3 recipes for the best Christmas biscuits in the world

Published in December 2020

It’s not 2022 that will ruin our Christmas holidays, no, but. There’s a time, we won’t let the current mood ruin the best time of the year, that’s all we need!

So yeah I know it’s not so easy to get into the holiday spirit lately. Even for me, being usually the worst person to deal with, so horny this time of year, I find it hard to get into the right mood.

But (yes, because there is a “but”), I decided that was enough. No more seum, no more gloomy atmosphere, no more depressing news, no more.

Yes, I could be an ostrich, yes, I’d rather hide than be confronted with an anxiety-provoking reality, but you know what? It does not matter. It’s okay to run, it’s okay to hide, it’s okay to hide, it’s okay to convince yourself that everything will work out in the end even if it’s frankly hard to “believe” at times.

And where do we start, to cheer ourselves up? By doing little things that we enjoy. And what I like in December is to do Christmas shortcrust pastry so many they could feed my daughter’s entire daycare for a week. I’m not exaggerating, you know me.

So if you too like to have your hands in the dough, if you too have a passion for cinnamon, hazelnuts and almonds, I am sharing with you my three favorite recipes. Gift !

The easy recipe of Christmas moon croissants

I’ll start with my favourite. These crescent-shaped Christmas shortbread cookies (or shit according to my daughter, but that’s less glamorous) are crunchy, delicately nutty flavored, and terribly addictive. So yeah, there’s a good amount of butter, but you gotta have what you need. To make it, you need:

• 280 g of flour
• a teaspoon of yeast
• 210 g of soft butter
• 100 g of ground hazelnuts
• 70 g of sugar
• powdered sugar (optional for decoration)

Once you have all the ingredients you just have to mix everything and then add the butter cut into cubes. And there, roll up your sleeves and knead everything with your little fingers, until the dough comes away from the walls of the bowl and you can form a ball.

Once done, take balls that you roll between your hands before placing them in the shape of a crescent on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

And here we are in the oven for 10 minutes, at 200 degrees. Be careful not to color them, they must remain white. Once well cooled, you can roll them in powdered sugar.

Cinnamon poinsettia recipe

I don’t know about you, but I’m addicted to cinnamon. And sugar. And the cigarette. But this is not the point.

All this to say that a Christmas cookie without cinnamon is a bit like a Kinder without a surprise: it’s fine, but you can do better. That’s why I’m sharing mine cinnamon recipe filled with frosting and holiday spirit (How do I do too much?)

To make these cute stars, you will need:

• 100 g of unsalted butter
• 280 g of flour
• 100 g of golden sugar
• 120 g of honey
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 3 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
• an egg

And for the glaze, you will need:

• an egg white
• 200 g of icing sugar

First, melt the butter in a saucepan and let it cool. Once very cold, you can add the honey, the blond sugar and the whole egg, and mix well. At the end, in a large bowl, you can mix the flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Then dig a well in the center and pour in the butter/honey/sugar/egg mixture. Knead the dough like your life depends on it.

Then you can roll out the dough on a floured surface (so not on your cat, it works less well), and cut out little stars using a cookie cutter. Well, I’m not closed-minded, you don’t have the ultimate obligation to cut only the stars, you can also make circles, or fir trees, or even cocks, everyone has their own things, no one judges.

Once you have made your shapes, spread everything on a pan with baking paper, and put in the oven for 6-8 minutes at 180° degrees. And no, we don’t jump on them right away once they come out of the oven, we just let them cool completely.

But that’s okay because during this time you can make the glaze! It’s very simple to do this: whip the egg white until stiff and add the icing sugar little by little. And this is all ! You will only have to spread the icing with a spatula once your stars are cold.

The recipe for small fir trees with almonds

And here is the last ideal recipe for the month of December (or even for the whole year if you deny it too), that of Almond Christmas Trees.

You can make a glaze if you like, using the recipe for the cinnamon stars, or just keep it that way.

To make this perfect shortcrust pastry recipe, you will need:

• 190 g of flour
• 90 g of sugar
• 125 g of butter
• a pinch of salt (unless you use semi-salted butter, I personally prefer it)
• 75 g of ground almonds
• an egg yolk

First, mix the flour, salt, sugar and ground almonds in a bowl. I advise you to whisk gently so that it blends well.

Then you can add soft butter cut into cubes and knead the dough with your fingertips. At this point, it should look a bit like sand. Then you need to dig a well in the center, add the young egg and knead gently, to form a nice ball (Christmas, badam tss).

Then you can let the dough rest in the fridge for an hour. Don’t skip this step, it’s important! It allows the butter to firm up and helps the dough take on a real texture. And it will be easier to spread later.

Yes because speaking of rolling out, that’s what you should do after letting the dough rest. Flour your work surface a little so that the dough doesn’t stick and skip it, roll it all out for me. Then take one or more cookie cutters and cut out the shapes you want.

I like fir trees, but everyone has their own thing, eh. Then, gently lay each of them on a baking sheet with baking paper, and put them in the oven for 10-12 minutes at 180° degrees.

If you want to decorate them later, just wait for them to cool down!

Come on, lift up your hearts!