Happy Christmas

So the day finally arrived.  We waited all year, patiently, and then all of a sudden it had been and almost gone.  I had grand plans for Christmas blog posts and beautiful crafts to adorn my home, not to mention delusions of daily baking like the domestic goddess I aspire to be.  Yet again time slipped away from me and the mundane tasks of every day life took precedence. 

I relish the build up to Christmas, the anticipation, the twinkle of fairy lights and the happy greetings freely exchanged between friends and strangers alike.  I revert to an excitable 3 year old as the season draws near.  Some people frown upon this behaviour from a grown woman, to others it is infectious and helps to inject some excitement and joy for what may lie in store. 

For each of us, bar a few lucky ones, Christmas is a bittersweet time.  Sadness at a an empty place setting at the table, standing alone beneath the mistletoe or any myriad of worries or stress casting a shadow over the day.  These things can be all consuming and appear magnified at such a joyous time.  It is for this reason that I decide each year to throw myself into the festivities with added gusto.  Every inch of the house is adorned in fairy lights of red and white, garlands and baubles hang from every available surface and as a special treat Frank and the gang serenade me daily.  To some this may appear excessive, but this is the one time of year that excess is accepted, encouraged even, so it would be rude to allow the season to pass by unmarked.

This year was no different.  Despite the economic doom and gloom and the inches of snow that attempted to thwart festive shopping I embraced the season in all of it's twinkly glory.  I had the most wonderful day spent with my husband and family.  My 3 year old niece put me under a teensey bit of pressure wandering into the kitchen at intervals of approximately 2 minutes to enquire as to whether her Christmas dinner was ready.  We sat down to a table laden with food, laughed, talked but mostly stuffed our faces.  What else is there to do on Christmas day?

Wherever you were and whoever you are with I hope that you had an equally wonderful day.  I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a (belated) happy Christmas.  Thank you for reading, following, commenting and baking with me in 2010.  I look forward to blogging my way through 2011 and I sincerely hope that you will join me.

Nollaig Shona Duit,
Le Grá
R x

Snowflake Cookies

My third offering for the Irish Foodies December Christmas themed cookalong(Jaysus, that's a bit of a mouth full) are these yummy Snowflake Cookies.  These cookies are deliciously buttery and sweet with a beautiful texture.  Don't just save them for Christmas time though, cut them into different shapes and enjoy them year round.

Snowflake Cookies
(makes 12+ depending on the shapes you cut)

225g/8oz Unsalted butter, softened
225g/8oz Caster Sugar
1 Large Egg, lightly beaten
1tsp Vanilla Extract
Pinch of Salt
450g/1lb Plain Flour

1.  Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric whisk until pale and fluffy.
2.  Add the egg, vanilla and a pinch of salt and mix again.
3.  Gradually sift in the flour and continue to mix until incorporated and the mixture is smooth.
4.  Form the dough into a round, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for a couple of hours until firm.
5.  Line 2 baking sheets with greaseproof paper and preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.
6.  Roll the dough out onto a floured work surface to a thickness of 5mm.  Dip cookie cutters into some flour and cut shapes out of the dough and place onto the lined baking sheets.
7.  Place into the preheated oven and bake for 10-12 minutes until golden and firm to the touch.
8.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
9.  Decorate with some white icing(175g/6oz icing sugar sifted into a bowl, add 1.5teaspoons of warm water and mix to a smooth paste.  Adjust the consistency with additional icing sugar or water if needed by adding a little at a time.  Spoon into an icing bag with a fine nozzle attached.) or leave plain if you wish.  

Gingerbread Place Settings

As I stood in my kitchen last Friday, whistling a merry tune and going to town on my gingerbread with a gazillion cookie cutters calling out to be used, an idea struck.  OK, so I don't have a gazillion cookie cutters, but I do have rather a lot.  My miniature alphabet ones were shouting the loudest, practically begging to be used so they were.  Edible place settings would be perfect for my Christmas table, I thought, and what would be better than a personalised gingerbread cookie for our guests to take home to enjoy.  Lilly Higgins made some beautiful Christmas card cookies for the Christmas edition of Easy Food magazine and so I took my inspiration from her. 

The recipe for the dough is the same one that used for my gingerbread cookies and you can find it here.  Follow the instructions as far as step 5 and I will give the rest of the details below.  Enjoy!

Depending on the size of your cookies the recipe should yield at least 12 place settings.

Once the dough has chilled remove it from the fridge and roll to a thickness of 5mm.

Cut rectangles using a sharp knife.  I cut mine 100mm x 60mm but you can cut them to size according to the length of names. 

Place on the lined baking sheets and bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before moving to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

While the cookies are baking roll out some fondant icing to a thickness of 2-3mm.  Using miniature alphabet cookie cutters cut out the letters required for the names of your guests.  Place the letters on greaseproof paper(don't make too far in advance as they will dry out and may crack as you position them on the cookies).  You can also cut out a miniature Christmas shape if you wish.  If you would like to use coloured fondant make a thumb print in the fondant and add a couple of drops of food colouring, knead until the icing is evenly coloured.  Refrigerate for a few minutes if you need to, it may warm up from being handled.  Don't worry if you don't have alphabet cookie cutters I will give another option below.

Mix up some icing (175g/6oz icing sugar sifted into a bowl, add 1.5teaspoons of warm water and mix to a smooth paste.  Adjust the consistency with additional icing sugar or water if needed by adding a little at a time).  Add a couple of drops of a food colouring of your choice or leave white if you wish.

Using a teaspoon, place some icing onto the cookies a teaspoon full at a time, and spread evenly until the top of the cookie is evenly covered.

Position the letters on each cookie to make up the names of all of your guests and add a Christmas shape at the end if you wish.

Alternatively allow the icing to dry and use icing writing pens(these can be purchased in packs in most supermarkets) and write your guests name freehand on each cookie. 

Allow the icing to dry completely to avoid smudging.  Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Gingerbread Cookies

When the Irish Foodies Christmas Cookalong was announced I knew instantly that I wanted to make gingerbread cookies.  There is something about the sight of a cute little gingerbread person that always brings a smile to my face.  I have a stash of cookie cutters cluttering up the kitchen so couldn't wait to get stuck in.  I was really pleased with the results, a deliciously moist cookie with just the right balance of Christmas spice.   Although you will have to excuse my icing skills, they are not quite what they should be.  Enjoy!

Gingerbread Cookies

(The amount of cookies you yield will depend on the size and shape of your cookie cutters, depending on size you should yield between 12 and 36.)

350g/12oz Plain Flour
1.5tsp Ground Ginger
0.5tsp Ground Cinnamon
1tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
100g/4oz Unsalted Butter, chilled
175g/6oz Dark Muscovado Sugar
1 Large Egg
2tbsp Black Treacle
30ml/1floz Milk

Icing and sweets of your choice to decorate.

1.  Sieve the flour, spices and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl.
2.  Grate the butter into the dry ingredients and rub in until the mixture has a breadcrumb consistency.  Add the sugar and stir in. (you may notice some dark spots in my cookies, my sugar had some lumps that I didn't take the time to break down as I was a bit up to my eyeballs in flour so take the time to break them down to avoid this happening.)
3.  Break the egg into a separate bowl and mix with the black treacle.  Add to the flour mixture and stir to form a smooth dough.
4.  Add the milk to help to bind the dough together, form into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and pop into the fridge for half an hour to chill.
5.  Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.  Line 2 baking sheets with grease proof paper.
6.  After half an hour remove the dough from the fridge.  Place on a floured work surface and roll out to a depth of 5mm.  Flour cookie cutters, cut out shapes and place onto the lined baking sheets.  If you are left with off cuts form them into a dough ball, roll out to 5mm and repeat the cutting process.
7.  Place the cookies into the middle of the preheated oven and bake for 12-15 minutes.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

8.  Decorate as you wish with icing and sweets of your choice or leave plain if you prefer.  The cookies will keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container.

*** If you do not have cookie cutters you can simply cut into squares or use an upturned glass or cup to make rounds.  To make the houses in the picture above simply cut the dough into rectangles and then cut two small triangles from the top to form the point of the roof. ***

Irish Foodies December Cookalong - Christmas

The theme for the Irish Foodies December cookalong was Christmas.  Well, what else could it be this festive month?  As the snow fell and covered the ground in a thick blanket last Friday I busied myself in the kitchen.  I will do separate posts over the next few days with recipes but for now here are pictures of my offerings.

Mince Pies using my homemade mince meat

Gingerbread Cookies

Gingerbread Place Settings

Snowflake Cookies