Christina here, relaxing with a cookie and a glass of milk after all the seasonal festivities. The day after Boxing Day always feels like a chilling kind of day, when you can just sit down and take it easy. And what better way than with a cookie and some milk/tea/coffee (whatever is your preference)?
I’m sure that many of you bake special treats for Christmas and in our house that’s gingerbread. Or more specifically, Swedish pepparkakor, which are less spicy than their UK counterparts. Every family has their own recipe handed down through the generations, and in my case it’s very special because my great-grandfather owned a bakery. So the cookies I make each year are the same ones he would have sold from 1901 onwards – I love that I’m carrying on that tradition!
Decorating them is part of the fun, but I have to admit I am useless at it. If you compare my efforts (see the photo of the holly leaf with a Christmas message) to those of my Swedish neighbour (the heart that says God Jul), whose icing skills are so much better, you see what I mean. But who cares? The whole point is that it should be fun, and something the whole family can do together, especially little children if there are any.
I have so many memories of baking with my mother and grand-mother, then my own children, and it was always fun. This year I did it with my younger daughter, and we had a lovely time. (We may or may not have eaten quite a lot of dough in the process – naughty but nice!). The best part is choosing which cookie cutters to use and I’ve accumulated quite a selection. I pick one up whenever I see an unusual one (and not just for Christmas, but for other events throughout the year). Some work better than others with gingerbread dough – for example, my Viking ship cutters are almost impossible to turn into cookies! Their little sails and dragon head prows are too thin and break easily. Still, I managed to make a few, and they taste good whatever shape they end up.
How about you – do you make any special type of cookies for Christmas? And do you have favourite cookie cutters? I hope you’re relaxing with a lovely treat today, whether you baked it yourself or someone did it for you!
