I’m sure some of you remember that from time to time I accept a challenge from other blogging friends, like Dana or Ginger. In both cases it was a great fun and lots of laughing and emotions, so we decided with Dana to do this again! This time the main topic was focused on Christmas of course, and Dana decided- yes Dana, you decided, I only said yes!- it will be the Christmas cookies 😀 I agreed on this idea, because in my country cookies around this time are very popular and we have literary hundreds of different recipes for this one Christmas cookie…madness if you ask me. Frankly when I started looking online, I was a bit in panic since I was not sure which recipe I should go for awwwwwwwwww I mean, all of them looked kind of easy and sounded familiar, but then when you read the notes, it goes more or less like this: ” Your cookies, once baked should be nicely soft, tender and puffy, but even if they are not, they will become soft and puffy with time, however if they will not become soft and puffy a few hours after baked, they will stay hard and crunchy…” OK, no comments. Another one then: ” You shouldn’t bake the cookies for too long, because they might become crunchy (not even too crunchy, just crunchy right?!), so follow exactly the time of baking- and if you use two baking sheets just keep them in the over even shorter…” And now, listen to that-” if the cookies were thick enough when in the oven, and they were soft and puffy once ready, they will stay like that after they become more crunchy at the beginning…” What??? I cannot even describe the level of my confusion, after reading all this- and believe me, “confusion” is NOT a common word in my day to day dictionary- so finally I decided to share with you very simple and fast recipe. These cookies are typical ginger cookies, with honey and ginger, and some dark chocolate, AND with almonds, pistachios and sunflower seeds sparkled on the cookies. It’s a perfect recipe for Sunday morning, not too messy and the cookies are ready once taken out of the oven. As for the shapes, I have to make a confession. I didn’t have these nice special forms, so I used the ones I bought a few months ago in Alsace. These are very old- I would say each is about 100 years old, I bought them as props for my pictures, but I have to admit I love this little star shape and I thought it would look nice. I also managed to cut little moons, and some leaves shapes. I had lots of fun while making my Christmas cookies. I’m sure Dana had lots of fun too, so now I’m heading to her blog to see what she prepared this time.
My Dear All, I think it’s time to get this Christmas party started!
Ingredients
Makes around 40 cookies, preparation time- 30 min, time in the oven- 10 min, the oven temperature- 180 C
1 glass= 250 ml
- 2 glasses of flour of any type, prepare another glass or even more for kneading
- 2 tablespoons of honey
- 3/4 glass of sugar- I used the brown one
- 1.5 teaspoon of baking soda
- 0.5 bag of spices for ginger cookies
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- 1 egg + 1 egg, which we will use for spreading it over the cookies
- 1/3 glass of warm milk
Prepare also some almonds, sunflower seeds and pistachios. Half of my cookies I dusted with some chocolate- any type of chocolate is good- it’s enough to melt it when the cookies are ready and spread it over as many as you wish to.
Method
In advance warm up the honey. On a working surface combine together the flour and hot honey- for mixing use the knife or cutter if you have one. Gradually start adding sugar, baking soda, spices and in the end- when the dough is cooled down, add the egg and butter. Knead the dough, adding also some milk ( you probably will not use the whole amount). The dough should be soft but hard enough- you see I’m doing it too! Knead it until all ingredients are evenly combined and you can form a ball.
Using a rolling pin spread the dough- it shouldn’t be thicker than 1 cm. I divided mine into two parts, it was much easier to manage it. Below and above you can see those old forms I used in order to cut my ginger stars.
Preheat the oven and place the cookies on the baking sheets ( I needed two by the way). Remember to place some parchment paper on them. Whisk the second egg and spread it evenly over the cookies. Sparkle them with some almonds, sunflower seeds and pistachios. Bake the cookies for 10 min- if you want them to be soft, if you prefer crunchy- 15 min- however remember, that the situation MIGHT CHANGE, and the cookies still might become soft, even if they were crunchy at the beginning 😀
Once the cookies are a bit cooled down, you can spread the chocolate topping over. Be generous, it’s Christmas!
My Christmas cookies are delicious. I have to say I don’t make them very often, but for sure I will go back to this recipe at some point. At this very moment, when I’m writing it, it started snowing!! It’s the first snow in Luxembourg and you know what, I can feel that Christmas is really getting closer 🙂 These cookies can be stored up to 4 weeks- if it’s possible to keep them away from the family members of course! I will be wishing you Merry Christmas very soon, so for now I just say enjoy the cookies, with some nice tea or coffee and stay positive. It’s Christmas time!
Plate du Jour 
These cookies look (and sound) delicious, but I also just wanted to say that the photos here are GREAT!! I’ve been browsing foodie blogs today, and have been really impressed with the quality of food photos, and these are certainly no exception. The flour and the ornaments with the cookies on that wood surface — it’s absolutely perfect!
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Thank you 😊I’m glad you like the photos!
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I made these lovely cookies & used coconut sugar in here! xxx
They were very scrumptious! xx
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Haha that’s a good idea! Do you use honey too? I’m thinking of replacing sugar by honey, just afraid that the flavour might be too strong for some cakes. I’m glad to hear you liked the recipe 🙂
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Oh… I crave these cookies sooo much!
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Cracking photos my friend!!
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Oh Marta these cookies are lovely!! So quaint and delicate looking, yet I can only imagine the heavenly combination of ginger, with chocolates and pistachios…very festive ingredients and love the photos especially makes me feel so excited for the holidays 🙂
And yes I couldn’t agree more, cookie recipes intimidate me because they seem unnecessarily complicated, and after all that rolling and shaping I don’t want to be stuck with bad cookies, so I love how simple your recipe is!
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Thank you so much, so happy to hear it from you, as I consider you as a cookie specialist 🙂 I remember a few of your posts!
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Gorgeous just gorgeous Marta! Can u ship some to me 😄
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Beautiful post & delicious looking cookies! 🙂
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Oh, absolutely a feast for the eyes Marta 🙂 The recipe, the pictures, Bravo. I can’t wait to try it, yummy . Have a wonderful day xx
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Beautiful cookies and photos! 🙂
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Woe Marta I don’t have words to praise you:-) ur pictures drive me crazy.. I love to taste ur cookies
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Wow! These look absolutely delicious!!! I love your forms, and the pictures, and the biscuits ……………… What a wonderful idea. This is the kind of fireside I wouldn’t minding sitting next to 😉
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Thank you Ginger- you are my hero when comes to the cookies though. That’s why I was looking at your technique the other day- you really know how to do it!
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Centuries of practice, I’m afraid 😉 Yours look amazing!
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Ihhihihii centuries! No way love 😉 we are young and beautiful! Forever!!
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Gorgeous photos! This is exactly how Christmas cookies should look like:) the recipe sounds delicious. I just wish I could one right now:)
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Thank you so much Olga. Believe me I would be more than happy to share them with you! We cannot eat them all. I think I’m gonna bring some to the office tomorrow 🙂 So nice to have you back!
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Amazing recipe. Amazing photos. Genius lady xx
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Thank you so much Melissa 🙂 I made so many of them, and they are yummy, but to be honest I really should focus on taking pictures, rather than on eating cookies! It would be much better for me 😉
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the photos are SOOO gorgeous Marta. The recipe sounds great but I have a question: what is the metric volume of the glass/cup you use? Is it an actually glass or are you referring to a standard US cup measure? Sorry to sound uninformed!
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1 glass is 250 ml 🙂 I will update it now, you’re right of course!
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Thanks Marta 🙂
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Gorgeous Chrissy biscuits!
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Ahh my sister!!!
I love this post!!
I knew it would be good, i KNEW IT!!
You’re a rockstar babygirl, in every element!
“….it goes more or less like this: ” Your cookies, once baked should be nicely soft, tender and puffy, but even if they are not, they will become soft and puffy with time, however if they will not become soft and puffy a few hours after baked, they will stay hard and crunchy…” OK, no comments.”
Hahahaah!!
This is exactly what it was like for me!!
I had no idea where to begin!
It’s like, ok, yes, I suggested it, but I also panicked.
I couldn’t believe all the recipes options!
Like – come the hell on!!
And you are so spot on with the comments.
I almost emailed you to change it, that’s how bad it was.
This is one of the funniest posts of yours!!
It’s funny too how we both used pistachios, hahaha!
And of course, your pictures are beautiful, like I knew they would be.
Ugh.
Hate you.
Love you.
😀
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I was in panic too you know! There are so many of those out there- incredible. I was thinking which I should go for, and finally I just decided to get on with it and try 😀 my comment may be funny but very true! I hope you don’t hate me too much 😉
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Never! We’re going on vacation together next year, remember? 😁😁
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