Great Presents and Late Cookies

Happy 4th Christmas day! ;)
[Sigh] The presents are unwrapped, the family is gone, the Christmas tree has lost most of it’s special-ness, and you’re probably still full from all the loads of food.
Finally, everything is becoming calmer. Now starts a bit of that peacefulness. You survived the big stress and it’s now time to relax… How about some more cookies? Just kidding.

The true Christmas thought isn’t of course about presents or mountains of food, but it is a nice side issue.
It’s far from necessary, but it is a great opportunity to do something extra for your loved ones, pamper them (a bit) with treats you know they would appreciate.
And you can’t believe how incredibly spoiled I got…

Not bad, eh? Thank you Santa(s) for all the beautiful, thoughtful presents! ;)

But it’s clear that these amazing books come with another problem.
In gods name, what should I make first?? It’s already impossible to choose from Hermé’s, how should I ever pick something out of three??
Luckily my vacation isn’t over yet, and as I’m a bit sick and spend most of my time in bed now, I have all the time to read them from cover to cover and amaze myself about their geniusness…

Back to other sugar, back to the Christmas Sugar Cookies! Although Christmas is over and I do think these are really Christmas-y cookies, I wrote down the recipe here below. They are so sweet, buttery and easy that I wouldn’t mind having them, lets say, on a February morning.
And you can make them of course easily less Christmas-y by replacing the cherries for something like chocolate chips! They make a nice present, and they are perfect for making ahead, as you make the dough in advance.

The Plaisir Sucres, Macarons, Croissants, Tarte Tatin, and who knows what more, (unfortunately) have to wait a bit more because first…it’s (almost) time for making the best oliebollen!

=> Haha, mine are way better than these!! ;)

Will be continued...


Christmas Sugar Cookies (makes a hundred!)
(From BBC GoodFood)
- 300g (1 ½ cups) granulated sugar
- 140g (1 stick and 2 Tbsp/½ cup and 2 Tbsp) butter, softened
- 2 eggs
- 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 Tbsp milk
- 550g (4 cups) flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 200g (1 cup) glacé cherries, chopped. (bigarreau)

1. In a large bowl, beat the sugar and butter together until pale and creamy. Gradually beat in the eggs, vanilla and milk.
In a new bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt together. Then add a few spoonfuls at a time to the butter mixture, stirring with each addition to combine. Fold the cherries through the dough, and shape into to logs.
Wrap the logs in cling film, freeze one and chill the other for at least 2 hour.

2. Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and line three baking sheets with parchment paper. (of course if you don’t have three, bake in batches)
Take the chilled logs from the refrigerator, unwrap, let warm up slightly, and use a large knife to slice rounds the thickness of a coin.
Lay the cookies out on the trays and bake for about 5 minutes until golden brown. Repeat this process for the other log in the freezer.
Cool on a wire rack before serving. The cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Optional: spread the logs with some egg yolk and roll them though the sugar! Extra sugar cookies!