for desired shape.
Place a cherry on each cookie.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes at 160°C.
Let the cookies cool.
- Store in an air-tight container.
Joan's Note: You can use grated cashews instead of almonds or a mix of both.
Add a pinch of salt if using unsalted butter.
IMAGE: Kindly note the image has been posted only for representational purposes.
Photograph: Kind courtesy: Dan arndt/Wikimedia CommonsPowder Milk Toffee
Makes: About 30 pieces
Ingredients
- 500 gm sugar
- ½ cup water
- 300 gm milk powder
- 100 gm butter + extra for buttering the tray
- 50 gm cocoa powder
Method
- Add ½ cup water to the sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.
Stir till the sugar dissolves completely.
Simmer until the syrup reaches a thick, gel-like consistency.
Add the butter, milk powder and the cocoa and stir briskly to avoid lumps.
Pour the mixture on a buttered tray.
Spread evenly.
- Cut into the desired shape -- squares, rectangles -- while it is still warm.
- Store in an air-tight container.