How to bake the perfect Christmas cookies. Czech Christmas Cookies (with photos and recipes)

When economic news and forecasts of the fall of the ruble make your hair stand on end on New Year's Eve, the only thing left is to start making gifts with your own hands. And if knitting a sweater and felting felt beads all the same takes a lot of time, then holiday cookies can be made in one evening. Moreover, flour, butter and eggs are still on the shelves of supermarkets.

Shelf life

All sweets from this material can be baked in advance. Brownies and coconut balls have the shortest shelf life - after a week they dry out and are not at all as good as immediately after baking. Buttered cookies can easily be stored for a couple of weeks, but buttercream fudge and gingerbread can generally lie in the closet or in the refrigerator forever. Unless, of course, someone eats them.

Inventory

If you decide to swing at a large batch of cookies to give all your friends at once, you can not do without a planetary mixer like Kitchen Aid: it radically speeds up the work time, because it leaves both your hands free while the dough is mixed and the frosting is whipped. However, at home, using ordinary spoons, forks and a whisk, it is quite possible to make cookies. Stock up on the right amount of baking parchment, cling film and containers with lids (they are convenient for storing ready-made cookies).

To decorate gingerbread and other sweets, you will need a pastry bag. The easiest way to use disposable - they are sold in large supermarkets in packs of ten pieces. For the simplest decor, special tips are not needed: the tip of a millimeter-thick bag can simply be cut off. If you decide to seriously get confused and add colored dyes to the glaze, and natural flavors like mint or lemon oil to the dough, then it is better to order these ingredients in advance on sites selling confectionery equipment and ingredients. Delivery in Moscow will take 3-5 days.

Victoria Boyarskaya

Recipe Development Chef
at the Delicatessen restaurant.

Journalist by education. She worked as a radio correspondent, news editor, and then, quite unexpectedly for herself, she turned out to be the editor of the First. Second. Third” and started writing about food. As an editor and food writer, she traveled extensively and learned how to cook from chefs around the world.

Three years ago I decided to leave journalism and "finally get down to business." As a result, she turned out to be one of the first students of chef Ivan Shishkin and ended up in the Delicatessen kitchen. Participated in the launch and worked in the kitchen of the Gifts of Nature and Butterbro projects.

In 2014, together with Ivan Shishkin, she wrote the book “Edible inedible. Big book of giblets”, which was released by the publishing house “Eksmo”.

Butter Cookies with Orange Jam

Cooking

Rub the oil with powder until white, add zest, egg and honey. You can add a couple of drops of citrus oil. Mix thoroughly with a spatula in a mixer or by hand with a fork.

Mix flour with baking powder and salt, gradually add to the oil mass. Knead the dough well, using a spatula or fork, trying to touch it as little as possible with your hands.

roll into a ball, wrap in cling film and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Roll out the finished dough very thinly (three to four millimeters) on a table sprinkled with flour, and cut out circles with a glass. Cut a hole in half of the circles with a glass or cookie cutter.

Preheat oven up to 160 °C. Bake cookies until golden yellow (about ten minutes). Remove from oven and let cool completely.

Glue full circles with slotted circles with jam. Cookies can be decorated with melted white chocolate or sugar icing, as for gingerbread.

Ingredients for 35 pieces

Butter - 250 g

Granulated sugar - 100 g

Zest one orange

Egg - 1 PC.

Liquid honey - 1 st. l.

Flour - 410 g

Baking powder - 8 g

Salt - pinch

Orange or any other thick jam - 100–150 g

Optional- 2-3 drops of lemon
or orange oil for flavoring the dough

Chocolate brownies with chili and cinnamon

Cooking

Butter cut into cubes, break the chocolate into pieces and put together in a deep bowl suitable for the microwave. Melt chocolate with butter in defrost mode. It is important not to overheat the mixture so that the chocolate does not curdle. When the butter is completely melted, you can remove the bowl from the microwave and mix the contents.

Let the chocolate butter mixture cool down.. Add eggs, vanilla extract and sugar. Mix thoroughly until completely homogeneous.

Separately mix flour and salt., baking powder, cinnamon and ground nuts. Add to the chocolate mass, knead the dough with a spatula. Gradually add chili sauce, mixing thoroughly and testing for spiciness. For a moderately spicy taste of the finished brownie, you need ten tablespoons of the classic Sriracha.

Lay out the dough on a baking sheet covered with parchment, smooth with a spatula. Bake at 170 °C for 20-25 minutes until the surface is matt. Remove from oven and let cool completely. Do not touch brownies until completely cooled, otherwise the surface will be covered with cracks.

Cut into squares. A quality brownie should be soft and gooey on the inside, but not smear and hold its shape. For decoration, you can cut out stencils from paper, put them on cakes and sprinkle with powdered sugar on top.

Ingredients for 30 pieces

Butter - 375 g

Dark chocolate (70% cocoa) - 375 g

Eggs - 6 pcs.

Vanilla extract - 1 st. l.

Sugar - 500 g

Flour - 225 g

Salt - 1 st. l.

Baking powder - 1 tsp

Ground nuts (almonds, pistachios) - 150 g

ground cinnamon - 1 st. l.

"Sriracha" or other hot chili sauce - 810 Art. l.

Powdered sugar
For decoration (50–100 g)

Gingerbread

Cooking

For the dough, combine the flour, all spices and salt. Mix. In a saucepan, combine sugar, cream, honey and butter, melt over low heat. Let the syrup cool and mix it with the egg.

Pour the syrup into the dry mixture and knead the dough with your hands. Roll out on a table generously sprinkled with flour. Ready-made gingerbreads are hard and crispy, so it is better to roll out the dough as thinly as possible, 23 millimeters. Ready cookies almost do not change in size after baking.

Cut out gingerbread cookies for cookies, put on a baking sheet.

Oven in an oven preheated to 160 °C about ten minutes and let cool completely before decorating. So the gingerbread will turn out more crumbly. If you want to increase their strength, bake a little longer - about 15 minutes.

For the glaze, beat the egg white to stiff peaks., pour in the powder and mix with a fork or whisk. Dilute crumbly crumbs with lemon juice to a consistency slightly thicker than toothpaste. Transfer the glaze immediately to a pastry bag and store in the refrigerator. After decorating the gingerbread, the sugar icing completely hardens in 23 minutes and is almost impossible to damage.

Ingredients for 30 pieces

For gingerbread:

Flour - 250 g

ground cinnamon - 2 tsp

Ground cloves - 1/4 tsp

Grated nutmeg - 1/4 tsp

ground ginger - 1 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Sugar - 60 g

Cream or milk - 10 g

Honey - 50 g

Butter - 50 g

Egg - 1 piece, shake in a glass with a fork

For glaze:

Egg white - 1 PC.

powdered sugar - 200 g

Lemon juice - 2–3 tbsp. l.

Cream fudge with green tea

Cooking

Brew leaf green tea 60 milliliters of hot water and let it brew.

Mix dry milk and condensed milk, add matcha tea and knead thoroughly with a spatula.

Put on a small fire. Add butter (soft), strained strong green tea and continue kneading over low heat for about 25 minutes, until the mass thickens and begins to peel off the walls. There is no need to try to speed up the process by adding fire, otherwise the fondant will burn to the bottom of the pan. If this does happen, carefully remove the top layer and remove the burnt crust. Transfer the remaining fondant to a clean saucepan and continue heating over low heat.

Remove the brewed fudge from the heat Allow to cool, continuing to stir for another five minutes. Lay out on a silicone mat.

When the mass cools down to a comfortable temperature to touch it with your hands, grease your hands with vegetable or coconut oil and knead the mass for a while, like dough.

Roll out into a thin layer on a silicone mat and cut out the shapes with a cookie cutter. The remaining fondant can be collected into a ball and rolled out again.

While the figurines are warm, they can be decorated with any confectionery decorations, sprinkled with chopped nuts or coconut flakes. In order for the fondant to finally harden, it can be removed for a couple of hours in the refrigerator.

Ingredients for 30 pieces

Condensed milk with sugar -
1 can (380 g)

Powdered milk - 225 g

Butter - 115 g

Matcha green tea 2 tbsp. l.

Leaf green tea - 1 tsp

Confectionery decorations - optional

Coconut snowballs with white chocolate

Cooking

Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks. Pour in citric acid, half of the powdered sugar and continue to beat, gradually adding the remaining powder. Achieve solid peaks.

Gradually add almonds, salt, coconut flakes and add cream, stirring the mass with a spatula. Let stand for about half an hour so that the chips absorb moisture.

Lubricate your hands with vegetable or coconut oil. Put one teaspoon of coconut mass on the palm, flatten, put a piece of chocolate on top, cover with another spoonful of mass and form a ball with your hands. Thus form cakes from the entire coconut mass.

Bake at 170 °C 15–20 minutes.

Ingredients for 30 pieces

Egg white - from two eggs

Lemon acid - 1/4 tsp

powdered sugar - 100 g

ground almonds - 30 g

Salt - 1 pinch

Coconut cream - 2 tbsp. l.(it is better not to shake the jar and take the thickest part of the "cream")

Coconut - 200 g

White chocolate - 50 g, broken into very small pieces (half a centimeter)

Photos: Mark Boyarsky

Christmas holidays are filled with the aromas of fir needles, tangerines and pastries ... And no matter where you find yourself at this moment - in the center of old Europe or in the Arkhangelsk province - the smell of spices, which are certainly put in the dough for Christmas cookies, will haunt you everywhere. At Christmas, it is customary to prepare many iconic dishes. In each country, what is there in the country - each region has its own traditions and recipes, but today we will cook Christmas cookies.

Christmas cookies are not only a tasty treat. The kids will especially enjoy decorating the Christmas tree with homemade cookies. And if you try to decorate cookies especially elegantly and put them in a handmade box, you will get a great hand-made gift that is not ashamed to give even to the dearest people.

Before you start preparing the Christmas cookie dough, prepare all the ingredients. Be sure to sift the flour, so the cookies will be much more tender. Cookie sugar is best to take brown, it will add an extra flavor of molasses to your pastries. The spices for the recipe can be taken immediately ground, but much more fragrant Christmas cookies are obtained if the spices are ground immediately before cooking. This can be done with a grinder, blender, in a mortar or rolling with a rolling pin. When you grind the cloves, take only the balls from the buds, and leave the buds themselves (useful for autumn pickling). Honey, if used in the recipe, it is better to take liquid. It can be replaced with syrup, but the taste of cookies will not be the same. For Christmas baking, it is better not to save on butter and not to use margarine, even the best (after all, nothing can compare with real butter!).

Well, now it's time to start the recipes. They are different, but the old Russian roes are distinguished by one feature: sugar for dough must be burnt to a dark brown color. By the way, it is better to take rye flour for goats.

Ingredients:
500 g wheat flour,
500 g rye flour
2 stack Sahara,
200 ml of boiling water,
200 g butter,
2 eggs,
4 yolks,
1 tsp soda,
½ tsp salt,
1 tbsp mixtures of ground spices (ginger, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom).
For glaze:
2 squirrels,
5 tbsp powdered sugar
dyes.

Cooking:
Pour 1.5 cups of sugar into the pan, put on fire and bring to a liquid state, stirring constantly. Carefully pour in boiling water, add the remaining sugar, add butter and mix well until smooth. Remove from fire and cool. Beat eggs and yolks into the cooled zhzhenka, add flour, salt, soda and spices and knead the dough. Wrap it in cling film and put it in the refrigerator for a day or two (in general, this dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a month). Roll out the ripened dough into a layer 8-10 mm thick and cut out the cookies. Real roes have a variety of shapes: stars, angels, deer, lion, birds, vase of flowers, Christmas tree, grapes… Bake at 200°C for 8-10 minutes. For the glaze, beat the whites with powdered sugar and pour into cups, paint in different colors and decorate the goats with patterns.

Ingredients:
1 stack honey,
2 stack Sahara,
100 g butter,
1 kg of rye flour (or wheat flour of the 1st grade),
2 stack water,
2 tsp ground spice mixes.

Cooking:
Mix water, honey and sugar, put on fire and boil until dark, stirring. Cool to 60-70°C, add oil and spices, add flour and knead the dough. Let it mature in the refrigerator for 1 hour, then roll it into bundles and fold into various shapes. Bake at 210-220°C for 10 minutes. Ready-made roes are soft, harden when cooled, and after 2-3 days they become soft again. Decorate with icing.

Ingredients:
500 g flour
2 eggs,
4-5 tbsp brown sugar
4 tbsp liquid honey,
4 tbsp milk,
2 tbsp butter,
1 tsp ground ginger,
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp ground cloves,
½ tsp salt.
For glaze:
225 g of powdered sugar,
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 protein.

Cooking:
In a saucepan, combine honey, sugar, butter and milk, put in a water bath and heat until the sugar dissolves. Sift flour, spices and salt, beat in eggs and mix. Then pour in the cooled honey mixture. Knead the dough. Roll out the dough into a layer 5-7 mm thick, cut out the figures of deer or stars, transfer to a baking sheet covered with baking paper, and put it in the oven, heated to 180 ° C. Baking time 8-10 minutes. Let cookies cool and decorate with icing. The glaze is prepared as follows: combine powdered sugar, lemon juice and protein and beat with a mixer until a smooth, homogeneous mass is obtained. Let stand for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cornet or a bag with a cut off corner and decorate the gingerbread. You can simply dip the gingerbread cookies into the icing or draw patterns.

Ingredients:
200 g flour
110 g brown sugar
1 egg
3 tsp liquid honey,
2 tsp ground ginger,
1 tsp ground cardamom,
1 tsp ground cinnamon,
½ tsp ground cloves,
1.5 tsp soda.

Cooking:
Mix spices and soda with flour. Separately, grind butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and honey and beat. Add dry ingredients and knead the dough. Put in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Roll out into a thin layer, cut out the figures and carefully transfer to a baking sheet with a spatula. Put to bake at a temperature of 180 ° C for 5-7 minutes. Watch the process, the cookies may burn! Cool the finished cookies and decorate as you like.

Ingredients:
2 stack flour,
1 stack Sahara,
250 g butter,
50 g fresh ginger
2 yolks,
100 g cinnamon (dried cherries),
a pinch of salt.

Cooking:
Grate the ginger on a fine grater, add softened butter and sugar and beat with a mixer. Whisking constantly, add egg yolks and salt, then flour. Knead the dough. Roll it out on a floured table to a thickness of 5 mm and cut out the figures. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake at 180°C until golden brown.

Ingredients:
200 g flour
50 g starch,
100 g sugar
200 g butter,
50 g coconut flakes (not colored)
1 egg
½ tsp ground nutmeg,
1 tsp orange or lemon peel,
1 tsp ground cardamom,
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger,
a pinch of salt, jam, honey.

Cooking:
Mix flour, softened butter, starch and coconut flakes, add egg, sugar, zest and all spices, quickly knead the dough, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll the chilled dough through a film into a thin layer and cut out cookies of any shape. Cut out the center of half of the cookies. Transfer the whole cookie to a baking sheet, grease with jam, put the cookie without the center on top. Mix a little honey with ginger, grease the cookies and sprinkle with chips. Bake at 200°C for 8-10 minutes.

Ingredients:
200 g flour
50-60 g brown sugar
50 g white sugar
30 ml liquid honey
30 ml of water
1.5 tbsp soy sauce,
60 g butter,
1.5 tsp ground spice mixes (ginger, cinnamon, cloves),
⅔ tsp soda.

Cooking:
Combine honey, water, both types of sugar in a saucepan, mix and heat. Add soy sauce, oil and spices, let cool slightly and add baking soda. Gradually adding flour, knead the elastic dough and put in the refrigerator for 30-40 minutes. Then roll into a thin layer (1-2 mm), cut out the cookies, transfer to a baking sheet and place in the oven, preheated to 180 ° C, for 5 minutes. Cookies bake very quickly, don't miss it!

Ingredients:
250 g flour
200 g butter,
100-150 g of sugar,
50 g chopped almonds
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger,
1 tsp vanilla sugar
1 tsp salt.

Cooking:
Combine flour with dry ingredients, add softened butter and knead the dough. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 180-200°C. Roll out the dough into a layer 3-5 mm thick, place on a baking sheet, greased with oil, and bake for 12-15 minutes.

Ingredients:
400 g flour
100 g butter,
50-70 g of sugar,
1 egg
5 tbsp liquid honey,
1 sachet of baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger,
100 g dark chocolate,
100 g white chocolate.

Cooking:
Beat the egg with sugar, add the rest of the ingredients and knead the dough. Roll it into a layer 5 mm thick, cut out hearts with a cookie cutter and place them on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. Place in the oven preheated to 180°C for 12 minutes. Cool the finished cookies on a baking sheet. Melt the black and white chocolate separately in a water bath. Grease half of the cookies with a brush with white icing, half with black. Place the trays in the refrigerator to harden the chocolate.

Ingredients:
1 orange
500 g flour
150 g sugar
150 g butter,
2 eggs,
2 tsp vanilla,
2 tsp baking powder.

Cooking:
Remove the zest from the orange with a fine grater and squeeze the juice out of it. Pound softened butter with sugar and vanillin into a fluffy mass, add eggs, zest and juice. Mix and add flour with baking powder. Knead the dough and roll it into a thin layer. Cut out star-shaped cookies, transfer to a baking sheet and bake at 180°C until golden brown. Decorate with icing.

Ingredients:
150 g flour
100 g sugar
110 g butter,
60 g almonds
1 egg
1 sachet of baking powder
½ lemon (zest)
¼ tsp ground nutmeg,
½ tsp ground cinnamon,
⅓ tsp salt.
For a surprise:
strips of paper with predictions.

Cooking:
Rub the butter with sugar and beat with a mixer, add the lemon zest, spices, egg and beat until smooth. Peel the almonds and toast in a dry frying pan, then let cool slightly and grind into flour in a blender. Combine flour with nuts, salt and baking powder, add egg-butter mixture and knead to a soft dough. Wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for 2 hours. Roll out on a table dusted with flour, cut out hearts or stars (be sure to have an even number!). Wrap paper strips with predictions in foil, lay on half of the cookies, cover with the remaining cookies and flatten slightly so that the cookies do not fall apart during baking. Bake for 12-15 minutes at 180-190°C. Sprinkle the finished hot cookies with powdered sugar and cool.

Ingredients:
2 stack flour,
1 stack Sahara,
300 g butter,
3 yolks,
salt.
For icing sugar:
½ stack Sahara,
3 tbsp water.
For chocolate glaze:
½ stack Sahara,
2 tbsp cocoa powder
3 tbsp water.

Cooking:
Rub the butter with sugar until fluffy, add raw yolks one at a time, salt and mix. Sift the flour on the table in the form of a slide, make a recess and put the oil mixture into it. Chop the flour with butter into crumbs with a knife, then quickly knead the dough with your hands (the faster, the more tender the cookies will turn out). Put the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Roll out the finished dough into a layer 8-10 mm thick, cut out the bells and make holes in the upper part. Place the bells on a baking sheet sprinkled with flour and bake at 230-250°C until golden brown. Cool down. Meanwhile, prepare the frosting. For the white frosting, melt sugar and water until syrupy and beat. Do the same for the chocolate icing ingredients. Dip cookies in warm glaze. For brightness, you can sprinkle cookies with confectionery sprinkles. When the icing has set, thread thin ribbons through the holes and hang the cookies on the Christmas tree.

Cookies "Spruce cones"

Ingredients:
6 stack flour,
250 g butter,
7-8 tablespoons Sahara,
2 eggs,
8 tbsp milk,
150-200 g walnuts,
1-2 cans of boiled condensed milk,
vanilla or cardamom - to taste.

Cooking:
Rub sugar with eggs, add softened butter, milk and flour. Knead the dough, divide into 3-4 parts and put in the freezer. Line a baking sheet with paper or parchment. Grate a piece of frozen dough on a coarse grater, put it on a baking sheet in a thin layer and bake at a temperature of 160 ° C until golden brown. Pour the baked crumbs onto a dish and bake the remaining dough in the same way. Toast the walnuts in a dry frying pan and do not chop too finely. Mix baked crumbs with nuts and boiled condensed milk. Moisten a narrow trapezoidal glass with water and fill with a mixture of crumbs and nuts. Put the resulting "bump" on a dish. Sprinkle the shaped cookies with powdered sugar. When serving, you can put a few spruce branches on the dish.

Happy Christmas to you!

Larisa Shuftaykina

Christmas is one of the most significant, amazing, most beautiful church holidays. According to Christian tradition, its integral components are worship, an elegant Christmas tree, a festive feast, to which Christmas cookies are always served. A delicious treat for children and adults can be turned into unusual, original Christmas decorations or a wonderful gift for loved ones.
Many of us inextricably associate Christmas with the aromas of citrus fruits, fresh pine needles, homemade cakes. It is customary to bake Christmas cookies with the whole family, decorate them together with the children.

Making delicious Christmas cookies is very simple and quick (like). An abundance of toppings, a variety of decorations can turn baking the main Christmas treat into a real pleasure.

Try baking and decorating Christmas cookies beautifully

Festive Christmas cookies are baked according to various recipes, but almost always ginger, vanilla, cinnamon, nuts, chocolate, honey or nutmeg are added to the dough. There is even with chocolate and oatmeal.

To decorate Christmas cookies, fudge, icing, jam, powdered sugar, confectionery sprinkles are used. Do not forget to make holes in the dough before baking so that the finished Christmas cookies can be hung on the tree. For children, this is a special fun, because it's so cool and fun - an edible Christmas toy!
Try to cook Christmas cookies, the recipes are simple and affordable, and the pastries are light, tender, fragrant and tasty.

Interestingly decorated with icing Christmas cookies in the shape of hearts, snowflakes, bells, Christmas trees, figurines of men, snowmen, deer, Santa Claus - a wonderful gift for the holiday! Assemble a Christmas series from cookies and give it to your guests!

Christmas Cookies "Lemon Hearts"

For the test :
yolks - 3 pcs.;
sugar - 120 g;
vanilla sugar - 1 sachet;
lemon confectionery oil - 3 drops (can be replaced with zest of 1 lemon);
almonds (peeled, ground) - 200-250 g;
powdered sugar.

For glaze:
powdered sugar - 100 g;
lemon juice - 2 tablespoons.

How to make Lemon Hearts Christmas Cookies:

We prepare the icing in advance, since Christmas cookies should be coated with it immediately after baking. Gently mix icing sugar with lemon juice until a homogeneous liquidish mass is formed.
Beat the sugar and yolks into a strong foam.
In the resulting mass, add lemon confectionery oil and ground almonds (enough to get a strong mass). Pour the remaining almonds together with powdered sugar on a kitchen board, roll out a layer of 2 cm, cut out the shape of a heart, put it on a baking sheet, bake in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for 7-10 minutes.

Traditional Christmas cookies

The recipe for the test will require:

flour - 0.5 kg;
egg - 2 pcs.;
honey - 150 g;
butter - 130 g;
soda - 1.5 teaspoons;
ground spices:
- allspice, cinnamon, cloves - 1 teaspoon each;
- ginger - 1 dessert spoon.

For glaze:
protein of 1 egg;
sugar - 6 tablespoons (150 g).

How to make traditional Christmas cookies:

We mix honey, spices, sugar, put this mixture on fire. As it boils, remove from heat, add soda, stir (foam should form).
Combine the resulting mass with diced butter, stir everything until smooth. Add flour, egg (one whole, take only the yolk from the other, leave the protein on the icing), knead the dough.
We roll out the dough into a 5 mm cake, with the help of special figured molds we cut out cookies. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, bake Christmas cookies for about 15 minutes.
We prepare the icing: first beat the protein, then gradually pour in the powdered sugar, continue to beat until a fluffy, strong, homogeneous protein mass is obtained.
We cover the finished Christmas cookies with icing (on one or both sides), decorate with decorative sugar, confectionery sprinkles (confetti).

Christmas cookies "Asterisks"

What is required for the prescription test:
flour - 400 g;
yolks 2 pcs.;
eggs - 2 pcs.;
sugar - 200 g;
butter (soft) -250 g;
hazelnuts - 1 glass;
spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom - all 1/3 teaspoon each.

To decorate the Christmas cookies:
powdered sugar;
apricot jam.

How to prepare Christmas cookies "Asterisks":

Fry hazelnuts in a pan (without oil!), Grind (with a blender, rolling pin, coffee grinder). We combine ground nuts with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cardamom.
Grind the butter with sugar, beat in the eggs one at a time, add the yolks, mix until smooth. Add a mixture of spices and nuts, flour, knead soft dough.
We form a ball from the dough, wrap it with cling film, put it in the refrigerator. After 30-40 minutes, roll out the chilled dough with a layer of 3 mm, cut out with a star mold (even number). Make half of them with a round hole in the middle.
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees, put the Christmas cookies on a baking sheet, bake for 15 minutes.
We take out the finished Christmas cookies, cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar stars with a hole inside.
Put some jam in the middle of the whole star. Slightly pressing down, glue it with an asterisk sprinkled with powdered sugar.
It is better if such Christmas cookies stand for a while (for impregnation and gluing), then treat them to family and friends!

Gingerbread Christmas Cookies

Since Christmas cookies are a popular delicacy, there are many recipes for it. Gingerbread Christmas cookies are one of the most popular. It is loved for its pronounced spicy taste, magical aroma and for the fact that it is better than others for decorating the Christmas tree, thanks to its rather tough dough.
What you need for the recipe:

butter (soft) - 175 g;
brown sugar - 175 g;
baking powder - 2 teaspoons;
eggs -2 pcs.;
flour - 450 g;
ground ginger - 2 tablespoons;
glaze.

How to make Christmas gingerbread cookies:

Beat softened butter with sugar until a soft creamy mass is formed.
Add eggs, ginger, baking powder.
Knead soft dough, put in the refrigerator for half an hour.
We heat the oven to 180-200 degrees, roll out the dough into a layer of 3-4 mm, cut Christmas cookies with ginger into molds (we make a hole for the braid inside each).
Spread the cut dough on a baking sheet, bake for 10 minutes.

We decorate the finished ginger Christmas cookies with icing, cool, thread the braid and decorate the Christmas tree!

Christmas cookies "Snowflakes"

What is needed for the recipe

oil - 200 g;
eggs - 2 pcs.;
cocoa - 2 teaspoons;
sugar - 200 g;
honey (warm) - half a glass;
flour - 3 cups;
vanillin, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger - each ingredient 1/3 teaspoon;
multi-colored glaze.

How to cook Christmas cookies "Snowflake"

Mix butter, warm liquid honey, eggs and sugar.
Add vanilla, cocoa, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon to the flour, combine with the egg-honey mixture, knead the dough.
Cool the finished dough in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. At this time, prepare the glaze (protein + sugar + food colors of different colors).
We take out the dough from the refrigerator, roll it into a thin layer. Cut out snowflakes with a cookie cutter. If there is no special shape, then Christmas cookies can be made according to your own stencil from thick cardboard (snowflakes are cut out with a sharp knife).
We spread the Christmas cookies on a baking sheet, bake in an oven preheated to 170-200 degrees for about 10 minutes.
Spread frosting over cooled Christmas cookies. When the icing hardens, you can decorate the festive table with delicious snowflakes!

I wish you all happy holidays and delicious treats!

Christmas is one of the most significant and beautiful Christian holidays. An integral part of its traditions is a festive tree, worship and, of course, a feast, to which it is customary to serve Christmas cookies. Christmas cookies are not only a delicious treat for adults and children, they are also original toys for the Christmas tree, and a great gift for loved ones. For many, Christmas is inextricably linked with the aromas of fresh pine needles, citrus fruits and homemade cakes, many get together with the whole family with children and bake Christmas cookies together, and then decorate them. Ease of preparation, excellent taste and an abundance of delicious toppings turn the process of preparing the main Christmas delicacy into a real pleasure.

It is worth noting that there is no single recipe by which you can bake Christmas cookies, each housewife must add something of her own, however, in almost any recipe, ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, honey, chocolate or nuts appear among the ingredients. For decoration, icing, jam, fudge, powdered sugar and confetti are used. If you want to use Christmas cookies as Christmas decorations, tie up a beautiful braid, and then this fabulous treat can be eaten right off the tree.

Try making Christmas cookies with the recipe below. The finished cookies will turn out light, tender and excellent in taste, which will perfectly complement the multi-colored icing.

Ingredients:
1/2 st. honey,
1 st. Sahara,
120 gr. butter,
3 art. flour,
2 eggs,
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon,
1 tsp ground ginger,
1 tsp ground cloves.
For glaze:
1 protein
5 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp lemon juice.

Cooking:
Honey by the beginning of January, as a rule, has already become candied, so you need to melt it in a water bath. While the honey is melting, take out the butter, by the time of use it should be melted. Pour the prepared honey into a deep container and add the butter. Stir the honey and butter until you get a smooth, light-colored syrup. In another bowl, beat the eggs, add the sugar and beat until the volume of the mixture has increased by about 3 times. Then pour the eggs into the butter-honey syrup and mix thoroughly. Add spices and baking powder, slowly start adding the sifted flour and knead a tight dough. Wrap the resulting dough in cling film and leave in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Chilled dough will be much easier to work with. Remove the finished dough from the refrigerator in small portions. Roll out the dough to a thickness of about 5 mm and cut out Christmas cookies of different shapes and sizes. You can use special molds or get by with a cardboard template and a sharp thin knife. Make even holes in the cut out cookie, where you will then thread the braid, and transfer the cookie to the greased parchment. Bake in the oven at about 180 degrees until golden brown. The cooking time of such cookies varies from 6 to 15 minutes, so your constant presence near the oven is required during baking. While the cookies are baking, make the frosting. To do this, beat the chilled protein into a strong foam, then add lemon juice, beat a little more. In the resulting mass, add powdered sugar in small portions, without stopping beating. Decorate the slightly cooled cookies with the finished icing. Christmas cookies prepared according to this recipe will turn out very fragrant, tasty and will retain their freshness for a long time.

Very often at Christmas they bake cookies with the name "Christmas Stars". The reason for the popularity of this Christmas cookie lies in its shape, which symbolizes the Star of Bethlehem. However, if we ignore the symbolism and form, this cookie turns out to be very tasty, tender and looks elegant. In addition, you can immediately make cookies with different flavors, you just have to stock up on several types of jam or confiture.

Ingredients:
1 st. hazelnut,
250 gr. butter,
200 gr. Sahara,
2 eggs,
2 yolks,
1/2 tsp cinnamon,
1/3 tsp nutmeg,
1/3 tsp cardamom,
1/3 tsp ginger,
400 gr. flour,
apricot jam,
powdered sugar.

Cooking:
Fry hazelnuts in a dry frying pan and chop with a blender. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and ginger to ground nuts. Separately, melt the butter and rub it with sugar. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then add the yolks and mix well. Add a mixture of nuts and spices. Sift flour and knead a soft dough. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for 1-2 hours. Roll out the chilled dough with a layer of 3-4 mm and cut out an even number of stars using a cookie cutter. In half of them, make a round hole in the middle. Place the cookies on a baking sheet covered with baking paper and bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 8-12 minutes. Cool the cookies and sprinkle the stars with a hole in the middle with powdered sugar. Put 1/2 or a whole teaspoon of jam in the middle of a whole star, put a star sprinkled with powdered sugar on top and press down a little. Let the cookies stand for at least 1 night, and then treat them to family and friends.

Christmas cookies are quite a popular delicacy, so there are a huge number of recipes for them, but one of the most famous and common is gingerbread cookies. This Christmas cookie gained its popularity not only due to its pronounced spicy taste, it is quite tough, which allows it to be used as a fragrant Christmas tree decoration.

Ingredients:
175 gr. softened butter,
175 gr. brown sugar
2 eggs,
2 tsp baking powder,
450 gr. flour,
2 tbsp ground ginger,
glaze.

Cooking:
Beat the softened butter with sugar until a soft creamy mass is formed. Add the eggs one at a time, then sift in the flour, baking powder and ginger. Knead a soft dough, then turn it out onto a floured board and knead for some more time. Wrap the dough in cling film and place in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Knead the chilled dough again, then roll it out into a layer about 3-4 mm wide and cut out Christmas cookies using the molds. Poke a hole in each cookie for the ribbon, then place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Decorate the finished cookies with icing, thread the braid and decorate the Christmas tree.

Delicious, fragrant, beautiful Christmas cookies can not only treat guests and decorate the Christmas tree, these cookies can be a great decoration for the Christmas table! You just need to choose the right shape, for example, snowflakes, and decorate with multi-colored icing. By the end of the feast, there will be no trace of a delicious festive decoration.

Ingredients:
2 eggs,
200 gr. Sahara,
1/2 st. warm honey,
200 gr. oils,
3 art. flour,
2 tsp cocoa,
1/3 tsp vanilla,
1/3 tsp nutmeg,
1/3 tsp cinnamon,
1/3 tsp ginger,
frosting in different colors.

Cooking:
Mix the melted butter with liquid warm honey, rub the eggs with sugar. Combine honey mixture with eggs, mix thoroughly. Sift the flour and add cocoa, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger to it. Combine the flour with the honey-egg mixture and knead the dough. Put the finished dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Prepare the glaze by adding different food colorings to it. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll out into a thin layer. Cut out snowflakes using cookie cutters. If there is no such shape, then you can make a stencil from thick cardboard and cut out snowflakes with a sharp knife. Place the cookies on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 10 minutes. Apply multi-colored icing to the cooled Christmas cookies, wait until it hardens, and decorate your holiday table with the resulting snowflakes.

Christmas cookies can be a great gift for loved ones, you just have to decorate them in an interesting way. Translucent multi-colored glaze in this case is just what you need! Using cookie cutters, cut out figures of Santa Claus, little men, deer, bells, etc., paint them with icing of different colors, wait until it hardens, assemble a whole Christmas series from cookies and give it to each guest.

Ingredients:
180 gr. butter,
200 gr. Sahara,
1/2 tsp lemon zest,
1/2 tsp vanilla,
1 egg
4 tsp milk,
2 tbsp. flour,
1 tsp baking powder,
1/4 tsp salt.
For glaze:
1 yolk,
1 tsp water,
2-3 drops of food coloring.

Cooking:
Leave the butter at room temperature and wait until it becomes soft, then transfer it to a deep bowl, add sugar and lemon zest. Also add egg and milk. Mix everything thoroughly, but rather whisk so that the mass becomes homogeneous and airy. To the resulting mixture, add the sifted flour mixed with salt and baking powder. Knead the dough, wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour. While the dough is chilling, prepare the frosting. For each color you will need 1 yolk. Put 1 yolk in different dishes, add 1 tsp to each yolk. water and mix thoroughly. Add 2-3 drops of food coloring and stir. Sprinkle the table with flour, lay out the chilled dough and roll it out with a layer of at least 5 mm. Cut out Christmas cookies using cookie cutters and place them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Now grab a soft-bristled brush and paint the cookies with multi-colored icing. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees and bake the cookies in it for 6 minutes.

Christmas cookies always turn out delicious, bake quickly and fill the house with the magical aroma of the holiday. Bake a traditional Christmas treat, decorate your house with it and give your family and friends a piece of your warmth, captured in fragrant Christmas cookies, in honor of one of the most family holidays.

1. Vanilla rolls
280 g flour
210 g softened butter
70 g ground walnuts
70 g powdered sugar
Knead the dough. Let rest for an hour in the refrigerator (or overnight). roll sausages and bend them in the form of a month (or cut out with a cookie cutter). Bake. Roll hot in powdered sugar mixed with vanilla sugar.

2. Myslivecki knofliks
300 g flour
2 yolks
1 tsp Roma
30 g powdered sugar
200 g butter
Pour the flour with powdered sugar in a slide, make a depression, into it the yolks, rum and butter, cut into pieces. Knead the dough, put in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Roll out thinly (about 3 mm). Cut out circles about 4 cm in diameter. Beat 2 proteins with 100 g of sugar, carefully introduce 200 g of ground nuts into the proteins. Put a little protein-nut mass on each circle and half a walnut on top. Bake

3. Gingerbread
400 g of flour (from 400 g the dough is too tight, I advise you to put 350 g and, if necessary, add more when rolling out the dough)
120 g powdered sugar
60 g butter
2 eggs
2 tbsp. spoons of honey
lemon peel
1 tsp soda
2 tsp spices for gingerbread (cinnamon, coriander, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, etc.)
Knead the dough. Put in the refrigerator overnight. Roll out thinly and cut out shapes with cookie cutters. Bake. Brush with a beaten egg with a little water. When the gingerbreads have cooled, decorate them with icing - beat 1 protein a little with a fork, add powdered sugar in parts until a thick mass is obtained, which is put into a bag, cut off a corner and draw on each gingerbread.
Gingerbread cookies are best baked in advance so that they lie down as much as possible and become soft.

4. Vinne Kitichki
250 g flour
250 g butter
1 yolk
5 tbsp white wine
Knead the dough. Let it soak for at least two hours in the refrigerator. Roll out no more than 5 mm and cut out flowers, bake. Remove from oven and dip each cookie into cinnamon sugar. The cookies are flaky and crumbly.

5. Linetska srdtse (Cookie made with jam)
210 g flour
70 g powdered sugar
140 g butter
2 yolks
lemon zest (optional)
knead the dough, put in the refrigerator for 1 hour or overnight. Roll out very thinly 2 mm, cut out hearts (cut another heart inside half). Bake for a short time, about 5 minutes. Cool and blind the two halves with strawberry jam.

Or you can blind with jam and dip on one side in melted chocolate, put a nut on top

6. Mariska
dough 1
150g flour
50 g sugar powder
100 g butter
1 yolk
1 pack vanilla sugar
lemon peel
Knead the dough, roll out thinly and cut into small circles. Bake
dough 2
250 g powdered sugar
50 g cocoa
50 g butter
30g ground nuts
3 tbsp rum
some lemon zest
Mix everything, roll out, cut out the same circles.
Blind baked and unbaked circles with jam. Pour fondant on top - mix 200 g of sugar powder with 2 tbsp of water and 4 tbsp of lemon juice. Place a piece of walnut on top.

7. Babichchina tubules(requires metal tubes for baking)
400 g flour
100 g powdered sugar
1 tsp cocoa
100 g ground nuts
1 egg
250 g butter
Mix the dry ingredients, make a well, put the egg and butter into it, cut into pieces. Knead the dough. Roll out as thin as possible. Cut into strips of about 5 cm, wind into tubes and bake. Remove from molds while hot. Dip the cooled tubes on both sides in melted chocolate (melt 100 g of chocolate and 50 g of butter in a water bath). Two days before Christmas, fill the tubules with cream. I do with protein.

Until there were molds for straws, I baked these:
8. Honey pipes
170 g flour
140 g sugar powder
1 egg
40 g honey
1/4 tsp soda
Knead the dough, let rest in the refrigerator. Roll out as thin as possible, cut out circles of about 5 cm. Bake, take out one or two circles and wrap them hot on a ladle handle or any tube that is suitable in size. This must be done quickly so that the circles that remain in the oven do not burn out. Cooled tubes can be dipped on one side in melted chocolate. A couple of days before Christmas, fill with your favorite cream (I have protein). In this photo, I have them more like envelopes than tubes

9. Take a breath(without baking)
220 g powder
240 g Piscota biscuit crumbs*
135 g softened butter
3 tbsp cocoa
4 tbsp rum (I have Czech rum, I add more by eye)
3 tbsp milk
1 pack vanilla sugar
Knead the dough, if watery, add more crumbs, if thick - milk. Dip the mold in fine sugar, fill and make a hole. Fill the hole with cream from a pastry bag. Cream: 100 g of softened butter, 1 tbsp of rum, 1 yolk, 80 g of powder. Place on cookie sheet and remove from mold.

* I buy Pishkota biscuits or you can make your own. Beat 6 proteins in a strong foam. Grind 6 yolks with 200 g of sugar, add water. Add 140 g of flour in parts, alternating with proteins and gently kneading with a spatula. Drop small circles from a pastry bag onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper. For crumbs, I smear the dough on paper, bake and dry

Recipe in the comments
Here are the molds (they say you can also buy in Russia):

I have one like the last one. While I was looking for a photo of molds, I saw this beauty

10. Pusinki(our meringues or merengue)
In many recipes, only yolks are used, so meringues are made from proteins.
for 1 protein 70 grams of sugar. Shake into a stable foam. Place on a baking sheet in the form of small stars. dry at a temperature of 100 degrees for about an hour. Ready ones can be decorated with chocolate or molded together (I don’t)

Every year I try to try at least one new recipe, last year I had this

11. Coconut wreaths
300 g butter
100 g sugar powder
a little lemon zest (I did without)
2 yolks
5-6 tbsp warm milk
350 g flour
60 g coconut flakes
Beat butter with powder until white. Add the yolks one at a time, add the milk by spoonfuls, At the end, gently mix the flour with the coconut with a spoon. Drop rings from a pastry bag with a large star. Bake. When cool, dip one side in melted chocolate (or chocolate-and-butter fudge) and shredded coconut.

This year I made a recipe similar to the first one.
12. Mandlové rolls
300 g flour
100 g ground almonds
40 g sugar powder
200 butter
2 yolks
1 tsp almond flavor
Knead the dough, let rest in the refrigerator (an hour or overnight). Roll out and cut out crescents or roll up sausages and fold over. Bake. While still hot, roll in powdered sugar mixed with vanilla sugar. No photo yet

13. Baskets
I have molds for mini-baskets, they are about 4 cm in diameter.
420 g flour
80 g sugar powder
210 g butter
3 yolks
Pour flour with powder in a slide, make a depression, yolks and butter cut into cubes in it. Knead the dough. Fill baskets. Take out hot from molds. When cool (and a couple of days before Christmas) fill with your favorite cream. I make it with boiled condensed milk, with nutella, with protein cream.

I bake everything on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. I knead two or three doughs at once and in the refrigerator, when I have time, I bake and clean it right away, otherwise they will eat it! Cookies should all be small, one bite. The recipes are simple, they bake quickly, sometimes it takes a long time to decorate, because they must be not only tasty, but also beautiful.
A box with such a variety of cookies is a great gift or addition to a gift.
If you have any questions, write, I will write in more detail.
Help yourself