Cookie Marathon

So, happy holidays everyone, now that we are actually into the holidays. I forgot a few things when talking about the day in Cologne, so here’s the rest.  The Germans seem to be obsessed with gnomes. In the Medieval Christmas market, there were three or four gnomes on top of each stall. And, in a lot of the gardens of the houses, there were lots of gnomes. Apparently there is even a club in Germany that insists on “Freeing the gnomes.” They go steal garden gnomes and then take them to a forest to set them “Free.” Apparently there is a forest somewhere with lots of stolen garden gnomes in it,

Ok, on to the cookies. Since Nicole and I and her host family are spending Christmas with a lot of her host family’s family, we made a lot of cookies so that we could make baskets of Christmas cookies to give as gifts. We spent 3 hours in the kitchen Thursday making Swiss Cinnamon cookies and Lemon Sugar cookies, and then spent 5 hours in the kitchen Friday. We made chocolate chip m&m cookies, with green and red chocolate chips. We made chocolate covered cornflake balls, that are more like candy than cookies. And finally, we made Saint Nicolas brioches. Those were the most fun because we could get really creative with the decorations. Our first batch turned out absolutely horrible, super dense and they tasted like uncooked biscuit dough. So, we tried another batch, with a different recipe, and they turned out much better, fluffy and delicious. Nicole liked to stick to the traditional little men, but I went a bit more creative, making a braid, a snowman, and a crab. My crab is my favorite, and reminds me of the sourdough crabs and turtles sold at Boudin in San Francisco. And, now today is my birthday, and Christmas Eve, so I’m guessing I will get to take part in some really cool french Christmas traditions. I’ll let you know how it goes. 

Red and Green m&m chocolate chip cookies

Miniature waffles, called gaufrettes, made by Nicole's host mom. They are a bit denser than normal waffles, are eaten for snack, and have a bit of rum in them, giving them a really nice flavor.

Lemon sugar cookies, some topped with sprinkles and some topped with egg yolk.

When you're making chocolate covered cornflake balls, cleanup makes for snack time. Here you can see Nicole enjoying licking the spoon to get the last bits of chocolate.

Nicole with one of our Saint Nicolas

Me with my first ever Saint Nicolas

My amazing brioche crab, complete with pincers and colored red thanks to the melted m&m's. I'll never get to know if he is yummy, since he will be a gift for someone else, but I think he probably is.With all the butter and sugar we put into the dough, how could he not be?