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Due to Covid quarantining we could not be with all the family for Christmas, so I am waiting on the last 3 days of Christmas cookies until we are all together. And in the mean time, something a little different... It sounds a little strange I know, but give it a chance. The arrival at this dish was a little peripatetic. We had peeled a pomelo for breakfast, excited for Little Bit to try another new food, especially a citrus, and we are both very fond of pomelos. We discovered with disappointment though that it was not very juicy, and was too dry with a bitter aftertaste. Fine then. I'll make it into a smoothie. SO I peeled it and prepped it, then spotted a beet in the fridge and decided that the acidity, mild bitterness and sweetness of the pomelo would play nicely with the earthy sweetness of the beetroot. I therefore peeled the latter and chucked it into the blender with the pomelo. I added some orange peel and some spices for good measure, then had to go do something else and left it there on the counter. The plan for dinner at this stage was spiralised sweet potato in a creamy mushroom sauce. When I came to make dinner though, having spiralised the sweet potato I spotted the almost purple smoothie sitting on the counter, and decided that tonight was a test night. Let's see what happens if we use the almost smoothie as a sauce for the sweet potato spirals, with the mushrooms chucked in. So that is what we did, and with a little tweaking it worked. The bitterness from the unjuicy pomelo still came through, but less so when sopped up with bread, so we decided to have the leftover sauce with cheesy gnocchi a couple of days later and it sang. Ingredients: 1 pomelo 1 beetroot 1 - 1 1/2 tsp dried orange peel 2 tbsp lemon juice 1/4 tsp cloves 1 tsp cinnamon 2 tbsp honey 2 tsp Aloha Spiced Cacao Salt and pepper to taste 1) Blitz the ingredients together ( if you prefer a mellower flavour for your beetroot, steam or roast it first. I used raw beet and it worked well though.) 2) Heat slowly in a saucepan, stirring gradually, 3) Add to spirals of veg or to cheesy gnocchi or pasta. The first night the bitterness from the pomelo was a bit much. The dish had promise but needed some tweaking. We found that the starch helped counter the bitterness though and so cooking it with gnocchi, heavier in starch than the sweet potatoes with a less delicate flavour of their own, With a pomelo that was perfectly ripe though, instead of one we needed to use in something rather than just eating, I don't know if we would have encountered the same problem. This is definitely going to stick around though, it was so tasty! EDIT: After making mozzarella of my own for the first time, I used the sauce in puff pastry pockets with the mozzarella and dates. They were beautiful (and tasty!) The sauce also works well as a pink base for pizza.

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me nine Greek Apple Cookies, eight Cinnamon Stars, seven Basler Christmas Cookies, six Pumpkin and Pineapple Cookes, five Chestnut Rings, four Poppyseed Cookies, three Peppermint Macaroons, two Orange Date Cookies and a freshly baked Ginger Snap For the ninth day of Christmas cookies, I was rather undecided about what to make. On a whim I pulled my big Greek cookbook off the shelf and stumbled on these cookies - Apple-filled cookies. I half-read through the recipe and without really knowing what to expect, I started on them. They were rather labour intensive in the stuffing phase, but tasty in the end. Ingredients: For the dough: 3 1/2 c flour 1 tsp baking soda 1 c butter, chilled and diced 4-5 tbsp yogurt Powdered sugar to dust For the filling: 4 apples, peeled and finely grated 2 tbsp lemon juice 4 tbsp sugar 1/2 tsp cinnamon + some for dusting 1/2 tsp cloves 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1) Place flour in a mixing bowl and add cubes of diced butter. Rub the butter through the flour with fingertips until you get a crumby mixture. 2) Spoon in the yoghurt and mix to evenly spread the yoghurt through the crumbs and press together into a loose dough. Chill for at least 30 minutes 3) Heat Apple, lemon, sugar and spices in a pan, stirring, until all the liquid has cooked off. Allow to cool. 4) Roll the dough into 30'ish small balls. Press a deep hole into the middle of each, spoon in a little filling and then press the dough over to seal the balls. Place seam side down on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 35 minutes at 180°C. 5) Place on a cooling rack and sprinkle with powdered sugar and cinnamon. Surprisingly (although I guess looking at the ingredients I shouldn't have been surprised), these came out like little apple pie balls. They were tasty but I would tweak the recipe a little next time, making the dough moister, or even changing it for a different type of dough. Nuts could go well in it too. If you like apple pie though, you'll like these. They look fancy are have no serving difficulties, so they could be good for a party!

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me eight cinnamon stars, seven Basler Christmas Cookies, six Pumpkin and Pineapple Cookies, five Chestnut Rings, four Poppyseed cookies, three peppermint macaroons, two orange date cookies and a freshly baked ginger snap As with the Basler Christmas Cookies on Day 7, these are a Christmas cookie that are traditional locally so I grew up with them, but we never made them at home. This was the first time I made them, and am glad I did so. They are a different type of cookie to many of the others included in this list, but I think, a fitting inclusion none-the-less. The batter was easy to make, but the icing is a bit of a pain to spread on each cookie individually (Thanks to my sister who had the patience to do so!), and as with the Basler cookies, these are supposed to be left to dry for at least 6 hours, if not over night. Unlike with the Basler ones, I actually did this with these (I am not sure what difference it makes), so the wait time can be a bit of a pain. Ingredients: 3 egg whites 1 pinch of salt 1 1/2 c icing sugar 2 tbsp of cinnamon 3 c ground almonds 2 tsp of Kirsch 1) Beat the egg whites with the salt to form stiff peaks. Fold in the icing sugar and set aside about 2 tbsp for the icing. 2) Add the cinnamon and the ground almonds, and the kirsch if using. Mix until you get a stiff dough. 3) Roll out the cookie dough on a sugared surface to about 1 cm thick and then cut out stars using a small star cookie cutter (or a toy from your Little One's shape sorter, as I did...) 4) Ice the stars, placing a dollop of icing in the middle of the star and using the blade of a knife or a toothpick to draw it out towards the tips. (Optional: 5) Allow the stars to dry for at least 6 hours or overnight. I did for these but not for the Basler cookies. Neither seems to have suffered for the different treatment. 6) Bake at 250°C for 5 minutes (take them out while the icing is still white as I clearly didn't do...) These are very tasty! I did miss our the kirsch by mistake ( trying to make a very belated Thanksgiving dinner at the same time and put Little Bit down for bed was maybe not very conducive to following a recipe), and I do think they suffered for the lack of Kirsch. The allowing them to dry for hours is also a bit irritating, but the cookies in the end are well worth it, and very cute. And no one need ever know that I used a toy instead of a cookie cutter ;)

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me seven Basler Christmas Cookies, six Pumpkin and Pineapple Cookies, five Chestnut Rings, four Poppyseed cookies, three peppermint macaroons, two orange date cookies and a freshly baked ginger snap Days 7 and 8 are cookies which are traditional in Switzerland and I have grown up with them but never made them before. They are ubiquitous at this time of year and taste like Christmas to me as much as the ones I grew up making. I therefore thought it only appropriate that they should make it into the 12 days of Christmas cookies. These were surprisingly easy to make and bake very quickly. Ingredients: 2 c ground almonds 3/4 c sugar 1 tbsp cocoa powder 2 tbsp flour 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp cloves 2 egg whites, lightly beaten 150 g dark chocolate 3-4 tsp kirsch 1) Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl then stir in the egg whites. 2) Melt the chocolate in a bain Marie and stir in the kirsch. heat it and mix until they form a smooth mass. 3) Stir the chocolate into the almond mixture, then roll out on a sugared surface to 1 cm thickness. cut into different shapes using a cookie cutter . 4) (Optional - as in called for by the original recipe but I didn't do it and the cookies didn't suffer - allow to dry out for 5 hours or over night). 5) Bake for 4 minutes at 240°C. Cool on a wire rack. The initial assessment was that they were better hot and straight out of the oven than an hour later once they had cooled. Having one a day later though. I had to reconsider. They were even better a day old. The flavours had had a chance to meld as it were.

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me six Pumpkin Pineapple Cookies, five Chestnut Rings, four Poppyseed cookies, three peppermint macaroons, two orange date cookies and a freshly baked ginger snap This is the first time I tried these cookies, but I got the recipe from my sister, for whom they are a Christmas cookie staple. I was intrigued by the name of these cookies and am delighted to have tried them. They came out a little too soft and moist, to the point that they were sticking to things and didn't cohere very well. This may either be because I made my own pumpkin purée by roasting a pumpkin and then cooking it down as much as possible (we can't really find tinned pumpkin purée here).This usually ends up wetter than the tinned stuff. The other possible culprit was my crushed pineapple which I didn't drain and may therefore have been a little too wet. Only having baked the six cookies pictured last night, I will try to add 1/4 c of flour to the rest of the batch and see if that solves the issue. Also, the original recipe called for pecans, but I used walnuts. It still worked very nicely, just choose whichever you like :) Ingredients: 2 c flour 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp cloves 1/2 cup softened butter 1 1/3 cups white sugar 1 egg 1 1/2 cup pumpkin 1/4 cup heavy cream 1/4 cup rolled oats 1/2 cup crushed pineapple 1 cup chopped pecans 1) Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg and stir in the pumpkin purée and cream. 2) Add the dry ingredients, stir until combined then add the pineapple and pecans. 3) Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes at 205°C. Very tasty. I can highly recommend these and am very grateful to my sister for sharing the recipe!

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me five Chestnut Rings, four Poppyseed cookies, three peppermint macaroons, two orange date cookies and a freshly baked ginger snap I am very proud of these. These are the second cookies of my own that I've come up with in the last couple of months. They didn't come out quite as I had hoped, but they were very tasty none the less. To me, Christmas usually comes with Christmas markets where you, as a rule, must burn your fingers peeling roasted (over-priced) chestnuts from a paper cone. Thanks to Covid, I won't be going to any of those this year, but still wanted to capture that Christmassy flavour in cookies for one of these 12 days of Christmas cookies. Ingredients: 1/2 c butter, softened 3/4 chestnut paste 1 1/4 c brown sugar 3/4 tbsp vanilla extract 3 tbsp milk 1 egg 1 3/4 tsp cinnamon 3/4 tsp baking soda 1 3/4 c flour 1) Cream butter, chestnut and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the wet ingredients and then the dry and mix well. 2) Pipe the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet in rings and then bake at 190°C for 8 minutes until golden brown. 3) Cool and then enjoy. So very tasty! My husband says he doesn't want to share with anyone. I had hoped that the flavour of roasted chestnuts would come out, but it didn't. Instead there is a gentle sweetness and a delicate chestnut flavour blending with the cinnamon. These are definitely going on the "to make again" list! Thinking of trying another new chestnut variety where the chestnut would have more opportunity to roast rather than being part of the dough... hmmm... we'll see. EDIT: I have now worked out a recipe where these taste more like roast chestnuts. Check it out here!

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me four poppy seed cookies with red current jam, three peppermint macaroons, two orange date cookies and a freshly baked ginger snap I saw the inspiration for these somewhere but then went my own way with them. We tried them three different ways: open-faced with the jam, as sandwiches with the jam in the middle (the reason I decided to roll the dough out and cut them rather than dropping the dough by teaspoonfuls onto the cookie sheet), and plain. All three were very tasty. I think I left them about 30 seconds too long in the oven, and they were a little crisp rather than soft, but overall, very tasty. I believe the original recipe called for raspberry jam, but I used red currents as that is what I had on hand, and I think that cranberries would work equally well. Ingredients: For the jam: 1 c of red currents (or other berries) 1/3 c sugar For the cookies: 1/2 c butter 1 c sugar 1 egg 1 tbsp milk 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 tsp baking powder 1 1/2 c flour 3 tbsp poppy seeds Zest of 1 lemon 1) Place berries and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then simmer stirring regularly until it thickens to form a jam. Taste test and add a little extra sugar if necessary. You don't want this too thick, but if you plan on making sandwiches then you don't want it too thin either. 2)Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg, milk and vanilla and mix well. Add the remaining ingredients, and stir to form a dough. 3) On a floured surface, roll out the dough to 1 - 1.5 cm thick, and then cut out rounds (use a smaller cutter than you want the cookies as these will grow). OR (if you don't plan on making sandwiches) 3) drop the dough by teaspoonfuls onto a prepared cookie sheet and then flatten with a knife dipped in cold water. 4) Bake at 190°C for 8 minutes. Allow to cool, then spread with jam. These were a new addition to our Christmas cookie roster but I think they will be staying. We can't agree on how we like these best. Let me know what you think! EDIT: I made these again this year, but used cranberry jam instead of making fresh red currant jam. It worked very nicely!

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me three peppermint macaroons, two orange date cookies and a freshly baked ginger snap I have never made macarons before, so this was definitely a trial. Also, I followed a recipe... sort of. I saw the idea and the recipe on Tasty, but then altered it slightly to suit my ingredients, and to avoid using too many noisy kitchen utensils after Little Bit's bedtime. Below is what I actually did. They were tasty but came out a little flat. I am not sure if I over- or under-beat my egg whites, but it took me two attempts. The first time, when I added the sugar it went stiff and then increasingly liquidy. So I set it aside (need to figure out what to use that for) and tried again. The second time they were stiff peaks but maybe not quite stiff enough, but I was hesitant to keep going lest I get a syrup again. As a result, I think my batter was a little thin, making piping difficult, and instead of standing up as little blobs, as soon as I dolloped them onto the cookie sheet, my macarons went flat. My macaron work needs some practice, but I will do so and hopefully master macarons in the future! Ingredients: 1 3/4 c powdered sugar 1 c ground almonds 3 egg whites A pinch of salt 1/4 c granulated sugar 2 tsp dried peppermint leaves (or 1 tsp mint extract) 1 c chocolate, smashed up 1/2 c cream 1) Mix the powdered sugar and almonds together. (If you don't have the noise restrictions I did you can blitz them to get them as fine as possible) 2) Brew the mint leaves in 1/2 c of boiling water for at least an hour. Then bring to a boil and add 1 tbsp of the sugar, reducing to form a syrup. 3) In a clean bowl beat egg whites and the pinch of salt to soft peaks. 4) Gradually add the granulated sugar and beat to form stiff peaks. 5) In thirds, fold in the sugar and almond mix until thick and ribonny. With the last third add the mint syrup. 6) Dollop (or pipe, but I don't have a pastry piping set) the batter onto a lined cookie sheet and bang on the counter a couple of times to release air bubbles. Leave to dry 30-60 minutes. 7) Melt the chocolate in a Bain Marie, combining it with the cream until it forms a smooth mass. Let it cool for about an hour. 8) Bake the macaroons at 150°C for 20 minutes then cool on a wire rack. 9) Either dip the individual macaroons in the chocolate or use the chocolate to sandwich two macaroons together ( or, as I did with some of mine that broke, put them in a bowl and drizzle the chocolate over.) These were very tasty but a little too sweet and not nearly minty enough. I would like to try these again, cutting the sugar ( but then I need to find some way to balance out the textural needs) and I need to step up the minty-ness. Very tasty though and a worthy inclusion! If you make them and get them a little taller than mine send me a picture!

And freshly baked ginger snaps This was my first original cookie recipe, all my own rather than just tweaking of an original. It feels a bit like cheating to include it as I posted it so recently, but as we are including it in our Christmas cookies, I am including it here. Ingredients: 1 c butter, softened 1/2 c white sugar 1/2 c dark brown sugar 1/2 c ground almonds 1/3 c pomegranate molasses 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 2 eggs 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp cloves 2 c flour 1/4 c dried orange peel 3/4 c dates, chopped 1) Cream butter and sugar in a bowl. add almonds and pomegranate molasses and mix well. Soak orange peel in a cup of hot water. 2) Stir in wet ingredients, then gradually add dry ingredients. 3) Drain orange peel. Add date and orange peel. Drop onto greased cookie sheet by teaspoonfuls. 4) Bake at 180°C for 8-10 minutes until golden on top. Cool for a few minutes then enjoy warm! I know I had these recently, but it was so nice to have them again. They were such a tasty discovery! Happy Advent!

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me freshly a baked ginger snap The first of this year's Christmas cookies! Ginger snaps are on of the traditional Christmas cookies that I grew up with. They are quick and easy to assemble, and very tasty! The only caveat is that letting the dough chill before baking is important and so they aren't as good for whim cookies. Ingredients: 2 c flour 2 tsp baking powder 3/4 tsp ginger 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp cloves 3/4 c butter 1 c sugar + 1/4 c to roll the cookies in after 1 egg 1/4 c molasses 2 tsp grated orange peel (optional 2 tsp dried orange peel bits) 1) Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the egg and molasses and mix until smooth. Add orange zest and orange peel. 2) Gradually add the dry ingredients (you can sift these together beforehand and then add them, but that is optional), and stir to form cookie dough. Chill for 30 minutes at least. 3) Roll the dough into marble-sized balls and then roll in the remaining 1/4c of sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet with at least double the size of the marbles between the balls of dough - these spread! Bake at 180°C for 10 minutes. I love these! The smell of ginger snaps baking is so reminiscent of Christmas time for me, and of baking as a family growing up, with friends, and now with my own little family. I hope you enjoy them. Stay tuned for the next 11 days of Christmas cookies!