Christmas is coming and the geese are getting fat. And so will I, if this trend continues. Our snow fell all day, and it inspired me to bake a favorite Christmas treat, white chocolate craisin cookies. I’ve now dragged out my recipes for authentic Scottish shortbread, toffee, Finnish star cookies. Then there’s the Kulich, holiday bread lightly studded with raisins and almonds, baked in round coffee cans and topped with glaze to resemble snow on Russian churches. Sliced into rounds, toasted and topped with cream cheese and jelly, it’s a Christmas morning tradition. Family members have been known to fight over the sweet mushroom like tops. This page of my Betty Crocker cookbook, circa 1966, is thick with dried dough.
If you have small children or grandchildren, a great project for those preChristmas days is decorating sugar cookie cutouts with tinted icing thinned to a paintlike consistency. Add a packet of little paintbrushes in various sizes ( Walmart has them for under $6) and watch the kids go to town. Even tiny fingers can handle this and will produce some stunning creations. Christmas trees are especially lovely when frosted white and sprinkled with green sugar, or vice versa.
On to fruitcake, which must be addressed. It terrifies me. Rumor has it that there is only one, and that it is passed around from person to person at Christmas time. My mother used to make it and hide it away to “ripen” weeks before Christmas, a disturbing concept. Thick dark batter laden with various nuts, unrecognizable spices, heavy doses of molasses, odd shaped candied fruits, something called citron. Too much mystery for me. Right in there with plum pudding, no matter what Bob Cratchit thinks. But for some, it’s the favorite of the season. You are welcome to my portion.
Whatever your favorite, bake it up, plate it up, and pass it around. ‘Tis the season for sharing.
