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With the solstice and holidays fast approaching, I am looking forward to a season of hygge and cozying indoors. A perennial theme of the holidays is baking. Each of us seems to have our own personal favorite cookie or recipe we associate with the holidays; often reaching all the way back to childhood, a family recipe that conjures up warmth and safety, a particular taste that immediately transports you back to a specific place and time.
In my house, it wouldn't be Christmastime without getting out my favorite book of the season, Nigel Slater’s The Christmas Chronicles. It is not simply a book of recipes, although it does contain many delicious recipes, but what makes this book and all his other cookbooks so delightful is the way he writes around each recipe, celebrating the flavors of the season, reveling in his favorite Christmastime foods. He never gives you just a recipe. He sets the scene, lights the stove and walks with you hand in hand until you suddenly discover yourself in the kitchen making the recipe. And for those of you who aren't even into baking or cooking? It doesn't matter, because his writing is just a delight to read even if you never actually make any of the recipes. But you will because he lures you into his world with ingredients so simple and fresh, that you'll want to try a recipe or two. Here's a favorite passage to give you an idea.
Buche de Noel is a more recent favorite in my household. I love to make it with chocolate cake, a peppermint buttercream filling, and then finished off with whipped cream. Some years I'll be extra fancy and create fondant mushrooms, or I might keep it quite simple with just some candied orange and cranberry. Other years I decide to make sticky toffee pudding or a Christmas spice cake instead. I feel like the prerequisite to a Christmas cake is lots of spice, ginger, maybe molasses but the flavor is layered, dense and deep, almost heavy.
But what about Christmas cookies! Everyone has their favorite Christmas cookie recipe. I tend to love all the traditional cookies like gingerbread, linzer tarts, pecan snowballs, snickerdoodles. However, my absolute favorite cookie for the holidays is a good butter cookie aka sugar cookie aka those cookies that you have to roll out and then cut into fun Christmas-themed shapes. Yes, they are a bit of work but you can stretch it out over a few days. I like to make the dough one day, refrigerate it and then roll out the cookies and bake, a day or two later when I have the time. I've left (forgotten) the dough in the fridge for six days and it was absolutely fine when I finally found a moment to roll out and bake those cookies!
The recipe that I'm going to share with you today has been in my family since I was quite small. My mom has used this recipe for as long as I can remember and it was always a family favorite growing up. There was one year where she enlisted me to help her bake dozens (hundreds) of these cookies for some cookie swap/fundraiser at our church and by the end of it I almost hated them but truth be told they are simply too addictively delicious to hate.
Because I love experimenting and tweaking, I've adapted the recipe over the years, and I really think it's quite perfect. They are close to shortbread, very buttery and light. Sometimes I'll add a bit of nutmeg or maple syrup but more often than not, I won't. These cookies shine when you keep them simple. This recipe uses butter, I mean a lot of butter, and it is very worth it to use a good European butter. You'll thank me and the flavor it imparts. You can decorate them or not. My husband prefers them plain and slightly burnt while I like them slightly under done and decorated with royal icing. There's always a battle between us over just how many I will decorate and how many he can eat before that happens.
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