Category Archives: Cookies

Lebkuchen Hearts

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Makes 20-30 hearts (dependent on cookie cutter size)

Ingredients

Cookies

  • ½ cup runny honey
  • ½ cup dark brown sugar
  • 4 ½ Tablespoons butter
  • 1 cup All Purpose flour
  • 1 cup rye flour
  • 2/3 cup ground almonds
  • 1 egg
  • 2 ½ teaspoon Lebkuchen spice *see below
  • ½ Tablespoon cocoa powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 oz candies mixed peel (optional)
  • Zest ½ lemon
  • Pinch Kosher salt

To Decorate

  • 1 egg white, lightly whisked
  • Blanched almond halves (optional)
  • Glace cherry halves (optional)

Method

  1. Combine the honey brown sugar, butter in a small pan and heat over a low heat until melted. Stir occasionally until fully blended. Remove from heat and set aside until needed
  2. Place the remaining ingredients into a large bowl and whisk together to combine
  3. Pour over the melted honey mixture and stir together with a wooden spoon to form a sticky dough. Cover with a clean dish cloth and set aside for an hour. By this time the dough should become more workable
  4. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line two baking/ cookie trays with baking parchment
  5. Lightly flour a counter-surface and roll out the dough to  1/8inch thickness. Using a heart shaped cookie cutter, punch out hearts and place them on your prepared baking cheets, spacing ¾ inch apart. Re-roll any dough scraps to form additional cookies and repeat
  6. Brush the top of each cookie with the whisked egg white and place an almond or cherry half in the centre of each cookie
  7. Bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes until golden brown and just firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking tray for a few minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely
  8. Cookies can be kept in an airtight container for month or more. They will soften over time

*Lebkuchen Spice Mix

  • 5 Tablespoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 Tablespoon ground ginger
  • 2 teaspoons ground cloves
  • 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 teaspoon ground anise
  • ½ teaspoon ground mace
  • ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  1. Combine all the ingredients and whisk to thoroughly combine. Transfer to an airtight storage jar and store for up to a year

Grinchy Christmas Wreathes

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Makes 18

Ingredients

  • 8 Tablespoon butter
  • 3 cups (30) large marshmallows
  • A few drops of green food coloring gel
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 4 cups cornflakes
  • Red candy coated chocolates (M&Ms)

Method

  1. Line a large baking/ cookie tray with baking parchment and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside
  2. Add butter to a large pan and melt over a low heat
  3. Add in the marshmallows and cook, stirring constantly, until melted and smooth
  4. Remove pan from the heat, adding in the food coloring and vanilla extract, whisking until evenly blended
  5. Add the cornflakes and stir gently until well coated
  6. Working quickly to avoid the mixture hardening, use two small spoons (or your lightly oiled fingers) to drop small amounts- roughly 2 tablespoons, of mixture onto your prepared cookie sheet. Using  your fingers shape these mounds into wreath shapes with open centres
  7. While the wreath cookies are still sticky. Add the red candy coated chocolates for berries
  8. Set the finished wreath cookies aside to dry for several hours until they are fil and hold their shape
  9. The finished cookies can be kept for 1 month in an airtight container at room temperature

Chocolate Orange Shortbread

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Makes 24

Ingredients

  • ½ cup and 2 tablespoons fine sugar, divided
  • 2 Tablespoons Orange zest
  • 2 cups All Purpose Flour
  • 1/3 cup Semolina
  • 2 Tablespoons Rice Flour
  • ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 1 cup salted butter, cold and cubed
  • 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method

  1. Lightly grease the sides of and line a 9″ x 12″ traybake tin with parchment paper allowing a 2-3” overhang
  2. In a large bowl, combine ½ cup sugar, the orange zest and rub together with your fingers to release the orange oils into the sugar. Add in the flour, semolina, rice flour, and salt. Whisk together to further combine
  3. Add in the cubed butter and rub together with your fingertips, or a pastry cutter, until the mixture is just beginning to bind together. Every so often do a quarter turn of the bowl to make sure you’re using all the dry mixture. You’ll want a texture somewhere between breadcrumbs and damp sand before you stop. Be wary of overworking the butter into the mixture – you want to avoid a dough that is feels slimey from the butter melting too much into the dry ingredients
  4. Add the chocolate chips and gently fold through the butter crumb mixture
  5. Tip the crumb mixture into your prepared tin and press the dough so that it forms a solid, even layer. Level the surface with the back of a spoon or measuring cup, making sure the mixture is evenly spread and level
  6. Refrigerate for 30 mins minimum
  7. Preheat your oven to 325°F
  8. Remove the chilled dough from your fridge and using a knife, or pizza cutter, score the shortbread into 24 rectangular pieces (2 cuts by 7 cuts) taking care not to actually cut the full way through the dough layer
  9. Bake the dough for 30- 35 minutes or until a very pale golden brown, and deeper golden brown at the edges
  10. Leave rest for 5 minutes, then cut with a knife, or pizza cutter, at the score lines you previously made, cut to the bottom of the pan to complete the cut the full way through
  11. Dust with the remaining fine sugar and leave the full slab of shortbread to cool in the tin for 15 minutes. Carefully lift the fingers out of the tin with a palette knife or the parchment paper overhang and finish cooling on a wire rack
  12. Keep in an airtight container for up to 1 week

Crinkersnickle Cookies

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Makes 24

Ingredients

Cookie Dough

  • 1 cup unsalted butter
  • 1¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 Tablespoon milk powder
  • 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
  • ½  teaspoon cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon salt

For Rolling

  • 1 egg white, lightly beaten
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon

Method

  1. Add butter to a large saucepan and place over medium heat. Continue to heat until the butter has melted and starts to foam. Make sure you whisk constantly. Continue to heat and whisk until the butter will begins to brown and turn a golden amber color on the bottom of the saucepan. You will notice some darker particles and the butter will start to have a “nutty” aroma. Remove from heat and immediately transfer the butter to a medium bowl to prevent burning. Set aside to cool until it is the texture of room soft butter
  2. In a separate large bowl combine the dark brown sugar,  granulated sugars and add in the cooled browned butter. Mix with an electric whisk for about 2 minutes until combined
  3. Add in the egg and egg yolk and vanilla extract and whisk together until well combined, smooth and creamy; about 1-2 minutes
  4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, milk powder, cream of tartar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and salt in a bowl. Slowly the dry ingredients to the bowl of the butter mixture and beat on medium-low speed just until combined
  5. Cover dough with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 2-3 hours or up to overnight*
  6. When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Once dough is chilled measure about 2 tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. If dough is too hard to roll into a ball, you may need to let it sit out at room temperature for 10-20 minutes before rolling
  7. Line 2 large baking/ cookie sheets with baking parchment
  8. While your oven preheats you can make the rolling mixture. Combine 1/4 cup sugar and the 2 teaspoons cinnamon in a bowl. Dip the dough balls into the beaten egg white to coat then roll dough balls in cinnamon-sugar mixture, then place on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart
  9. Bake the cookies 8-12 minutes or until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown. They will look a bit underdone in the middle, but will continue to cook once out of the oven
  10. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheets at least 5 minutes. Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets after a few minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough as needed

*Note: If you want to speed up the process, you can chill the dough for about 20 minutes them roll it  into balls before chilling the dough for the longer time. That way you can simply place them on the prepared baking sheet and bake!

Zenzero Cookies

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Makes 24

Ingredients

  • 2 1/3 cups All Purpose flour
  • 1 Tablespoon ground Allspice
  • 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¾ cup + 2 Tablespoons light golden sugar
  • ½ cup cold butter, chopped
  • 12 pieces of Fabbri Zenzero candied ginger, roughly chopped
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 Tablespoons golden corn syrup
  • 3 Tablespoons Fabbri Zenzerro candied ginger surup
  • 7oz dark chocolate, chopped

To decorate

  • Fabbri Zenzero candied ginger, thinly sliced (optional)

Method

  1. Mix the flour, ground ginger, bicarbonate of soda, salt and sugar in a bowl, then rub in the butter to make crumbs. Stir in the chopped stem ginger pieces
  2. Beat together the egg and both syrups, pour into the dry ingredients and stir, then knead with your hands to make a dough. Cut the dough in half and shape each piece into a log shape about 10cm in length. Wrap in cling film and chill for 20 mins
  3. Heat oven to 350°F and line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment. Thickly slice each log into 12 and put the slices on the baking sheets, spacing them well apart and reshaping any, if necessary, to make rounds. Bake for 14 mins, then leave to cool for a few mins to harden before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely
  4. Once the cookies have fully cooled melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, making sure that the water isn’t touching the bottom of the bowl. Dip one side of each cookie into the chocolate (it may help to wear gloves here!). Allow to set for a few minutes the decorate with a slice of ginger, if you like, and leave to set fully.
  5. *Will keep for 1 week in an airtight container