Christmas Spiced Biscuits
Or Cookies, depending on where you are reading this from! - Friday Food Chat with Kath
I spoke about Christmas Cookie boxes a couple of weeks ago.
Despite feeling like I wouldn’t have the time or energy to make a Christmas Cookie box myself, I seem to have made a few types of cookies or biscuits in the last two weeks. I don’t know if the idea of making a variety of biscuits all at once felt too overwhelming, and removing the idea of a cookie box made baking a few batches of biscuits more achievable. Or if I’m just a bit prone to overdoing it (most likely the latter honestly!).
I made a few of the things in stages, making the dough and freezing it to bake a week later, or leaving dough in the fridge overnight to bake when the kitchen was cooler the next morning. I also made some to use up ingredients, like egg whites and buttermilk. There was also fellow Substacker Julia’s savoury version of a Christmas cookie box that was filled with recipes I just had to try (the cheese and fennel seed biscuits are lovely, as are the Fruit Nut and Seed Crackers (both pictured below)).
It’s not like we need more Christmas biscuit or cookie recipes, but most years I find myself making a combination of tried and tested favourites, and coming up with new ways to use the festive flavours I like best. Cookie box or not, the festive season seems to be a time for biscuit baking - I also think the heat and humidity of this time of year lends itself more to shorter bakes like these, that I find last a bit better in the heat too.
In amongst the biscuit baking, I tried a new recipe that I had on my mind. A crunchy Christmas spiced biscuit, related to my Crunchy Cinnamon Cookies, but made very Christmas-y. If you are looking for a slightly less time consuming festive bake, I highly recommend this one. The recipe is on my blog now, ready for some last minute festive baking.
I hope you have a lovely festive season, filled with good food and hopefully a new cookbook or two.
If you are looking for a last minute fruit cake to make, I have removed the paywall to both my Grandma’s fruit cake recipes just for Christmas - this Boiled Fruit Cake is the ultimate last minute cake to make, and this Golden Fruit Cake is packed full of delicious glacé (or candied) fruit. Kath xoxo
Check out more recipes over on the paid version of this newsletter featuring, A Ginger Sponge Cake, A Festive Boiled Fruit Cake and A Caramel Ginger Pudding. See the whole archive here and sign up to support my work and get it all straight to your inbox or Substack feed!
Chewy Cardamom & Rosewater Macaroons
One of the biscuits I made recently were these macaroons, which conveniently used up the egg whites leftover from another recipe. This recipe is based on one by Nigella Lawson, it is super easy to make and has the added bonus of being gluten and dairy free.
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