Christmas Spiced Baking

To get in the Christmas mood I decided to do some Christmas baking. I haven't been to any Christmas parties as I'm not working and don't know many people here in France yet. Most of my fellow students are from not Christmas-celebrating countries and none of us really have big enough places to throw a party for everyone. If this was Australia we'd all head to the beach for a barbie but it being well and truly winter here, it's much better to head to the Christmas markets instead...if I could leave the warmth of the kitchen...

So here are my first two efforts, peppery spiced cookies and a panforte - the only type of fruitcake I seem to enjoy.

Panforte

Makes 1 x 20cm cake (about 16 servings)

This very special Christmas treat is surprisingly quick and easy to make. It looks wonderful dusted with icing sugar or left glossy and bejewelled and makes a great homemade gift. Just look at the ingredients, that's what it's all about - the fruit and nuts of your choice and why not? - a bit of chocolate in there too?

I normally loathe Christmas cakes as I'm not a huge fan of all that glace fruit, I think. But this one is completely different from those English ones. For a start, it's from Siena in Italy and now often features chocolate, which I'm not going to argue about. I've not been to Italy yet but have enjoyed this at cafes and people's homes in NZ and Australia. This one that I just made is my fabourite yet! It's chewy, irresistible and has a warm spice background that doesn't overpower the stars of the show, the fruit and nuts. You can choose the nuts you like - some people have used pecans, walnuts etc. And for fruit you may prefer candied citron to the figs I went with.

There are many versions of this recipe around so I made this one to suit my taste and what I had in the cupboards. Feel free to tinker with it to make it your perfect version!

Ingredients:
3/4 cup flour
5 Tablespoons of good quality cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ginger powder
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
pinch of ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon - 2 teaspoons pepper (2 t gives it a delicious little 'bite')
1/4 teaspoon red chilli powder (optional)
1 cup sultanas / dried figs etc
3/4 cup toasted hazelnuts, skinned*
3/4 cup of blanched almonds
zest of 1 orange thinly sliced (I actually swapped the sugar for orange marmalade instead)
160 grams honey (2/3 cup)
150 grams sugar (scant 2/3 cup)
100 grams dark chocolate (optional as cocoa already adds nice choc flavour)

Method:
Preheat oven to 150 degrees celsius (300 F). Grease a 20cm tart pan (if you have it, one with a removable base), line with a circle of baking paper (to do this, just trace the bottom of the dish onto the paper and cut out the circle a tiniest bit smaller than that!). Dust sides of pan with some cocoa powder. The traditional recipe uses communion wafers to stop bottom sticking in pan and now many chefs use rice paper but I've never seen that for sale. Normal baking paper works fine, we just can't eat it!

Put the honey, sugar and chocolate (if using) in a saucepan. Put everything else in a big bowl and set aside.
If you have a sugar themometer, attach this in the saucepan. If not, get a small bowl of water and a fork ready next to your stove (to test sugar syrup consistency).
WARNING: In case you forgot, boiling sugar can give you terrible burns so heating the sugar must be done carefully, and not by kids! DON'T test the syrup on your finger - use the bowl of water to drop it in!
Now heat the sugar and honey (and choc)until just boiling, stirring only enough to dissolve sugar. Now STOP stirring but continue to heat to 115 degrees celsius (240 F) OR, to test if the syrup is at the 'soft ball stage', dip fork into it and slowly lift - if it starts to form a sting this is a good sign. Or get a little syrup on the fork and drop into the cold water - if it forms a little ball that you can pick up (instead of disolving/disintegrating) it will be ready.

As soon as syrup is at 115 degrees / soft ball stage, tip it into the bowl of other ingredients and get mixing! This may take a bit of work as the mixture is very sticky and starts to harden quickly, but you want to get it all combined well so the fruit and nuts are well spread through the mix.

Tip mixture into the prepared lined tin and spread down with the back of the spoon. When slightly cooled (so you don't hurt yourself!) press down to smooth with wet hands. Now pop in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes. Leave until cool enough to touch before removing from pan and removing paper. Rub the outside with powdered sugar, or, if you prefer, leave it as is. Place on a rack to finish cooling.

*To get the skins off hazelnuts, just quickly toast them in an oven tray and while they're still warm, rub them with a clean tea-towel to get off as much of the skins as you can.

To Store:
Wrap well in plastic wrap or wrap well in waxed paper. It keeps well for months, making it a great gift, treat to take on holiday or for singles / only sweet-tooths in the house it means you can bake it to enjoy at your leisure with no waste or guilt!

To Serve:
It is very rich so it is usually served in thin wedges (ideally smaller than I managed in the photo!) and enjoyed with coffee, a fortified wine or spirit like Amaretto. Very festive!

Spice Biscuits

(makes about 30-50 cookies, depending on cookie cutter size. I made 48)

These can be eaten any time of year, of course, but I usually crave something like these in the winter with a hot cocoa and maybe a roaring fire! Having changed hemispheres I now get to enjoy winter Christmas with these festive spices. Glorious.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder (optional*)
pinch salt
3/4 teaspoon of fine white or black pepper
1 teaspoon ginger powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/4 teaspoon crushed cloves (I crushed 2 or 3 cloves with the back of a spoon)

110 grams (generous 1/2 cup or 1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup brown or muscovado sugar
1/2 cup white or raw caster sugar
1 large egg

You will also need
extra flour for rolling out
rolling pin
wax paper / plastic wrap
cookie cutters of whatever shape and size you like
a cookie tray for the oven

Method:
In a large bowl mix together the flour, b.powder if using, salt and spices. Set aside.

In a mixer (or in another bowl using a hand mixer) cream butter and sugar. Beat in the egg. Now gradually mix the butter mix into the dry ingredients (or the other way around).

Divide dough into 2 or 3 pieces and form into balls (it will be very soft and need a little flour dusted on the outside). Flatten the balls into disks, and store these between wax paper sheets (or wrapped in plastic wrap) in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight. If you don't have much time to let it firm up in the fridge (it still needs SOME time or it will be TOO soft) I suggest you roll it out, not too thinly, and use a simple cookie cutter shape like a circle, as more intricate shapes will be difficult to remove from the cookie cutter.

When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius (350 F).
Dust the rolling pin and a sheet of wax paper (or a clean work surface) with flour.
Roll out the dough, adding flour as needed to keep it manageable. Cut out your biscuits using cookie cutters. If the dough is cold enough and not too thinly rolled, these will come out of the cutters easily. If the shapes are very intricate (like my leggy camel cookies), I suggest popping them back in the fridge for another 1/2 hr or so before cooking as softer dough will spread out quicker and you'll loose some of the definition.

Bake on ovenpaper on cookie trays for 10-12 minutes. Keep an eye on them as you don't want them browning, just getting lightly golden. Slide parchment paper onto a rack/wooden board so the first batch can cool while you use the tray to keep baking the rest.

These can be decorated with fancy icing patterns or glazed with eggwhite and sprinkled with coloured sugar crystals or anything like that. I kept these plain as I think they are pretty enough in these shapes without the need for extra decoration which might take away from the spices!

They keep well in a sealed tin or container (once cool!)