Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way 🙂 December is here and with it all things Christmas. My tree is up, my lights are strung all over the apartment and the fireplace is roaring almost every night. There are wonderful smells coming from the kitchen and Christmas music playing. I absolutely love Christmas and have always done so, since I was little. My parents made it very special every year, especially my Mum, who loves decorating, baking and everything Christmasy just as much as I do. It was never so much about the presents, as it was about the anticipation, decorating the tree, baking many different kinds of cookies and cakes and then dressing in your best clothes for the actual Christmas dinner – we celebrate on the night of 24th. After the dinner, you listen out for the bell on the tree, which means Baby Jesus has already brought the presents 🙂 – in Slovakia, it’s not Father Christmas that brings the presents, it’s Baby Jesus. And then for the next two days, visits and more visits to all the family and people you know. It’s time for love and spreading joy and cheer and magic.
I wanted to start this Christmas series with very traditional Slovakian cookies that are always made at Christmas – Spiced Honey Cookies (Medovniky). There are many different recipes and they are often made for the tree as decorations. My Spiced Cookies are made really thin and then joined two together with jam. Finally, they are dipped in melted chocolate and are the best if eaten a day or two after you made them. That way they are soft and spicy and fragrant and really really yummy.
The dough is made by simply kneading all the ingredients together until nice and smooth. We’ll let it rest in the fridge for an hour or so.
Then, we’ll roll it out to about 3 – 4 mm – quite thin, as we’ll be joining two and two together.
Cut out any shapes you’d like, I made gingerbread men and Christmas trees 🙂 Bake for 12 minutes whilst inhaling the irresistible smells and let cool.
Then join them together in pairs with jam, I used strawberry. Try not to eat too many whilst doing this 🙂
Dip in melted chocolate and put in the fridge for the chocolate to set.
And then share with your family, your friends, your boss, your neighbour or anyone else you love and want to spread Christmas cheer onto.
- 3 1/2 cups wholewheat flour
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup jam
- 2 bars chocolate (I used 1 milk & 1 white)
- 3 tablespoons coconut oil
- Mix all the cookie ingredients in a bowl and knead until you have a nice and smooth dough. Let it rest in the fridge for an hour or so.
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Roll the dough out to about 3 - 4 mm thin and then cut out your preferred shapes.
- Bake in the oven for 12 minutes, watching very closely towards the end, as they burn very easily.
- Let the cookies cool and then join together in twos with jam.
- Dip into melted chocolate (with coconut oil) and then let the chocolate set in the fridge.
- The cookies are best eaten after a day or two, or even longer.
- In the fridge, in an airtight container they will last 2 - 3 weeks.
1 Comment
Krásne si to napísala Lucka. Mám radosť, že na Vianoce z detstva máš pekné spomienky a že si udržiavaš naše vianočné zvyklosti, hoci aj mimo Slovenska. Krásne sviatky prajem Tebe aj Matejkovi, veľa zdravia, šťastia a pohody.