Christmas Baking

 

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There is a very strong  tradition of baking spiced biscuits at on St Nicholas' day (one of Santa's alter egos) & at Christmas - the Dutch Speculaas biscuits are a delicious example. Baking Christmas gifts sounds like it might be a great big hassle, especially if you have a lot of other cooking to do over the Christmas season, but maybe surprisingly, it doesn't all have to be done at the last minute. And, of course, if you did need a last minute gift you could always produce something fantastic as the oven is on anyway... 

Some baked treats improve with keeping & so actually need to be made a few weeks before the big day. Panforte, a traditional heavily-fruited confection from Italy makes a fantastic foody gift & needs to mature for a week before eating. And whilst we are in Italy,a non-traditional idea for a baked present that keeps well (& posts cheaply!)  is biscotti. Here's a basic recipe which you can adapt with whatever flavourings you fancy.

Germany has an enormous range of traditional Christmas biscuits & cookies, and amongst them are biscuits which need to mature before eating. Some kinds of Lebkuchen need a couple of weeks before they are ready to eat, and on the marvellous site Christmas Baking with Susie J. you will find a recipe for Pfeffernusse which also keep really well over Christmas. Then there is our own traditional Christmas cake (here's our recipe for a rather untraditional Christmas cake made with vodka) - smaller versions make great presents, especially perhaps for folks who live alone & wouldn't be able to get through a whole huge cake.

If you are after more last-minute ideas - another German traditional bake for marzipan lovers is Stollen. I gather that the traditional German recipe make stollen that you are supposed to 'mature' for a 2 or 3 weeks - but Christmas Matters likes a fresh bready fruit loaf with (a lot of) marzipan.  Our Christmas would not be the same without a slice of hot buttered stollen for breakfast on Christmas day. If you enjoy making bread then this is a doddle - especially as there are recipes which are suitable for use in a bread machine. There are lots of other ideas for last minute presents - a batch of mince pies or some Christmassy florentines with their jewel-like colours.  Or why not rustle up a quick batch of muffins - we recommend our own creation, Speculaas spice muffins.