Monday, December 6, 2010

Christmas Has Started, And Also Our Traditions At Home


Christmas has started, and also our traditions at home......We start the month with our Advent Calendar. Every night we took an ornament from the correspondent box, we eat a chocolate that the Angels has left us, we read a story about Christmas, and we pray for our families, friends and general people's well being.....

This is a month were our cooking reflects our past, our present, and also part of our future. It mirrors our past because I bake the cookies that I learned at my home for Christmas when I was a little girl (Almond Christmas Cookies).  It represents the present because I bake the biscottis and thumbprint cookies that I learned here in Canada. It shows our future because every Christmas I  try new cookies recipes to adopt them for our future Christmas.

My daughter decorated these cookies....

This month, Nuria from the fantastic blog  Petita Cuina is hosting an event dedicated to the cooking of Christmas.  Today, I want to contribute to the HEMC#49 with my Almond Christmas  and Thumbprint Cookies recipes. I hope you will enjoy it. 


Almond Christmas Cookies 

500 grams of flour
200 grams of sugar
200 grams of butter (room temperature)
150 grams of almonds (powder)
2 tablespoon of almond extract
2 teaspoons of baking powder
Water

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and almond powder. Add the butter and almond extract. Beat it adding water until you have a dough that is not sticky to your hands. Put in a plastic bag in the refrigerator, and let it rest for 1 hour. With the rolling pin roll it to a thickness of 1 cm. Cut it in your desire shape, and bake it in a preheated oven at 350F for 20 minutes until they are slightly golden. Let it cool and paint it with your favourite sugar glaze. Sprinkle it with decorations.

Sugar Glaze: Powder sugar, water, food colour. Mix powder sugar with water until your desired thickness. Add colour of your choice. 






Thumbprint Cookies 

3 1/2 cups of flour
1 1/2 cup of butter (room temperature)
3 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 cup of sugar
3 teaspoon of baking powder
Pinch of Salt
Apricot Jam (or the jam you wish)

In a bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and vanilla extract until is creamy. In another bowl, mix the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add the flour mixture to the creamy butter until you get a dough that holds together when pinched. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

Take a piece of dough (walnut size) and make a ball with both hands. Knead it until it is smooth without cracks, With your thumbprint, make a hole and put apricot jam on it. Bake them in a preheated oven at 350F for 12-16 minutes or until golden brown.  This cookie is at the top left of the picture below. We had friends over the weekend, and they left us only one for the picture......We have to bake them more.....

5 comments:

  1. you have an artist in the house. the cookies look delicious, saved the thumbprint cookie recipe. thanks for sharing.
    hope you're having a wonderful week

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  2. Thanks for visiting me!!....have a great week too....Abrazotes, Marcela

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  3. thanks for the message about the baking powder. take care

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  4. Creo que en todas las casas ya se huele a Navidad, en la mia este fin de semana hemos preparado "pastissets de moniato", (pastelillos de boniato (batata dulce creo) y eso es la puerta que abre la Navidad...
    Un enorme abrazo

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  5. Marcla que bonita tradiciones y mas si se hace en famiia. Me recuerda mucho a las que hacia cundo vivia con mi mama y mi hermana ;)
    Un abrazo

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