Merry Christmas to all of you

Terrace Heart Biscuits

My dear friend Mela sent me a recipe of her grandmother and a picture of herself (cute!) as an extra feature for this blog! I was so excited about the submission so I felt rather guilty for taking so long with the actualization of the blog post! Mela, I finally baked the terrace heart biscuits, so what do you think?

I must say, they were fingerlicking good!

The recipe (as seen above):

120g sugar
250g butter
peel of one lemon
1/2 vanilla pod
a pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
400g flour
some tablespoons of jam, I took raspberry because of the nice red colour, although the original recipe requests apricot
icing sugar

Prepare a short crust working together the sugar, butter, lemon peel, the inside of the vanilla pod, egg yolk and flour.
Let it sit in the fridge for 1/2 an hour.
Roll out the pastry with a rolling pin and cut out the biscuits with a heart shaped cookie cutter.
Bake on a tray at 180°C for about 15 minutes (until the pastry turns slightly golden).
Assemble the hearts using the jam as glue and dust with icing sugar.

Bon Appetit! Enjoy the terrace hearts on your terrace or elsewhere... if your terrace is currently frozen to -5°C like mine, a little bonfire and some mulled wine (bah!) will help your toes to stay alive.

December 16th

In a land of myth and a time of magic...

Dresden Christmas Stollen

... as rich as the treasury chamber of King August the Strong.

Click here to find out all there is to know about Dresden Stollen, history, recipe, beautiful step-by-step pictures!

December 2nd

making Advent wreathes

It has already become a great tradition that the day before first Advent Christiane, Carina, Nancy and myself get together to turn fresh pine green, ivy, box, holly and laurel into the most beautiful Advent wreathes.

We make wreathes for our doors, for the windows, for the childrens' school and the typical wreathes with four candles to be lighted one more every Advent Sunday.

I'm horribly untalented in tying together the wreathes. My part rather consists in decorating. I love using the hot glue machine to stick on crab apples, nuts, pinecones and apples. I love choosing ribbons, drinking coffee, chatting around and eating Christiane's freshly baked waffles....

 

If you are interested in the recipe,  I'd be happy to request it for you. The only thing I know is that they are made with cream instead of butter. Just sublime!

When everybody had gone I stayed a moment longer to continue chatting with Christiane and, you won't believe it, while talking, my fingers all by themselves had made that sweet little heart from the last twigs remaining on the table.