Helene’s Easter Cookies
May I introduce to you: Helene. She won the Easter Giveaway Contest and was quite excited about the cookie cutter from the beginning. They arrived in New Zealand on time and she sent me a pictures of her cookie. So I asked her if she would be so kind to write a guest post for the blog. She had the same thought and was happy to write something for me. Here is her thoughts on baking, cookies and blog entries.
The chocolate chips are hiding.
There is one more Easter treat I will share with you, however, first I have a classical cookie for you. (I know that Easter baking is a bit late now but a) I was busy and b) I am not one of those who bakes a month beforehand.) This is the first cookie I ever made in Canada. Basically, my husband urged me to make them, he’s a fan, major fan. As he said while I made them: “Best cookie evaaaa!” Love my hubby, he has his real funny moments once in a while. The Oatmeal cookie is another classic I shall say in North America. My husband likes his with chocolate chips.
So simple, so classic, so yummy.
Believe it or not, but it took me almost two years to make these North American classics. I mean, chocolate chip cookies are the symbol of North America. You see them in movie and TV shows and, well, there always seems to be a big deal about them.
It is March, which means ins some parts of the world spring is on its way. Well, here in lovely Saskatoon spring will have a later appearance, we still have snow everywhere. Actually, we had a snow storm the other day but we hope warm weather is on its way. If you don’t have the colours outside you should make sure you have them inside, on your plate, or in your hand for that matter. These lovely cookies are the perfect opportunity and so much fun to look at.
Not perfect, but so much fun.
This one is so much fun and I don’t need to write down the full recipe. *yeah* Gingerbread houses seem to be a must over here. We have them too back home but over here it’s a bit more crazy. Everything seems to be a bit bigger or crazy over here. The other day I even saw an already full assembled gingerbread house. You only need to put on the candy. But how much fun is that? Isn’t it much cooler to make the dough and cut the shapes and put it together to finally decorate it? If you would like to do so with your kids (or by yourself) then keep reading.
Gingerbread angle, any shape as long as it’s fresh.
This recipe concludes, for now, the Christmas Cookie bake off. In total I made 10 recipes and I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did when making them. I think there will be one or two more cookie recipes later on but this is a good base for your Christmas. So, with further ado I present the German Gingerbread recipe.
Now you might say “Gingerbread is Gingerbread, where is the difference?” Well, the other day I got gingerbread man cookies in a cookie exchange and they were good but different. (Thanks Melissa for making them for us.) The ones I got were flatter than I am used to and more crunchy. I haven’t really compared recipes with the maker of said gingerbread men so I can not give any details about that difference. Check out my recipe and be the judge.
Not yet decorated but already good.
We call those cookies “Plätzchen” in Germany, which is basically cookie in English. If you hear “Plätzchen” then you immediately know that it refers to white simple cookies, cut in various Christmas themed shapes and decorated with icing. It is a simple dough, easy to make and a lot of fun for the kids. So if you are looking for something to do with the kids, this is definitely one of the good choices.
A not so cute looking cookie, but good nevertheless.
I seriously had to check which cookies I haven’t out up yet. Yes, after a while I start loose track of the recipe list. But alas, I have a handwritten list. *go me* So this time I’ll present you with some hazelnut cookies. Another one of those “but your arm strength in it, baby” recipes. Some kneading will be required of you.
The best way I can translate them is “Little Rascals”. I just had to read up on the history of this Christmas cookies. It is from Switzerland but also know to Austria (under a different name) and obviously Germany. That’s the lovely thing about Europe, you travel and see something so you recreate it at home. Or you are a baker/confectioner and you travel to get some experience under you belt and learn different cultural baked goods. (Of course you also have local differences in North American but in Europa it’s amplified.)
Cranberry cookies, a twist on the raisin cookies.
This is yet another classic cookie from my mom’s Christmas baking. It seems all are, well, maybe not. This one I had to tweak a bit because…drum roll…I don’t like raisins. *gasp* There! I said it! A lot of people don’t understand that but I can’t help it. I like grapes, I do. But dry them and I run away, screaming. So what does a girl do? She substitutes, which is fairly easy in North America because you have dried cranberries. So, instead of raisin cookies you actually see cranberry cookies. The basic recipe though is with raisin.
Baking in Saskatoon 