Monday Christmas Cookie (15) - Egg Nog

Even though the weather here is still kind of Christmasy (except that is only cold and not snowy), it is the time to end the Monday Christmas Cookie series. For all these three months, I have been really enjoying writing about traditional Slovakian Christmas, yet I have to admit, I grew a bit bored of all that sugar that heaped on our table during that time. I am quite excited to have this over, so I can fully focus on what I truly adore...... Spicy Food !

Meantime, do enjoy my easy home-made:

CHRISTMAS EGG-NOG:
(vaječný likér)

• 6 egg yolks
• 1 can sweet condensed milk
• 200g powdered sugar
• 500 ml rum
  

Whip up the yolks together with the sugar, add the condensed milk and mix well. Add the rum and pour into sterilised bottles.

Cheers!

Monday Christmas Cookie (14) - Ginger Cookies

Traditional Slovakian Ginger Cookies are a bit different than the American ones. Ours are crumbly and dry, perfect for afternoon cup of tea. Traditionally baked as stars, we made these .... hm.. pea pods? ;o)

The best feature of these cookies is their longevity. Traditionally baked a week before Christmas, ginger stars are quite hard and soften as the time goes by. Then it is only a question of how many hours can you stare at them without having a bite. Here are my:

GINGER COOKIES:
(Zázvorové koláčiky)

• 220 g all purpose flour
• 220 g powdered sugar
  
• 3 egg yolks
  
• 1 egg
• lemon zest
  
• 1 tbsp fresh grated ginger
  
• pinch baking soda
• milk

Mix the flour together with the sugar, add the egg yolks, eggs, lemon zest, ginger and baking soda dissolved in a splash of milk.
Make a firm dough, roll out, cut out some nice pieces and place on a greased baking tray. Let sit overnight in. On the second day, bake the ginger cookies in the oven pre-heated to 160 degrees Celsius.
The freshly baked ginger cookies are very dry and tough. Let sit for couple of days for them to soften up.

This is the last post in my Monday Christmas Cookies series. Next Monday, for the very last time, we will celebrate this whole cookieness with a glass of home-made eggnog.

Monday Christmas Cookie (13) - Raspberry Linzer Cookies

One hundred years ago, Slovakia still belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the second largest country in Europe (squeezed in between the Russian and German Empire). This post is not intended to lecture you in history, but simply to show the huge gastronomic influence the country had on traditional Slovak cuisine (that is Czech, Hungarian and Austrian, so to speak).

Linzer Cookies are one of the most traditional Slovak Christmas cookies you can imagine, fancy little cookies of various shapes, named after the famous Austrian City - Linz. By rule, they are round-shaped filled with raspberry marmalade sandwiched in between the circular shapes, the top one with cut hearts or other shapes in the middle.

This year, we have experimented a bit with shapes, as well as the color. As a result, we ended up with happy pinkish batch of:

RASPBERRY LINZER COOKIES:
(Linecké koláčiky)

makes: 50 cookies

• 400 g plain flour
  
• 1 package (40 g) powdered vanilla pudding
  
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 eggs
  
• 150 g sugar
  
• pinch of salt
  
• several drops of rum aroma
  
• 150 g butter
  
• 150 g raspberry marmalade

Additionally, for the "pinkish" version:

• 100 g powdered sugar
• 1-2 tbsp raspberry juice
  

In a big bowl, mix together the flour, pudding powder and the baking powder. Add the eggs, sugar, salt and rum aroma. Grate the butter and mix in to make a firm dough.
Wrap in a foil and chill for an hour.
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Roll the dough out to 1/2 cm thick and with the help of a cookie cutter, cut out various shapes. Traditionally you would make 50 circles and the same amount of "fancy cuts"
Bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until light brown.

Meantime whisk the sugar together with the raspberry juice (omit this step if you are making the traditional version. Once the cookies are baked (while still hot), spread a teaspoon of the marmalade on top of each round and pour the raspberry juice mixture onto the fancy cuts. Combine the circles with the fancy shapes, like this:

Spicy Hungarian Kettle Goulash

Goulash is a typical "outdoor soup". Each time hiking, rock-climbing or simply camping, a huge kettle of Goulash - a spicy meat and potato soup would be cooked. In Slovakia, we recognize two types of goulash soup: Hungarian Goulash and Kettle Goulash.
Hungarian is traditionally chopped beef sautéed in its own juices with paprika powder and bay leaf, cooked to perfection.
Kettle Goulash is a typical garden-style soup that is usually cooked among friends while outdoors. This type of goulash usually takes up potatoes in addition to the meats. Here is my "indoor" version of it. I have also thought of Lisa, a vegetarian spice lover, who is hosting No Croutons Required, (co-hosted with Holler of Tinned Tomatoes), a monthly festival of vegetarian soups. I simply could not have not participated this month´s Spicy Soup theme. Lisa, here it is, a soy nugget:

SPICY HUNGARIAN KETTLE GOULASH:
(Štipľavý maďarský kotlíkový guláš)

• 1 onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 big red chilies
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
  
• salt
• soy nuggets
• vegetable broth
  
• potatoes
• mushrooms
• bay leaf
• mild paprika powder (I used Hungarian Smoked variety)
• 1 slice a day or two old bread (optional)
• dried marjoram
  

Boil the soy nuggets in vegetable broth until soft. Drain, reserve the water for the soup.
While the nuggets are cooking, blend the chilies with salt into a thick paste.

In a big casserole, heat up the oil and sauté thinly sliced onion and chopped garlic cloves. Once browned, add the chili mixture. After a minute, add the sliced mushroom, cubed potatoes and stir well. Let the mushroom release some liquid, so the potatoes soften a bit. Add the broth reserved from the soy nuggets, throw in the bay leaf and bring to boil. Add the soy nuggets and add enough water to cover the "meat".
Bring to boil, lower the heat and let cook until the potatoes are all soft. Towards the end, stir in the old bread and let dissolve (this will thicken the sauce a lot, giving the soup a nice hearty taste). Adjust the salt to taste and stir in the paprika powder and marjoram.

Serve still hot with a slice of warm bread.

Monday Christmas Cookie (12) - Home-Made Marzipan... Mushroom

Sounds pretty gross, eh? Yet these cute little shroomies are very friendly and tasty (supposing you love marzipan as much as I do).
Here I am tempted to share one funny love-and hate marzipan relationship, an annual gift from my mother to her "demanding" husband:

In Slovakia, we have been making these every Christmas for decades, which ended up in a general aversion towards these cute little shroomies as such. My mum revolted several times claiming that they suck and she s not going to make them again. How unfortunate, my dad (and myself) are in love with them, so mother (regardless of her personal feelings and verbal threats of her determination of NOT making them AGAIN) - she is ready to fulfil her husband´s (who cares about the daughter?) every wish. Each December towards its end, she still throws herself into a huge pile of home-made marzipan and starts folding and molding and thus surprises my dad with a nice happy family of:

HOME-MADE MARZIPAN... MUSHROOMS:
(Marcipánové hríbiky)

• 200 g ground almonds
• 150 g powdered sugar
• 1 - 2 egg whites
• 30 g chocolate or cocoa powder (I use carob powder)
  

Set aside a tablespoon or two egg whites.
Combine almonds, sugar and egg whites and mix well to for a firm dough. Set aside about two thirds of the dough and to the rest, add finely grated chocolate or cocoa powder. Mix well, so the brown color spreads evenly.

From the brown part, form the mushroom caps. From the white parts, roll out the stems. With a help of the remaining egg white, "glue" the mushroom caps to the stems. Once standing, sprinkle them with cocoa powder.

Super easy, no baking, drying, anything. Holds for weeks (gradually getting hard and tooth-breaking friendly).

These cuties march to Danielle´s Habeas Brulee, who is a hostess of this months´s Sugar High Friday (oh, yes... forgot to mention, mushrooms are sooooooo high in sugar :-S, too bad, but too good). The theme is Sweet Gifts.

During my time of hosting A Spoonful of Christmas event, I have received tons of gift-friendly food items. Here is the round-up for further inspiration.

Monday Christmas Cookie (11) - Layered Honey Cake

Another one of traditional Slovak sweet treats on our Christmas table. It is generally everyone´s favorite since it is the softest and the most delicate dessert that everyone feels like trying. One of the few cakes that makes it on our tables throughout the year as well on festive occasions like one´s birthday, dearest guests or simply when mum is in a good mood and we are really obnoxious with our straightforward wishes to taste some.
One can never get tired of my mum´s amazing:

LAYERED HONEY CAKE:
(medové rezy)

• for the dough
• 1 egg
• 200 g plain flour
• 30 g butter
• 100 g powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp honey
• cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 250 ml milk
• 2 tbsp coarse flour
• 100 g sugar
• 120 g butter
• vanilla
• raspberry jam

Mix all the dough ingredients in a bowl to a smooth dough. Divide into 4 parts, roll out each into a thin long strip (about 15 cm wide) making sure they all are the same size. Bake them at 200 degrees for about 10 minutes on a baking paper. Let cool down.

As for the filling, boil the milk, add the flour and mix well into a poridge-like consistency making sure there are no lumps. In a separate bowl, whisk the butter with the sugar and vanilla. Gradually add to the cooled porridge.

Spread the raspberry jam onto each strip and top with a third of the filling. Layer the cake bases one on top of another, but very carefully, since the strip tends to break.

Once ready, cover with a foil and place in a cool place (or fridge) to soften up. The following day, the filling should be fully absorbed into the cake base, making it incredibly soft and tasty.

Decorate the top with melted chocolate. Cut the uneven edges and slice.

Monday Christmas Cookie (10) - Bear Paws... and awards

Bear Paws are a lovely non fatty dessert that has earned its cute name due to its popularity among Slovakian kids (brown, small, paw-shaped soft cookies). Yet, their quite harmless, even from the calorie point of view. Traditionally baked around Christmas, they are one of my favorites.

You will need a special cookie baking form to make these, but dont worry if you re lacking one. Why not make "bear cupcakes" for a change?:

BEAR PAWS:
(Medvedie labky)

• 140 g butter or margarine
• 350 g plain flour
• 70 g ground hazelnuts or walnuts
• 100 g sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• lemon peel
• cloves
• cinnamon
• vanilla sugar for coating
  

Sieve the flour into a bowl and crumble the butter or margarine, add the sugar, nuts, cocoa powder, grated lemon peel, spices and egg. Make a firm dough, form into a roll, wrap into a foil and let cool for an hour in the fridge.

Pre-heat the oven into 200 degrees Celsius. Take the dough out, cut a chunk and press firmly into the baking form. Bake until golden. While still hot, turn the form upside down, carefully take the cookie out and roll in vanilla sugar.

These Bear Paws go to lovely Purnima, who has awarded me with two wonderful awards - Nice Matters Award and an ´E´ Award (as in Excellent) - blushing heavily.

“Nice Matters Award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world.”

These awards are not keepers. There are so many people out there that deserve them. I know most of you have these already anyway, so I am going to pass it on to one girl that I know would be extremely pleased and deserves the prizes just like the rest of us.

Bindiya, enjoy the awards, sweetheart. I know you worked hard on your blog.

Update March 6th: I just was told that lovely Glamah of Coco Cooks just passed me the ´E ´award as well. Wow, I never thought I was that (r)e(a)dible :-)
Thank You, thank You.

Monday Christmas Cookie (9) - Oatmeal Cookies

My absolute favorite cookie on the Christmas table and probably the only one I touched this year. The reason is simple - too much fat, eggs, dairy and sugar in all the other sweet treats. I got this recipe from my mum, who always thinks of me when running into a healthy vegan yum.
This year, similarly, her concern was to make her daughter´s face happy and stomach full (overstuffed, mum...), so honestly speaking, I got to appreciate the taste of these little beauties much later after Christmas, when my eating habits got back on track and I actually experienced that previously famous feeling of hunger. Sometimes, on Sunday mornings, when I am not busy with making "pain cakes", I get up a bit earlier to bake some:

OATMEAL COOKIES:
(vločkové sušienky)

• 400 g oatmeals
• 200 g sugar
• 20 g vanilla sugar
• 1 mashed banana
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp warm soy milk
• 100 g raisins
• 100 g almonds
  
• marmalade (to garnish)

Mix the oatmeals with the warm milk and let sit for about 20 minutes or until the milk has soaked into the oats completely. Add the banana, honey, sugars and mix well. Mix in the raisins and chopped almonds. Scoop tablespoons of the mixture onto a baking sheet, press to flatten them and with a help of the top of the spoon, make a round well in the middle. Fill the hole in with the marmalade.
Bake in preheated oven at 180°C for about 20-25 minutes.

Enjoy with a cup of morning coffee. Makes a great breakfast on the go!

This is my contribution to this month´s Weekend Breakfast Blogging hosted by Suganya over at Tasty Palettes. The theme is Healthy Eats. No problemo....

Monday Christmas Cookie (8) - Chestnut Truffles and Flowers

No-bake, no-troubles truffles of any kind (chocolate, coconut, hazelnut, but also poppy, carrot or oatmeal) have been traditionally rolling around our Christmas table for years - partially because they are easy to make, but mainly because they present a great way of using up all sweet leftovers after struggling with real Christmas traditional recipes.

Here are two simple ones for using up chestnuts:

CHESTNUT FLOWERS:
(gaštanové kvetinky)

• 200 g flour
• 75 g powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 100 g butter
• 100 g chestnut purée *
  
• 2 tbsp rum

* Note: To make chestnut puree all you need to do is boil whole fresh chestnuts until soft. Once cooled down, peel their skins off and mash them. For a simple dessert, add some sugar and vanilla flavor to taste.

Mix all the ingredients together and process to a smooth dough. Place inside the fridge for an hour. Roll out to a 0,8 cm thick piece and cut out flowers (or hearts, traditionally).
Place on a baking rack and bake at 170°C until crispy. While still hot, sprinkle them with vanilla flavored sugar.

From the leftover purée, you can make a real simple:

CHESTNUT TRUFFLES:
(gaštanové guľky)

• chestnut purée (see * above)
• honey
• 1 tbsp rum
• crushed biscuits

Mix all the ingredients together and with a help of a tablespoon form the dough into small balls. Let cool down.

Monday Christmas Cookie (7) - Carrot Truffles

Simple, healthy and sweet. A nice fusion twist on a traditional Christmas table. This was what pooped into my mind after the first bite into these juicy balls. There is no real recipe for these, just a simple guidance. Having a lot of room to experiment, one can never get tired of rolling:

CARROT TRUFFLES:
(Mrkvové guľky)

• 250 g grated carrot
• 250 g crystal sugar
• 1 lemon (juice and zest)
• oats
• cornflakes

Mix together carrot, sugar and a little water and sauté over the low heat until soft. Add the grated lemon peel and squeezed lemon juice. Add enough oats and cornflakes to end up with a thick porridge-like consistency. Take a tablespoon of the mixture and form to a ball. Once cooled down, serve as such.

Monday Christmas Cookie (6) - Kumquat Roulade Or Cake

Christmas back home can be quite extreme. On one hand, traditions are strictly followed and unquestioned. On the other hand, certain procedures have been somehow interpreted slightly differently over the years. You might remember my last year´s Christmas experience - lovely Christmas tree, presents, traditional dishes such as fried carp and potato salad, poppy seed buns with milk ("pupaky"), fish soup... etc. That is how it is supposed to be. Quiet, peaceful and full of spirits. Not that we ever fail to re-create such calm atmosphere every year, we just seem to reach it by different means.

Music is a key element, since that is the only sound heard during compulsory silent dining experience. During these couple of hours, you re supposed to re-think your previous year and assess yourself (quite of a job, I tell ya ;-) And just like the rest of the country, we grew up listenng to "silent night" and other Christmas Church songs... Then one year our tape recorder consumed the "Christmas Tape" during the dinner and I remember mum freaking out and started interpreting this incident as a warning to a major disaster to be followed that year. Dad failed to "foresee" the same and insisted that the symbolism in broken tape lies in the fact that the music is no longer appropriate. Ever since we sit around the table listening to the Country Christmas CD, while loud benjo and yoddling roam the room, we ponder "in silence"...

The other tradition "over-developed" over the years is our annual fruit bowl. Now everyone knows fruit are good for ya (vitamins, fiber and stuff) and that they symbolise fertility and prosperity. Every household has a small bowl where they display various fruit goodies.
Our family places an enormous tray in the middle of the table, goes to every store in town, buys every single variety of fruit available, piles them up on the tray to create Mt. Everest in our living room, adds dried fruit, garnishes with nuts and start throwing money around. We definitely have the most "prosperous" fruit bowl in the country.

This year, dad happily returned with a bag of kumquat, that he "somehow found somewhere" (It was probably Tesco, guessing from the plastic bag ;-) yet we did not want to ruin his excitement). But he was given credit for that since I never remember seeing or eating kumquat before.
To cut the story short, massive fruit bowl starts naturally go bad after a few days at room temperature. Those are the days that everyone goes on a compulsory fruit diet. Mum went creative and included a bag of kumquat to our Christmas Cake (traditionally made with mandarin oranges):

KUMQUAT ROULADE CAKE:
(kumkvatový koláč)

• for the roulade (makes 16 slices):
• 4 eggs
• 80 g sugar
• 10 g vanilla sugar
• 70 g semi-refined flour
• 50 g ground almonds
• 50 g candied orange peel
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 150 g raspberry jam
• 1 soft cake base
• 9 gelatine strips
• 4 oranges
• 1 lemon
• 100 g kumquats
  
• 1 tbsp grated orange peel
• 50 g sugar
• 300 g yoghurt
• 500 ml whipping cream
• to garnish (chocolate flowers, honey mint leaves, kumquat slices, pistachio nuts...)

Pre-heat the oven for 200°C. Separate egg yolks and whites. Add 3 tbsp water to the egg whites and gradually, add the sugar. Whisk into a firm foam. Mix in the egg yolks, orange peel, flour, almonds and finely chopped candied orange peel. Bake until brown, spread the jam on top and roll out. Cut the roulade into 1 cm thick pieces like this:

If you are tired by now, skip the rest and enjoy the roulade as such.

For the brave ones...

...the next step is filling. Put the gelatine stripes into some water and let bubble up. Press the juice out of lemon and oranges. Add the sugar, orange zest and yoghurt and whisk well.

Slowly melt the gelatine over the low heat. Add to the yoghurt mixture and let cool down for 20 minutes. Once cold whip the whipping cream and mix in (leave a few tablespoons for garnishing).

Wash and halve the kumquats and place onto the cake base. Set the cake form with sides and start placing the roulade around the cake form sides to form a "basket". Once ready, pour in the gelatine, garnish with sliced kumquat and transfer to the fridge for about an hour.

(Our kumquat cake, cooling itself out on the balcony).

After the cake is ready, take off the metal form and garnish with whipped cream and chocolate florets or as desired. Ours came out really pretty :-)

I know this is quite a bit of work, but it is worth it! Bindiya, please enjoy a piece for your These Are A Few of My Favorite Things.... event. Cakes and muffins are this month´s theme. Hugs :-)

Margot of Coffee & Vanilla is also getting a piece for her AFAM - Kumquat event. I know this is quite an unusual fruit, therefore I am happy to contribute another way of using up these tiny "oranges" :-)

Monday Christmas Cookie (5) - Coconut Puffs

Everybody knows coconut kisses. It might be under different names, yet everyone cannot fail to recognize these soft, puffed up coconut chewy balls. As by tradition, coconut kisses do make their annual appearance at Slovakian Christmas "dessert tables". They are easy to prepare, gluten free, but not exactly healthy. Part of the Christmas fun for me is that even though I rarely eat them, I get to knock myself out with trying numerous baking recipes that I would generally leave where they are. Anyhow, here is a little "muah" from me:

COCONUT PUFFS:
(kokosové pusinky)

prep time: 2 and half hours
makes: lots

• 5 egg whites
• 300g powdered sugar
• 250g dried dessicated coconut

Foam the egg whites and mix in the sieved sugar. Continue stirring over a pan with boiling water for about 20 - 25 minutes or until thickened. Let cool down partially and mix in the coconut.
Scoop little piles of the mixture with a teaspoon and place them on a greased baking dish. Set the oven to the lowest possible temperature and bake until dry. This might take up to two hours.

Monday Christmas Cookie (4) - Bratislava Rolls

When craving for a piece of bakery, Bratislava Rolls are an excellent choice. These little croissant shaped fluffed up goodies make a wonderful "dunkable" tea time snack. Traditional Slovakian ones come with sweet poppy seeds, walnut or curd filling, but I am sure any firm filling will do (even the savory ones). This Christmas we made a few with chopped walnuts, but mainly my most favorite - with poppy seed.
This time, I would like to contribute them to Bread Baking Day #6 hosted by Eva over at Sweet Sins. This month´s theme is Shaped Bread. I hope this one does it, Eva.

BRATISLAVA ROLLS:
(Bratislavské rožky)

Prep time: 90 minutes

• 2 egg yolks
• 150 g powdered sugar
• 250 g margarine
• 550 g plain flour
• 30 g fresh yeast
• 1 tsp crystal sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• pinch of salt
• egg (to glaze)
• fillings *
  

Heat the milk until lukewarm (If the milk is too hot, it will kill the yeast bacteria and dough will not rise). Mix in the crystal sugar and crumbled yeast. Let rise for about 15 minutes. Meantime, zap the margarine in a microwave until soft and slightly melted.
In a big bowl, mix the sugar with salt and flour, add the yolks and melted fat. Mix roughly. Next, add the yeasty mixture and process carefully to a dough. If you beat it too hard, it will not rise very well.
Roll out the dough and cut into 6 x 8 cm rectangles. Cut in half diagonally. Add a spoonful of the filling into the middle, spread along the cut part and start wrapping towards the triangular top.
Brush with beaten egg for extra color.

Bake on low heat for about 15 minutes.

* As for the fillings, there are two old-style ones:

POPPY SEED FILLING:

• 250 g black poppy seeds
• 150 g crystal sugar
• lemon zest
• cinnamon powder
• 1oo ml milk
• 1 tsp butter
• raisins
  

Heat the milk in a small pan and add the rest of ingredients. Cook until all the liquid is absorbed stirring constantly. Take off the heat and let cool down.

WALNUT FILLING:

• 250 g walnuts
• 150 g crystal sugar
• lemon zest
• vanilla sugar
• 100 ml milk
• 1 tsp bread crumbs
  

Other, less common Bratislava Roll fillings can be found in my Plum Cocoa Strudel that I like to make for guests. As for the measurements, it is a grandma recipe, and you know how they go - a splash of milk, sugar to taste, lots of garlic...

Oh, btw. Have I mentioned that Bratislava is the capital city of Slovakia? Well, ... now I have ;-)

Monday Christmas Cookie (3) - Cinnamon Hearts

Another traditional cookie in our Christmas family - nutty, lemony with a hint of alcohol, simply festive. The best thing about them (among all those other unhealthy Christmas treats) is, that they are gluten-free, meaning no flour is used whatsoever. Another interesting thing about these little hearts is that they need to dry overnight before they are baked. Unusual...
Originally, these cookies are star shaped in order to contribute to the snowy white madness. This year, my parents decided to bake hearts instead. Does it really matter? As long as they taste good.

CINNAMON HEARTS:
(Škoricové srdiečka)

prep time: 1 hour + 1 hour in the fridge + overnight to dry
makes: 70 stars

• 5 egg whites
• salt
• 450 g sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 20 ml cherry liquor
• 500 g almonds, blended
  

Whisk the egg whites together with salt and add the sugar. Foam up nicely. Keep 1/3 aside for topping. Slowly add the lemon zest and the liquor. At last, blend in the almonds and form to a dough. Roll out to a 1/2 cm thick dough, cut out 70 stars / hearts and brush with egg whites mixture. Leave to dry at room temperature overnight. The next day, preheat the oven to 170 degrees and bake the hearts for 8 minutes.

Monday Christmas Cookie (2) - Cappuccino Chocolate Hearts

My dear Bindiya.
I have been thinking really hard about your "...a few of my favorite..." event. As much as I wanted to participate for weeks now, I just couldn't bring myself into baking something chocolatey for you. Not that I do not like it, it s just Christmas have brought so much sweetness to the house that if I tried one more, Tompa would start thinking I am trying to make a sugar ball out of him.
So the unspoken rule was, no baking in da haus! But with holidays like this, one cannot avoid extra 3, 4 ,5 kilos. Instead, we went home to Slovakia to visit my family, where sweets were piling up like garbage (sorry, mum, it was just a metaphor ;-)
Had to try all of them over and over again. The one I am giving you today is the one I was looking for. Bitter and sweet, soft and nutty, half-covered in chocolate with an almond eye witnessing it all. My little heart goes out to you:

CAPPUCCINO CHOCOLATE HEARTS:
(kapučínové srdiečka)

prep time: 45 minutes + 1 hr in the fridge
makes: a big pile

• 200 g flour
• 1 egg yolk
• 125 g butter
• 75 g sugar
• 50 g chocolate (I used the bitter kind)
• 20 g vanilla sugar
• 1 heaped tsp instant cappuccino mix *
  
• sliced almonds (optional topping)
• melted chocolate (optional topping)

* Note: Instant cappuccino mix is generally a mix of instant coffee, powdered milk and sugar. Feel free to mix your own then.

Sieve the flour into a big bowl. Make a well in the middle and pour in the egg yolk. Slice or grate the butter on top of the yolk. Start making a crumbly dough. Half-way through add the sugar , cappuccino mix and grated chocolate.
Make a firm dough, wrapped in a plastic foil and place into the fridge for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Meantime, roll out the dough to 1 cm thick, cut out heart-shaped cookies and bake them for 12-15 minutes. Allow to cool.
Optionally, melt the chocolate over a pan with boiling water and dip the heart halves. When almost dry, press in an almond slice. Pretty ?

Bin, this one is for your debut event, enjoy!

Monday Christmas Cookie (1) - Slovakian Honey Cakes

Last month at work has been really bad for my shapes. Actually, I became really shaped this time, way more than I wish I would. You guessed it - pre-Christmas craze. Danes are amazingly fond of sweets. They give cakes, cookies and sweets as an excuse for any occasion: last day at work, B-days, Weddings, Friday croissants...
Plus they really make sure that sweet is sweet. And I thought we (we means Slovak) are the oversugared cooks. I was mistaken...

Anyway, complaining will not do me any good (how many calories do we burn while complaining, btw... Does anyone know?).... It was fun (after all) to try out all the different candies, cookies, desserts and cakes. I even learned how to bake one of them and enriched my Danish with the word "slik" - candy. (I really like the way it sounds, it is very "in").

On my last day at work (for this year only), I felt obliged to contribute to the "cookie madness". Since several people were curious earlier how I like the Danish ones and what we eat for Christmas, I decided to bake our traditional :

SLOVAKIAN HONEY CAKES:
(Medovniky)

prep time: 1 hour and more depending on how pretty you want them to be
makes: a giant can (I lost the count after 70, which was enough for our department)

• 650 g flour
• 250 g brown sugar
• 1 tbsp marmalade (I used orange zest)
• 100 g honey
• 100 g lard (pork fat, bleh)
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp "pumpernikel spice" (grind together cinnamon, cloves and badyan)
• 1 tsp baking powder
  

Mix together lard, honey and marmalade together in a pan and let melt over moderate heat. Take off the stove and let it cool down for couple of minutes.
Meantime, measure the flour, mix together with the rest of ingredients and start pouring the warm fat mixture. Mix thoroughly until you get a nice warm dough. (this step is really easy, the lard and eggs really work well with the flour).

Divide the dough into 6 balls, roll out (0,5 cm thick) and cut out various "Christmas shapes". I used mushrooms, stars, flowers, circles, moons and hearts, of course. My mum has a lovely Christmas Tree cookie cutter, horse shoe (brings luck), pig (brings happiness and wealth), but she hid them from me when I moved out :-(

Place them on a baking tray, press in pieces of nuts, almonds, raisins or seeds and bake at 180 degrees for about 5 minutes or until you can smell them all around. for extra golden color, you can brush them with egg yolks prior to baking. This also helps nuts and other toppings to stay glued to the cookie.

Back home we decorate them with ice frosting (powdered sugar whipped with egg whites), but I had no patience for that. I melted some chocolate with butter and half-dipped some of them.

Originally I put them on a Christmas tree as decorations and then we eat them off, but this time I had none left. Everybody seemed to enjoy them. I brought a few back home, but met Tompa and his colleagues in a bar later on for a few beers and my last Honey cakes never seen the morning light...

Sad as it can be, I flew home for Christmas last week, and there, one never runs out of "medovniky". They are everywhere! People (like my dad) build houses out of them with little sweet people and ice frosting as "snowy paths" (??? don't ask me, munching on a "roof" or a "happy neighbour" does not sound appetizing to me....). But it looks pretty, doesnt it ?

Aahh... Good´Ol Christmas!

Traditional Slovakian Christmas Dinner

It has been almost 6 years I have not been home for Christmas. It has been a time when wherever I was at that time of the year, Christmas was not a holiday to celebrate. Therefore coming back home was a whole new experience on its own. This year, Tompa was joining me for his very first time.
Several things have changed... My parents bought a new sofa, re-arranged the furniture, bought a brand-new Christmas tree, they themselves got older, my now married sister is pregnant... surprises on their own.

But these changes are quite minor to me, Tompa himself has been thrown into a completely new world. Even though his roots are partially Slovak, he has not witnessed the traditional Christmas feast in decades. Yet, slowly, as the evening was approaching, little glimpses from his childhood were popping into his mind every now and then. Here is the whole story:

(Here they are - traditional croissant-like Bratislava Rolls with lovely pinkish Raspberry Linzer Cookies squeezed in between)

Christmas in Slovakia starts with the dinner on the 24th, traditionally at 18.00. We had a minor delay in cooking, therefore started an hour later. During the day, only cooking, preparation and relaxing is allowed. Some people fast, others eat only a moderate amount of food, anyhow, meat is not encouraged to be eaten. One can drink or just hang around.
Towards the evening, Christmas presents are wrapped and whenever occasion occurs, these are delivered secretly under the Christmas tree. Once all the food is ready, family is gathered in a closed room waiting for the father to ring the cow´s bell. This is when our own Christmas fun started:

Dad ringed the bell and we all ran out to him. He wished everyone Merry Christmas and kissed us on both cheeks. We got seated behind the table and dad toasted to our health. He was the one in charge of coordinating the courses.
Firstly, we had a small bowl of little baked buns with milk and poppy seeds, symbolising wealth. The milk is served warm, so we had to eat quickly, otherwise the buns would get all soggy which was rather unappetizing.
The second course was a crunchy sweet thin wafer. Dad topped them with honey and folded them in four, representing each season of the upcoming year. Eating these ensures a sweet and non-problematic year.
Then the real food hits the table. A bowl of warm fish soup with croutons followed by carp and two types of potato salad. All of them finger-licking.

(And another tray of goodies, starting from left, we have: Candied Fruit Roulade, Chestnut Flowers, Capuccino Hearts, Cinnamon Hearts, Oatmeal Cookies, Ginger Cookies and Coconut Puffs)

After the dinner, we gathered around the "dessert table". All kinds of cakes, biscuits, cookies and candies were topping the table. Nobody was hungry, as everyone was secretly peeking under the Christmas tree. Finally, after sharing a few desserts, dad gave a permission to distribute what Santa brought to us this year. We all have been very good this year and were awarded accordingly.

My sister´s husband got a pickling oil, which I was quite jealous about. Other than that, my presents were fabulous. Got a laptop from which I am writing to all of you right now :-)

(And the last one - the "raw plate" of non-baked goodies - Chocolate Bon Bons, Chestnut Truffles, Marzipan Mushrooms and Carrot Truffles).

Back to food now! As obvious from the picture, there was a countless number of cookies at the "dessert table". It would be impossible to reveal all the recipes here in one shot. Some of you might remember my Monday Spice Collection of 4 spice mixtures I gave to my sister for her Wedding day; recipes that I subsequently gave away every Monday in the following month. It was a lot of fun for me to do it, since I kept remembering her D-day every week.
Likewise, this year´s Christmas meant a lot to me, since Tompa was joining us for the very first time and enjoyed a whole bunch of it.

Therefore I am happy to announce my new collection of recipes - Monday Christmas Cookie. From now on, each Monday, I will bring a new recipe of a cookie I ate...

Starting next Monday, the very first cookie happens to be the most traditional one - Medovnik - a cinnamony Honey Cake.

Meat Pie - Poultry Stuffing

When I was a little girl (don't all childhood food stories start like this?), my mum would make stuffed chicken every other Sunday (the other one would be schnitzel or something similar). We used to love this one. Even my dad, who is not a chicken fan would help himself twice. Now that we don't live together any more, our Sunday traditions naturally disappeared. But after learning about Anna´s annual Festive Food Fair event, this little story glimpsed in my mind
immediately.

I decided to re-create this baked mish-mash that I learned it from my mum, who learned it from her mum… Traditionally, we use it as a chicken stuffing. But since it is such a big hit back home, people tend to make enormous amount of it, use a part of it as a stuffing and the rest, they bake in a separate dish to be sliced up as a :

MEAT PIE :
(mäsový koláč)

prep time : 1 hour
serves: 4 people

• 10 bread rolls (the older the better)
• 200 g chicken liver
• 3 eggs
• 100 g butter
• Salt, pepper
• Parsley
  

Cut rolls into 1 cm thick pieces and soak in water (alternatively milk) for about half an hour. Drain and squeeze the remaining liquid out. Meanwhile, chop the liver or blend in a blender. Chop fresh parsley. Separate egg yolks from egg whites. In a bowl, mix soaked rolls, liver, parsley, egg yolks, half of butter, salt and pepper. Whisk egg whites until thick. Carefully add to the mixture. It should be fluffy.
Grease a baking dish with butter and place the pie in it. You can put some butter slices on top. Bake at 180 degrees for about half an hour. When it starts to harden, place more butter slices on top, so it melts and leaves the pie crispy.

As mentioned above, you can also use it as a poultry stuffing (great idea for Thanksgiving turkey, too). In this case, cut the amount of butter in half. Poultry will grease the rest well.
For a change, use pork liver instead of chicken.
Beef liver is a bit hard, though.

Serve with pickled jalapeño or pepperoni, pickled cucumber and some nice wine.