Every year I make a Christmas cookie plate with different cookies, usually with around 10+ cookies. I wanted to share my two plates with you for inspiration. How to ship cookies is explained in this blog article, another article looks at how to deal with sugar cookies. If you want to freeze egg whites, this article may be for you. So let’s start with the cookies I made in 2023 and 2022:
Today I am introducing German chocolate nougat sticks. One time a colleague brought these to work, of course I had to ask her for the recipe. And once I read through it, it sounded familiar. So I consulted the old cookbook from the 80s from the company Dr. Oetker and alas, the recipe was found there as well! By now Dr. Oetker has published the recipe online as well. These chocolate nougat sticks are such a treat. Bonus point, the cookie dough does not need to chill. You can pipe the dough right away. 
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Today we are making vegan gingerbread hearts with jam filling. If you so desire, you can also make them vegan, you only need to swap out the butter for vegan butter as the dough naturally does not contain any eggs. You may find this gingerbread surprising as it contains jam and chocolate. I can assure you, this is a very German recipe. In fact, every year these gingerbread hearts are sold as of October. I always thought it was impossible to make them at home. But one time when I was eating a store-bought heart, I thought, let’s see how they are actually made and consulted the Internet. To my surprise they are much easier to make than originally thought. You make gingerbread dough (check), you cut out hearts with a cookie cutter, then you place a bit of jam on one heart and seal it with another heart on top. You bake them and dunk them in chocolate. That’s it!
Today I am introducing a very simple cantuccini recipe. This November my blog is all about giving gifts from the kitchen. Cantuccini are a perfect gift in my opinion. This famous cookie from Italy keeps long, can easily be transported as it is very sturdy and freezes beautifully. My husband ate them so quickly, I barely managed to take some pictures. I decided to go with a rather classic recipe with one small addition: dried cranberries. Yes, you can omit them, but we both felt they taste extra special with them.
I have decided to theme November: gifts from the kitchen. I really enjoy gifting people with homemade baked goods. I often gift these cute animal cookies; since the last birth was a girl, I made some pink elephants and carried them in a jar (see the picture below). Another good gift is dulce de leche, caramel made from sweetened milk. Today we are going to make fudge with peanut butter swirl and salted peanuts. I made the fudge in a frying pan, so it didn’t take that long. The fudge pictured below was wrapped in parchment paper and then shipped out of the country. Yes, you can ship it and it will keep. 
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And here it comes, a wintery cranberry cake with lemon sponge! Pshhhhht, this was the cake I baked for the 40th birthday of my husband and it was gone so quickly! This cake is tart and so perfect for a cold winter day. Yes, you can bake this cake also during another season in case you find fresh cranberries, however, I find it particularly refreshing in winter. So as stated, you will find airy lemon sponge cake combined with cranberry filling and a light mascarpone and cream frosting. So delicious!
Right before Christmas I wanted to share a sugar cookie with royal icing made to wreaths. I use these for our Christmas tree, but obviously you can also just eat them like this or give away as a gift. My Christmas tree ornaments always need to be homemade, at least most of them. I usually decorate my Christmas tree with gingerbread. As we have a dog now, we do have some “fake” gingerbread ornaments, mainly hanging at the bottom so that there is no danger. However, this year I decided to also decorate with the sugar cookies made as Christmas wreaths. 
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I actually don’t think I have taken pictures of anything this fast. I believe I gave this eggnog three minutes on my balcony. It was about -3 and during the shot it was snowing heavily. But then, when I could get inside and enjoy a nice cup of eggnog, it was all worth it. Eggnpg is a mix of cream and/or milk, alcohol, eggs, and spices. This eggnog is prepared with raw eggs, so be sure that they are fresh. It is aged over time, thus you will not need to heat anything. With age it matures in flavor. The original recipe says to start two to weeks prior consumption, so this is the perfect time if you want to enjoy it for Christmas.
Today I wanted to introduce a recipe from my grandma again, which I found in her little handwritten recipe booklet: peppermint cookies. I had to order the peppermint oil and I wondered how my grandmother got hold of it back in the days. This recipe also requires baking ammonia, which you can find in Germany during the season, but I have no idea where to get it in the U.S. Maybe in a pharmacy? I kid you not, my grandmother has about 10 different peppermint cookies in her recipe book and about half of them require baking ammonia and all do require peppermint oil. When making them, you may think of dying your hair, but the baked cookies won’t taste anything like that. The baking ammonia makes these cookies extra soft and extra fluffy. If you are a peppermint lover, these cookies are for you!
Shame on me, somehow I never manage to take care of a proper Advent wreath on time. When I finally decide to buy one, they are always sold out or only very sad ones are left. I am talking about the traditional ones with candles and fir branches. But not this time. This time we will have an advent wreath made from gingerbread. I love making things from gingerbread. Years ago, when I was a poor university student, I started this tradition of making everything from gingerbread as I didn’t have money to buy any expensive Christmad decoration. I decorated the Christmas tree with gingerbread, the nativity was made from it, I even hung some igingerbread n the windows. It is definitely something I hold dear. So this year I decided to make the advent wreath from gingerbread as well.
