When the hair stands on end on New Year's Eve from economic news and forecasts of a fall in the ruble, the only thing that remains is to start making gifts with your own hands. And if knitting sweaters and felting felt beads all the same takes a lot of time, then holiday cookies can be done in one evening. Moreover, flour, butter and eggs still remain on supermarket shelves.

Storage period

All sweets from this material can be baked in advance. Brownies and coconut balls have the shortest shelf life - after a week they dry out and are not at all as good as immediately after baking. Butter cookies can be safely stored for a couple of weeks, but cream fudge and gingerbread in general, they can lie in the closet or in the refrigerator forever. Unless, of course, someone eats them.

Inventory

If you decide to swipe for a large batch of cookies to give all your friends at once, you can't do without a planetary mixer like Kitchen Aid: it drastically speeds up the work time, because it leaves both your hands free while the dough is mixed and the icing is whipped. However, at home, using ordinary spoons, forks and a whisk, it is quite possible to make cookies. Stock up the right amount baking parchment, cling film and containers with lids (it is convenient to store ready-made cookies in them).

You will need a pastry bag to decorate gingerbread and other sweets. Disposable is the easiest to use - they are sold in large supermarkets in packs of ten or more. For himself simple decor No special tips are needed: the millimeter-thick end of the bag can be simply cut off. If you decide to get seriously confused and add colored dyes to the glaze, and to the dough - natural flavors like mint or lemon oil, then it is better to order these ingredients in advance on sites selling confectionery equipment and ingredients. Delivery in Moscow will take 3-5 days.

Victoria Boyarskaya

Recipe Development Chef
at the Delicatessen restaurant.

A journalist by education. She worked as a radio correspondent, news editor, and then, quite unexpectedly for herself, turned out to be the editor of the magazine “First. Second. Third, ”and began writing about food. As an editor and food writer, she traveled extensively and learned to cook from chefs in the most different countries the world.

Three years ago she decided to leave journalism and "finally get down to business." As a result, she was one of the first students of the chef Ivan Shishkin and ended up in the Delicatessen kitchen. She participated in the launch and worked in the kitchen of the "Gifts of Nature" and "Sandbro" projects.

In 2014, together with Ivan Shishkin, she wrote the book “Edible Inedible. The Big Book of Giblets "published by the Eksmo Publishing House.

Butter Cookies with Orange Jam

Preparation

Grind the oil with white powder, add zest, egg and honey. You can add a few drops of citrus oil. Mix thoroughly with a spatula in a mixer or by hand with a fork.

Mix flour with baking powder and saltgradually add to the oil mass. Knead the dough well using a spatula or fork, trying to touch it as little as possible with your hands.

Roll into a ball wrap in plastic and put in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Ready dough roll very thinly (three to four millimeters) on a table sprinkled with flour, and cut out the circles with a glass. Cut a hole in half of the circles with a glass or cookie cutter.

Preheat the oven up to 160 ° C. Bake the cookies until golden brown (about ten minutes). Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

Glue full mugs with mugs with a slot using jam. Cookies can be garnished with melted white chocolate or icing as for gingerbread.

Ingredients for 35 pieces

Butter - 250 g

Granulated sugar - 100 g

Zest one orange

Egg - 1 PC.

Liquid honey - 1 tbsp. l.

Flour - 410 g

Baking powder - 8 g

Salt - pinch

Orange or any other thick jam - 100-150 g

Optional - 2-3 drops of lemon
or orange oil to flavor the dough

Chocolate brownies with chili and cinnamon

Preparation

Cut butter into cubes, break the chocolate into pieces and put together in a deep microwave-safe bowl. Melt the chocolate with butter in defrosting mode. It is important not to overheat the mixture so that the chocolate does not curdle. When the butter is completely melted, you can remove the bowl from the microwave and stir the contents.

Allow the chocolate-butter mass to cool... Add eggs, vanilla extract and sugar. Mix thoroughly until smooth.

Mix flour and salt separately, baking powder, cinnamon and ground nuts. Add to chocolate mass, knead the dough with a spatula. Gradually add the chili sauce, stirring thoroughly and taste for spiciness. For moderately spicy taste ready-made brownie needs ten spoons of the classic "Sriracha".

Put the dough on a baking sheet, covered with parchment, smooth with a spatula. Bake at 170 ° C for 20-25 minutes, until the surface is matt. Remove from oven and let cool completely. Do not touch the brownie until it is completely cooled, otherwise the surface will be covered with cracks.

Cut into squares. A quality brownie should be soft and viscous on the inside, but not smudged and keep its shape. For decoration, you can cut out stencils from paper, put them on cakes and sprinkle with powdered sugar on top.

Ingredients for 30 pieces

Butter - 375 g

Dark chocolate (70% cocoa) - 375 g

Eggs - 6 pcs.

Vanilla extract - 1 tbsp. l.

Sugar - 500 g

Flour - 225 g

Salt - 1 tbsp. l.

Baking powder - 1 tsp

Ground nuts (almonds, pistachios) - 150 g

Ground cinnamon - 1 tbsp. l.

"Sriracha" or other hot chili sauce - 810 Art. l.

Powdered sugar
for decoration (50-100 g)

Gingerbread

Preparation

Combine flour for the dough, all spices and salt. Mix. In a saucepan, combine sugar, cream, honey and butter, melt over low heat. Let the syrup cool and mix with the egg.

Pour the syrup into the dry mixture and knead the dough with your hands. Roll out on a table generously sprinkled with flour. Ready gingerbread are hard and crispy, so it is better to roll out the dough as thin as possible, 23 millimeters. Cooked Cookies almost does not change in size after baking.

Cut the gingerbread cookies for cookies, put on a baking sheet.

Oven in an oven preheated to 160 ° C about ten minutes and let cool completely before decorating. This will make the gingerbread more crumbly. If you want to increase their strength, bake a little longer - about 15 minutes.

For the glaze, beat the egg white until crisp., add powder and mix with a fork or whisk. Dilute crumbly crumbs with lemon juice until slightly thicker than toothpaste. Transfer the finished frosting immediately into a pastry bag and store in the refrigerator. After decorating the gingerbread, the icing completely freezes in 23 minutes and is almost impossible to damage.

Ingredients for 30 pieces

For gingerbread:

Flour - 250 g

Ground cinnamon - 2 tsp

Ground cloves - 1/4 tsp

Grated nutmeg - 1/4 tsp

Ground ginger - 1 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Sugar - 60 g

Cream or milk - 10 g

Honey - 50 g

Butter - 50 g

Egg - 1 pc, shake in a glass with a fork

For glaze:

Egg white - 1 PC.

Powdered sugar - 200 g

Lemon juice - 2-3 tbsp. l.

Creamy fudge with green tea

Preparation

Sheet green tea brew 60 milliliters hot water and let it brew.

Mix powdered milk and condensed, add matcha tea and knead thoroughly with a spatula.

Put on low heat. Add to butter (soft), strained strong green tea and continue stirring over low heat for about 25 minutes, until the mass thickens and begins to peel off the walls. There is no need to try to speed up the process by adding fire, otherwise the fudge will burn to the bottom of the pan. If this does happen, carefully remove upper layer and remove the burnt crust. Transfer the remaining fondant to a clean saucepan and continue heating over low heat.

Remove the brewed fondant from the heat, let cool, continuing to stir for another five minutes. Place on a silicone mat.

When the mass has cooled to a comfortable temperature to touch it with your hands, lubricate your hands with vegetable or coconut oil and knead the mass for a while, like a dough.

Roll out into a thin layer on a silicone mat and cut out the figures with a mold. The remaining fondant can be collected into a lump and rolled again.

While the figures are warm they can be decorated with any confectionery decorations, sprinkle with chopped nuts or coconut. For the fudge to finally harden, you can put it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.

Ingredients for 30 pieces

Condensed milk with sugar -
1 can (380 g)

Powdered milk - 225 g

Butter - 115 g

Matcha green tea - 2 tbsp. l.

Leafy green tea - 1 tsp

Confectionery decorations - optional

Coconut snowballs with white chocolate

Preparation

Beat the egg whites to soft peaks. Pour citric acid, half the powdered sugar and continue whisking, gradually adding the remaining powder. Achieve solid peaks.

Add almonds little by little, salt, coconut flakes and add cream, stirring the mass with a spatula. Let stand for about half an hour so that the shavings absorb moisture.

Lubricate hands with vegetable or coconut oil. Put one teaspoon of coconut mass on the palm, flatten, put a piece of chocolate on top, cover with another spoonful of the mass and form a ball with your hands. In this way, form cakes from the entire coconut mass.

Bake at 170 ° C 15–20 minutes.

Ingredients for 30 pieces

Egg white - from two eggs

Lemon acid - 1/4 tsp

Powdered sugar - 100 g

Ground almonds - 30 g

Salt - 1 pinch

Coconut cream - 2 tbsp. l. (it is better not to shake the jar and take the thickest part of the "cream")

Coconut flakes - 200 g

White chocolate - 50 gbroken very small pieces (half a centimeter)

Photos: Mark Boyarsky

Christmas cookies Are special baked goods, like. She bakes with trepidation, in anticipation of a big holiday.
Gingerbread Christmas cookies are not difficult at all to make. It may take patience to decorate it with glaze. Although for creative people this activity will seem an exciting process.
Recipe gingerbread men I translated from an American culinary show. But I decided not to dwell on these figures and came up with various other forms for cookies.

For ease of preparation, you need to have parchment paper, cookie cutters, food colorings and more free space.

Products for the test:

- 400 g of wheat flour;
- 120 g butter;
- 100 g of sugar;
- 1 egg;
- 1 tsp soda;
- 2 tsp ginger;
- 1 tsp cinnamon;
- ¼ h. L. nutmeg;
- ¼ h. L. ground cloves.

To make the glaze you need:

- 1 squirrel;
- food colorings;
- 250 g icing sugar.

Recipe with photo step by step:

1. To knead the dough, you need to grind the soft butter and sugar, then add the whole egg and mix.




2. Flour is mixed with spices. Can be used both dry and fresh ginger... And a coffee grinder will perfectly grind cloves.




3. Products are combined and kneaded shortcrust pastry... At first, it will disintegrate into crumbs. But after adding two tablespoons of honey, you will be able to knead a soft, viscous dough.
The original (American) Christmas cookie recipe includes 160 ml (unsulphured molasses) molasses, molasses. In the United States, molasses is used as a syrup and sweetener. After adding syrup to the dough, it changes color and acquires a characteristic smell.




In the absence of such a product, I used 2 tablespoons of honey. You can try adding more honey, but I really liked the resulting dough, so I did not risk it.






4. The finished dough is divided into two parts, wrapped in foil and placed in the refrigerator for half an hour.




5. The chilled dough is rolled out not very thinly on parchment paper. From the roll, you need to cut off such a piece so that it fits on a baking sheet. The shapes of Christmas cookies can be very different, from men to mittens.




You can buy cookie cutters or cut with a knife using a stencil, or just invent on the go.




6. The photo of Christmas cookies shows how many different figures you can think of: Christmas trees and glasses, stars and angels, candies and snowflakes. If you plan to decorate a Christmas tree with cookies, make holes for the strings in it. After baking, the dough will harden and the cookies will remain firm.
7. After cutting out the blanks, put the excess dough aside, and put a sheet of parchment on a baking sheet or tray. It is placed in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. After the cookies are placed in the oven for 7-12 minutes at a temperature of 180 degrees, preferably with convection. Then the cookies will be smooth, ruddy and monotonous. Depending on the size, 15-20 pieces are obtained.
Do not forget that there is also cooking at Christmas, which symbolizes generosity and abundance.

Glaze preparation






Sifted first icing sugar... This is necessary in order for the glaze to be uniform, without a lump of sticking powder.




Then the protein is mixed with powdered sugar, adding it gradually. It turns out a beautiful smooth mass, quite thick. It is applied in cream injector or a bag.



With this icing, the cookies are contoured. Since it is thick, the outline will quickly harden and prevent the liquid colored glaze from spreading.




Such glaze can be used to make beautiful jewelry on .




To do colored glaze put a couple of tablespoons of the prepared mass in a separate cup, add food coloring and a little water. The glaze is thinner. It is convenient for her to fill in the outlined cookies.
To achieve the desired color, stir the dye well and add it carefully as needed.




When the contour dries well, start pouring. Arrange the cookies on trays or paper to avoid staining the tables. Spoon the frosting over. I use a toothpick to fill in all the corners with icing.




After pouring, the cookies are left to dry for 2-3 hours. Just during this time, you can cook delicious.




During this time, the glaze hardens and the color becomes brighter.




You can also apply the third layer of the picture. For example, put colored peas on Christmas trees, like toys or draw snowflakes, the main thing is not to overdo it.












That's all, I hope this photo Christmas cookie recipe will help you give your loved ones even more warmth and joy during these holidays.

At home you can cook traditional biscuits by Christmas, if you know the important culinary nuances... They are in addition to the test spicy spices, aromatic spices and the formation of interesting figures. Children will love decorating the Christmas tree with such cookies, giving them to loved ones, and then eating with milk or tea.

How to make Christmas cookies

It is useful for any chef to find out how to start making Christmas cookies with your own hands. The first step will be the selection of components - wheat flour top grade, fresh chicken eggs, butter and sugar. You can knead shortbread or gingerbread, be sure to add a lot of spices. Popular recipes include cinnamon, nutmeg, star anise or vanilla. Due to this, the products do not stale for a long time, they just decorate the house and give them to friends.

Forms

A special place in the manufacture of delicacies is occupied by Christmas cookie cutters. It is worth picking up thematic ideas - men, stars, bears or Christmas trees will do. For traditional dishes national cuisines relevant different shapes:

• mugs in Danish and Italian;
• plezchen - asterisks in German;
• gingerbread houses in English and American;
• almond-shaped in Greek.

Christmas cookie recipe

Baking fragrant holiday cookies for Christmas is easy if you find suitable way cooking. It is better if it is a recipe with a photo of each stage, so as not to violate the technology and not get ugly products. You can do miscellaneous cookies - based on recipes of foreign cuisines, lean without eggs, with glaze, with chocolate or traditional ginger.

With glaze

• Servings Per Container: 20 Persons.
• Calorie content: 358 kcal.
• Purpose: for dessert.
• Cuisine: Czech.
• Difficulty: Medium.

How to cook a liver for Christmas with frosting, teach tips from the following recipe. Czech sugar biscuits has a rich vanilla aroma and taste, decorated with a protein glaze, which can be painted different drawings... The Italian is a little similar, but it has differences in the added spices - ginger, cardamom and star anise are added there.

Ingredients:

• flour - 2 cups;
• salt - 5 g;
• soda - 10 g;
• butter - 220 g;
• sugar - a glass;
• eggs - 2 pcs.;
• vanilla extract - 20 ml;
• egg whites - 2 pcs.;
• lemon juice - 20 ml;
• powdered sugar - 1.5 cups.

Cooking method:

1. Beat the butter-sugar mixture until light fluffy mass, beat in eggs, vanilla. Knead the dough with flour, salt and soda. Refrigerate for an hour.
2. Roll out, cut out the figures, put on a baking sheet, covered baking paper... Chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes, bake for 10 minutes at 180 degrees.
3. After cooling, decorate with glaze, for which you need to beat the whites with lemon juice, add the powder and stir until smooth. It can be tinted with food coloring.

From Julia Vysotskaya

• Cooking time: 1.5 hours.
• Servings Per Container: 10 Persons.
• Calorie content: 349 kcal.
• Purpose: for dessert.
• Cuisine: author's.
• Difficulty: Medium.

Cookies for Christmas, prepared according to the instructions from the famous Julia Vysotskaya, have an original taste. She advises baking a ginger dish to add a tangy flavor to the holiday. Healthy delicacy you can decorate to taste - make icing, dip in melted chocolate, apply confectionery sprinkles, nuts or coconut on top.

Ingredients:

• flour - a glass;
• soda - 1.5 tsp;
• eggs - 1 pc.;
• ground ginger - 20 g;
• cinnamon - 10 g;
• cardamom - 10 g;
• cloves - 5 g;
• butter - 100 g;
• brown sugar - half a cup;
• honey - 30 ml.

Cooking method:

1. Grind spices in a coffee grinder, sift flour. Mix with crushed butter and sugar, add an egg, liquid honey. Knead the dough, refrigerate for an hour.
2. Roll out thinly, cut out the figures, put on a baking sheet.
3. Bake at 180 degrees for 7 minutes.
4. Decorate to taste.

Chocolate

• Cooking time: 4.5 hours.
• Servings Per Container: 20 Persons.
• Calorie content of the dish: 320 kcal.
• Purpose: for dessert.
• Cuisine: Italian.
• Difficulty: Medium.

How to bake Christmas cookies with chocolate teaches traditional recipe italian cuisine... Fragrant delicate crumbly cookies will appeal to children and adults. It will be easy to bake them at home, because you can use familiar ingredients and products. Special taste the products are imparted with natural milk or bitter chocolate with cocoa powder.

Ingredients:

• flour - 2.5 cups;
• cocoa - a quarter cup;
• baking powder - 5 g;
• salt - 5 g;
• ground cinnamon - 5 g;
• soda - ¼ tsp;
• butter - 250 g;
• chocolate - 90 g;
• sugar - 1.5 cups;
• eggs - 1 pc.;
• vanilla extract - 5 ml.

Cooking method:

1. Beat soft butter, add sugar, continue beating until creamy. Add egg, add soft chocolate with vanilla. Stir in flour with cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon.
2. Knead the dough, leave in the refrigerator for 4 hours.
3. Roll out, cut out the figures, bake at 180 degrees for 10 minutes.
4. Decorate with pastry sprinkles.

French

• Cooking time: 3.5 hours.
• Servings Per Container: 10 Persons.
• Calorie content: 352 kcal.
• Purpose: for dessert.
• Cuisine: French.
• Difficulty: Medium.

French Christmas cookies differ from other types in that they are kneaded for them gingerbread dough from a large number spices and seasonings. Cloves, cinnamon, ginger, white pepper and nutmeg... A delicacy saturated with flavors will be appreciated by all guests, because such a product is nice to receive a gingerbread as a gift or hang on a Christmas tree as a decoration.

Ingredients:

• flour - 1.5 cups;
• cane sugar - 1.5 cups;
• butter - 200 g;
• eggs - 1 pc.;
• baking powder - 10 g;
• ground cinnamon - 10 g;
• ground ginger - 0.5 g;
• cloves - 5 g;
• white pepper - a pinch;
• salt - a pinch;
• water - 20 ml;
• powdered sugar - half a glass.

Cooking method:

1. Combine flour with baking powder, salt, sift. Add butter, sugar, egg, spices. Knead the dough, make a ball by wrapping cling film, remove for 3 hours in the cold.
2. Roll out, cut out the figures, put on a baking sheet and parchment.
3. Bake for 12 minutes at 18 degrees. Decorate with icing from a mixture of powdered sugar and water.

Simple recipe

• Cooking time: 2.5 hours.
• Servings Per Container: 15 Persons.
• Calorie content: 342 kcal.
• Purpose: for dessert.
• Cuisine: author's.
• Difficulty: Medium.

The instructions below will teach you how to make a simple cookie for Christmas. It will turn out delicious honey delicacy, which will delight a child and an adult, if you decorate it with thematic drawings. Classic delicious cookies well suited for breakfast on Christmas morning, combined with a hot fragrant tea, warm milk or warming cocoa.

Ingredients:

• flour - 3 cups;
• butter - 200 g;
• sugar - a glass;
• eggs - 3 pcs.;
• honey - 4 tablespoons;
• cinnamon - 20 g;
• cloves - 20 g;
• dry ginger - 10 g;
• baking powder - 1 tsp

Cooking method:

1. Melt honey, add spices, steam for 5 minutes. Add soft butter, beat eggs with sugar, mix both masses. Combine with flour and baking powder. Wrap the dough with foil, remove for 2 hours in the cold.
2. Roll out to a half-centimeter thickness, cut out figures with molds, bake at 180 degrees for 11 minutes.

Cinnamon

• Cooking time: half an hour.
• Servings Per Container: 16 Persons.
• Calorie content: 351 kcal.
• Purpose: for dessert.
• Cuisine: author's.
• Difficulty: Medium.

The cinnamon Christmas cookies prepared according to this recipe will resemble traditional Greek ones, only they will differ in more familiar products used. In addition to cinnamon, spices are added by almond crumbs, which give an amazing aroma and make you want to try baked goods. You can decorate the surface with icing powder and water.

Ingredients:

• flour - a glass;
• butter - 80 g;
• sugar - ¼ glass;
• eggs - 1 pc.;
• almonds - 40 g;
• cinnamon - 10 g;
• baking powder - ½ tsp;
• water - 30 ml;
• icing sugar - 60 g.

Cooking method:

1. Grind butter with sugar until fluffy, add an egg, almonds, ground to powder, cinnamon. Add flour and baking powder. Knead the dough, roll out.
2. Cut the figurines, fold on a greased baking sheet, bake for 9 minutes at 180 degrees.
3. Decorate with icing powder and water.

With ginger

• Cooking time: half an hour.
• Servings Per Container: 20 Persons.
• Calorie content: 352 kcal.
• Purpose: for dessert.
• Cuisine: author's.
• Difficulty: Medium.

How to make Christmas gingerbread Cookie, will teach next recipeused by many housewives. Traditional delicacymade on it is different rich taste, aromatic and appetizing due to the addition a large number spices. The brownish-golden crust makes you want to discover what is hidden inside and feel the flavor of cinnamon, vanilla and spices.

Ingredients:

• butter - 100 g;
• flour - 2 cups;
• sugar - ¾ glass;
• eggs - 1 pc.;
• ground ginger - 20 g;
• baking powder - 1.5 tsp;
• nutmeg - 10 g;
• cinnamon - 10 g;
• cardamom - 5 g;
• vanillin - 3 g.

Cooking method:

1. Soft butter grind with sugar, beat in an egg, add baking powder with spices. Beat until sugar dissolves and a white airy mass is obtained.
2. Sift the flour, make a depression, pour in the mixture, knead the dough, roll it out.
3. Cut out the figurines, put on oiled parchment, on a baking sheet.
4. Bake for 13 minutes at 180 degrees.

Cook and many more you will find in step by step photos and video tutorials.

Spicy

• Cooking time: half an hour.
• Servings Per Container: 20 Persons.
• Calorie content: 349 kcal.
• Purpose: for dessert.
• Cuisine: Danish.
• Difficulty: Medium.

Delicious Danish spice cookies are easy to make at home on your own, because they are used for traditional products... It turns out to be very spicy and aromatic, because the dough is kneaded with the addition of cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and ginger. Its difference from other types of baked goods - simple balls, so molds are not useful here. Nice to have items for breakfast or snack.

Ingredients:

• flour - 250 g;
• butter - 100 g;
• sugar - half a glass;
• eggs - 1 pc.;
• salt - a pinch;
• cinnamon - 1 tsp;
• cardamom - 5 g;
• cloves - 2.5 g;
• ginger - 5 g.

Cooking method:

1. Beat the egg-sugar mixture for a minute, add the egg, add spices, sift the flour.
2. Knead elastic dough, form flattened balls, put on a baking sheet covered with paper, bake for 11 minutes at 180 degrees.

German Christmas cookies Lebkuchen

• Cooking time: half an hour.
• Servings Per Container: 15 Persons.
• Calorie content: 332 kcal.
• Purpose: for dessert.
• Cuisine: German.
• Difficulty: Medium.

How to make beautiful German Christmas cookies is useful for many chefs. Germany is famous for its Christmas desserts, so traditional products lebkuchen reflect the spirit of the holiday. In Germany, the secret of cooking lies in the use of almonds and cocoa, while spices such as ginger, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg add a captivating aroma. Hearty pastries is also due to such a decoration idea as walnuts in Apple pie order.

Ingredients:

• butter - 85 g;
• almonds - 75 g;
• eggs - 1 pc.;
• flour - 250 g;
• cocoa - 15 g;
• baking powder - 4 g;
• ginger - 5 g;
• cloves - a pinch;
• cinnamon - a pinch;
• nutmeg - on the tip of a knife;
• lemon - 1 pc.;
• dark chocolate - 200 g;
• walnuts - half a glass;
• honey - glass.

Cooking method:

1. Melt the butter, add honey, add flour, cocoa, spices, lemon zest, baking powder.
2. Cover the dough with foil, cool for 10 minutes, form into balls.
3. Place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and bake for 10 minutes.
4. Decorate with melted chocolate and nuts.

English

• Cooking time: half an hour.
• Servings Per Container: 15 Persons.
• Calorie content: 358 kcal.
• Purpose: for dessert.
• Cuisine: English.
• Difficulty: Medium.

Not everyone knows how to make Christmas cookies in England. This recipe will help to find out in all the details. The classic English treat is prepared like a simple ginger, but paired with cinnamon and cloves. Due to this, products are acquired spicy scent, crispy color and looks appetizing in a gift or on a Christmas tree. You can decorate them to taste - draw patterns with glaze, sprinkle with nuts.

Ingredients:

• flour - 250 g;
• ginger - 20 g;
• cinnamon - 1 tablespoon;
• cloves - 10 g;
• liquid honey - 40 ml;
• brown sugar - 250 g;
• butter - 200 g;
• eggs - 2 pcs.;
• baking powder - 10 g.

Cooking method:

1. Combine eggs, butter, honey, sugar, beat. Knead the dough with flour mixed with spices, baking powder.
2. Roll out the layer, cut out the cookies, put on a baking sheet covered with parchments.
3. Bake at 180 degrees for 12 minutes.

Traditional Christmas desserts - cooking secrets

Great ideas for Christmas come from culinary professionals. Here's what they advise on how to decorate and how to pack. delicious products:

1. The gingerbread dough Christmas house looks very attractive. To create it, you need to bake all the details from the usual composition of products, cool and assemble using "glue" from caramel or glaze. You can buy a whole set to create a gingerbread masterpiece.
2. Bake christmas cookies it is necessary in a preheated oven so that it does not go down and does not become stale. You can decorate it with mastic, confectionery sprinkles, edible confetti and chocolate icing.
3. If desired in classic dough add candied fruits, dried fruits and aromatic alcohol... The latter should be just a drop, because children eat the delicacy. You can use orange or almond liqueur, rum, cognac, or brandy.
4. Baking packaging can be anything from a transparent film to a beautifully designed container.

Video

11 recipes for icing sugar for decorating Christmas cookies Vanilla icing Ingredients: - icing sugar - 0.5 tbsp - milk - 1 tsp. - salt - a pinch - butter - 1 tsp - vanillin - 1 pack. Preparation: Melt the butter and add the rest of the ingredients. Stir until creamy. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add milk and salt to it, dissolve the powdered sugar. Mix everything until the consistency of sour cream or cream. Put vanillin in the finished glaze. If the mass turns out to be too thick, milk can be added to it, if it is liquid - powdered sugar. Custard glaze Ingredients: - sugar - 1 tbsp. - egg whites - 4 pcs. Preparation: Organize water bath... Pour the proteins into a bowl, add sugar to them and beat in a water bath for five minutes. After that, we listen to the glaze from the fire and continue to beat for another five to seven minutes. Caramel glaze Ingredients: - brown sugar - 0.5 tbsp. - icing sugar - 1 tbsp. - butter - 2 tbsp. l. - milk - 3 tbsp. l. - vanillin - 1 pack. Preparation: Melt the butter in a saucepan (saucepan), pour the milk into it and dissolve the brown sugar. Let it boil and boil for one minute. Remove the sugar and butter mixture from the heat and add half a glass of powdered sugar. Whisk well, cool, add vanilla and the remaining powder. Beat again until the finished glaze is obtained. Lemon glaze Ingredients: - icing sugar - 3 tbsp. - butter - 100 g. - lemon juice - 2 tbsp. Preparation: Mix the butter, freshly squeezed lemon juice and powdered sugar and beat thoroughly until fluffy. Add a little more juice or powder if necessary. Orange glaze Ingredients: - icing sugar - 0.8 tbsp. - orange juice - 3-4 tablespoons Preparation: Pour freshly squeezed juice into a saucepan and gradually add powdered sugar to it, and not vice versa. Mix the powder with orange juiceadding it to the desired consistency... The orange frosting should be a little runny so it can easily spread over the baked goods. Creamy glaze Ingredients: - icing sugar - 2 tbsp. - heavy cream - 0.5 tbsp. - butter - 1 tablespoon - vanillin Preparation: Pour the cream into a saucepan, put the butter there and heat everything over medium heat until the butter melts. Then pour the icing sugar into the hot cream, add the vanillin and beat everything with a mixer. Beat until the glaze is completely cooled and a thick and uniform consistency Professional colored glaze Ingredients: - icing sugar - 1 tbsp. - milk - 2 tsp. - sugar syrup - 2 tsp - almond extract - 0.4 tsp - food colors Preparation: Mix the powdered sugar with milk until it becomes a soft paste. Then add sugar syrup (corn or invert) and flavoring to it and start whisking until the glaze is shiny and smooth. Put the icing on the cups and add the desired dye to each cup. The more dye we put, the richer and brighter the color will turn out. To glaze a cookie, dip it in colored glaze or spread it with a brush. For drawing, put the icing in a pastry syringe and apply colored drawings to the cake or cookies. Gingerbread Glaze Ingredients: - granulated sugar - 1 tbsp. - water - 0.5 tbsp. Preparation: Pour water into a saucepan, dissolve sugar in it, bring to a boil and boil, removing the foam, until large transparent bubbles appear (they appear at a syrup temperature of about 110 degrees). Cool the glaze and add the flavors (vanilla, almond, rum). We cool it until it is still quite hot: the finger suffers, but it is very hot. Let's start glazing. On large gingerbread cookies and gingerbreads, apply the glaze with a brush. We simply immerse the small gingerbread cookies in the syrup, mix and carefully remove with a slotted spoon. We spread the gingerbreads on a wire rack so that the excess syrup flows, and the remaining one solidifies, turning into a gingerbread icing. Coffee glaze Ingredients: - icing sugar - 2 tbsp. - strong coffee - 3 tbsp. - butter - 1 tablespoon Preparation: We brew strong coffee. To heighten the effect, you should take not soluble, but freshly ground. Cool the coffee. Let the oil melt a little so that it becomes soft. Mix butter with icing sugar and coffee until smooth. Chocolate glaze Ingredients: - icing sugar - 2 tbsp. - milk - 4 tbsp. l. - cocoa powder - 2 tbsp. l. - butter - 1 tbsp. l. - vanillin - 1 pack. Preparation: Add powdered sugar, cocoa and vanillin to soft butter. Grind well and gradually add milk, stirring until smooth. Yolk glaze Ingredients: - icing sugar - 0.5 tbsp. - sugar - 0.5 tbsp. - egg yolks - 2 pcs. - water - 2 tbsp. l. Preparation: Pour the yolks into a saucepan, pour the icing sugar there and beat until foam appears. Mix sugar and water in another saucepan and cook the syrup (cook until sample per thread). Cool the finished syrup to a warm state and gradually add whipped yolks into it. The finished glaze cannot be stored. It cures very quickly and must therefore be used immediately.

Christmas cookies, gingerbread houses, funny gingerbread men ... Such items can be seen on sale on the eve new year holidays... However, they are very easy to bake yourself. Read this article and learn how to cook them.
Recipe content:

Christmas is a beautiful, soulful and family Christian holiday. One of the essential attributes is a festive tree, divine service and a feast, to which they began to serve Christmas cookies. This pastry is delicious for both adults and children. In addition, it serves as an original toy for a New Year tree and a great gift for relatives. And the simplicity of preparation, excellent taste and abundance delicious fillings the manufacturing process is a sheer pleasure.

It should be said that there is no single recipe for Christmas cookies. Each housewife will always add something of her own, but in almost any recipe, cinnamon, vanilla, ginger, nutmeg, honey, nuts or chocolate appear among the products. Try the recipes below for baking Christmas cookies. They turn out to be tender, light and great in taste.

How to make Christmas cookies - subtleties and nuances

On New Year's Eve, it is cozy and homelike to make gifts with the whole family with their own hands. Felting felt beads and knitting a sweater takes a lot of time, but you can make holiday cookies in one evening. In addition, flour, butter and eggs are always available in every refrigerator.

• Christmas cookies are fragrant, rich and original baked goods. Usually shortbread dough is taken as its basis.
• The peculiarity of cookies is the addition of all kinds of additives, spices and seasonings: ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom, star anise and even black pepper. Raisins, honey, nuts are added to improve the taste.
• The dough is rolled out into thin sheets on which various figures are cut out with molds. Balls are also formed from the dough.
• Cookies are placed on a baking sheet and baked in a preheated oven to 180 degrees for the specified time in the recipe.
• After cooling, the cookies are decorated with chocolate or sugar icing. They also use powdered sugar, jam, fondant and confetti for decoration.
• The difference between Christmas cookies is their design. To do this, use food colors, melted chocolate or icing sugar... They fill the surface of the product completely or apply various patterns using a confectionery syringe.
• Decorate chilled cookies only. Glaze and chocolate will not stick to hot workpieces, but will begin to melt.
• Sometimes the blanks are glued together with sugar glaze.
• Such sweets can be baked in advance. Brownies and coconut balls have the shortest shelf life, they dry a week after baking. Butter biscuits can last for two weeks, fudge and gingerbread can be stored in a cupboard or refrigerator.
• If you want to use Christmas cookies as Christmas decorations, then pick up a beautiful ribbon or braid. Spicy fragrant biscuits does not get stale.

Christmas cookies - edible christmas decorations, which has been hanging on the tree for several days, gains magical power. Prepare such amazing decorations with my own hands and decorate the tree with unique toys.

• Caloric content per 100 g - 417 kcal.
• Servings - 20-25 pcs.
• Cooking time - 40 minutes

Ingredients:

• Flour - 600 g
• Sugar - 180 g
• Butter - 200 g
• Dry ginger - 1 tsp
• Ground cloves - 2 tsp
• Ground cinnamon - 2 tsp
• Honey - 4 tablespoons
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Eggs - 3 pcs. in dough, 2 for icing
• Corn starch - 1 tbsp.
• Lemon juice - 1 tsp
• Powdered sugar - 200 g

Step by step cooking:

1. Grate the frozen butter on coarse grater... Add eggs and flour to it. Add baking powder, sugar, honey and spices (ginger, cloves, cinnamon) there.
2. Knead the dough so that it falls away from the hands and the sides of the dishes, and send it to the refrigerator in a wrapped plastic bag.
3. After half an hour, roll out the dough in a layer of 3 mm and use the molds to cut out the figures. Make a hole on top of each figurine so that the cookies can be strung onto the ribbon.
4. Arrange the figures on parchment and bake in a hot oven at 180 degrees for 10 minutes until golden brown.
5. Cool the finished cookies.
6. Sift the icing sugar and starch.
7. Whisk the whites until soft foam.
8. Add lemon juice to powdered sugar and gradually introduce this mass into proteins, whisking all the time.
9. Beat the frosting on high speed until thickened.
10. With help pastry bag or use a paintbrush to paint patterns on the cookies.
11. Dry the cookies in the oven at 100 degrees for 10 minutes and store them in a container with a lid for a month.

The original recipe is gingerbread. But after going through a series of experiments, gingerbread cookies appeared in the confectionery business. By adding ginger and a lot of spices, the product is spicy and aromatic.

Ingredients:

• Flour - 3 tbsp.
• Ground cloves - 1/2 tsp
• Ground nutmeg - 1/2 tsp
• Ground ginger - 2 tsp
• Soda - 1 tsp
• Citric acid - 1 tsp
• Salt - a pinch
• Brown sugar - 1/2 tbsp
• White sugar - 2 tbsp.

Step by step cooking:

1. Combine flour, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
2. Whip butter with brown sugar to a fluffy consistency. Pour in the egg and molasses.
3. Pour loose ingredients into the butter mass and knead the dough until smooth.
4. Divide the finished dough into parts, flatten a small crust, cover with cling film and put in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
5. Roll out the dough with a cake layer 3 mm thick.
6. Cut out the Christmas men with special cutters, put them on a lined baking sheet parchment paper and send to preheat oven to 200 ° C for 10 minutes, for a crispy consistency 12 minutes. Turn the cookies over when baking.
7. Put the finished product on a wire rack to cool.
8. For the icing, whisk dry in a deep bowl. egg white, sugar and - a glass of water.
9. Finished glaze decorate baked goods.

A simple recipe for New Year's and Christmas cookies is especially interesting to bake and decorate with children, and then original christmas decorations decorate the Christmas tree.

Ingredients:

• Flour - 600 g
• Butter - 200 g
• Dry ginger - 1 tsp
• Ground cloves - 2 tsp
• Ground cinnamon - 2 tsp
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Sugar - 180 g
• Eggs - 3 pcs.
• Honey - 4 tablespoons

Step by step cooking:

1. Melt the honey in a water bath. Add ground spices (cinnamon, ginger, cloves). Steam for 5 minutes, stirring continuously.
2. Cool the honey mixture and add softened butter. Mix well.
3. Beat eggs with sugar.
4. IN honey mass add the egg and sugar mixture.
5. Pour the sifted flour with baking powder there. Knead the dough until elastic.
6. Wrap it with cling film and refrigerate for 2 hours.
7. Roll out the finished dough in a layer 3-5 mm thick and cut out the cookies in the form of a New Year's attribute.
8. Spread it out on a baking sheet and send it to hot oven at 180 ° C for 10-12 minutes until golden brown.
9. Cool the finished cookies.

Christmas cookies are a great way to get active with your kids. In addition shortbread this is one of my favorite items. The cooking process does not require extreme accuracy and takes little time.

Ingredients:

• Flour - 500 g
• Butter - 250 g
• Sugar - 200 g
• Eggs - 2 pcs.
• Vanillin - 10 g
• Baking powder - 10 g

Step by step cooking:

1. Remove the oil from the refrigerator in advance and cut into small pieces. Mix with sugar.
2. Add the eggs one at a time and add vanilla sugar... Stir the food.
3. Add baking powder.
4. Add the sifted flour and knead the dough.
5. Make a ball, wrap with cling film and refrigerate.
6. After 2 hours, roll out the dough 0.5 cm thick and make curly products with molds.
7. Bake the treat in a preheated oven to 160 degrees for 10-15 minutes.