Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer cookies - M & B Christmas recap

I love Christmas time. In fact sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm an adult now and I don't need to wake up before the birds are singing on Christmas morning. Just can't help myself, even though the focus is on our children now. I love hearing them sneak down the hall way at some ungodly hour, only to run back down and tell each other "Santa has been!".

I also love baking some little treats that are a little different and that are just for the kids (well big kids also) and seeing their little faces light up as they take bites of my creations. I wanted to make these reindeer cookies for a school break up party but never had time to actually do them so I ended up making some marshmallow snowmen on sticks as shown below.

They were a hit and so easy to make and no baking required. However, back to the biscuits at hand, they were also very easy and I found the dough worked better rested in the freezer instead of the fridge as it was a little harder and easier at holding its shape when transferring from the baking paper to the baking trays. I know some of you are most probably saying "too hard" but you don't have to add the ice-cream sticks or use the decorations I have used as the biscuits themselves are very tasty, they have that hint of spice that will have your taste buds singing Christmas carols all year round!

You will need:
90g butter
1 egg
1/2 cup (110g) firmly packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup (25g) desiccated coconut
1/3 cup (35g) wheat germ
2/3 cup (100g) wholemeal plain (all-purpose) flour
1/3 cup (50g) white self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
20 small pretzels
1/4 cup (45g) dark choc-bits
10 choc orange balls (I used Jaffas)

Have butter and egg at room temperature. Beat butter, egg and sugar in a small bowl with electric mixer until combined.

Stir in coconut, wheat germ and sifted flours and spice.

Enclose dough in plastic wrap, refrigerate 30 minutes.

Roll dough between sheets of baking paper until 5mm (1/4-inch) thick. Place on tray, refrigerate 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees / 350 F, line baking trays with baking paper.
Using a 9cm (Mine was 8cm) round cutter, cut rounds from dough, re-rolling scraps as necessary. Place rounds about 3-inches apart on trays.

Slide an ice-block stick under each cookie, press down firmly. (You don't have to use ice-cream sticks if you don't want as they biscuits look cute enough without them).

Position two pretzels on each cookie for antlers, press down firmly.

Decorate cookies with choc bits for eyes and mouths, bake about 12 minutes until lightly browned.

Adding your choc orange balls after they have been baked, pressing firmly on the hot biscuit and then leaving to cool completely.

Merry Christmas! M x

Coconut and Jam Hearts - more Christmas baking

One morning last week B rang me and said 'Have you seen the new Donna Hay?' knowing full well that she had the advantage of downloading the fandangled iPad version. It was the very first morning the latest magazine went on sale and it was before the shops had opened so of course I had not had a chance to get down to the shops to check it out. It's no secret that both B and I have a little Donna obsession. We have collected her magazines from the beginning and since having kids, I absolutely adore the annual Kids edition. B has visited her store in Sydney a few times (thanks for the SMS'd photos - very jealous!) and we both have our favourite Donna recipes that have become staples - like orange cake and jam drops. Anyway, this month's gorgeous biscuit cover picture had us both salivating. So many potential Christmas gifts!

The coconut and jam hearts were extremely yummy and very easy to make. Confession time: I ended up having to make two batches as we ate the first batch!! Little (and big) hands just kept going back for more and before we knew it, they were gone.

Coconut and jam hearts (from Donna Hay Magazine Dec/Jan 2012 issue)

125gg butter, chopped
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups plain flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon baking powder, sifted
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
icing sugar, for dusting
raspberry or strawberry jam

Place the butter and sugar in an electric mixer and beat until pale and creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until well combined. add the flour, baking powder and coconut and beat for a further 1 minute or until well combined. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm.

Divide the dough into 2 equal portions and roll both portions out between 2 sheets of non-stick baking paper to 3mm-thick. Using a 7cm round cookie cutter, cut 12 rounds from the dough and place on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper.

Using a 4cm heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut hearts from the centre of half the rounds and discard (I just added these back to the dough mixture)

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool. Dust the cut-out rounds with icing sugar. Spread the plain rounds with jam and sandwich with the cut-out rounds. Makes approx 12.

The biscuits were given as gifts and were a huge hit! I also made these fruit mince pies that you can see in this picture.

Enjoy

M
x

Gingerbread Christmas Trees

So this is Christmas.........and what have you done? Well one thing is for sure, M and B haven't done much blogging! So much has happened the last couple of months, we both neglected the blog - sorry guys! B has been busy 'baking' her own little person though, and is due any day now and M has been, well, busy being a mum, a friend, a sister, a wife, a daughter......and everything in between.

Anyway, we thought we'd kick off our return to the blog with some Christmas baking. We both love Christmas and can't wait for our mum's Christmas cake to be ready (I think it's at the soaking in booze stage!), we can't wait to sink our teeth into some fruit mince pies, gobble up some jam cookies and we especially can't wait to have some Christmas baby cuddles with B's little person.  

Gingerbread makes such a good gift any time of the year, and especially at this time of year. We've given homemade gingerbread men as B's gift to her wedding guests and her more recent baby shower guests (iced in the appropriate theme of course!) and I think it makes a lovely gift for our hardworking teachers at the end of the school year. 

Gingerbread Trees

This is the same recipe that I have used for the gingerbread men we have made previously. I made 4 batches and that made around 8 trees and I had left over stars.

165g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg yolk
2 1/2 plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
3 teaspoons ginger
3 tablespoons golden syrup

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add edd yolk, beat well. Gradually add sifted dry ingredients and syrup, mix well. Knead lightly.
Divide dough and then roll each portions between two sheets of baking paper to about 3-4mm thickness. I have a set of star cutters that were 5 different sizes.

I allowed 3 of the same size stars for each tree, I guess it just depends on how high you want your tree to end up.

I used 2 quanities of the egg white icing below. (royal icing)

11/2 cups of pure icing sugar
1 egg white
4 drops lemon juice
food colouring optonal

Sift icing sugar. Beat egg white lightly in a small bowl, using a wooden spoon. Add icing sugar, one tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition. When it reaches piping consistency, beat in lemon juice.

I used some of those coloured little cachous balls to decorate, but you could use anything you want. Then I dusted the tree with some icing sugar at the end.

To stick all your stars together just add some of your royal icing between each star. Also use the icing to add any of your decorations.

Enjoy!

M
x