Mom's Cookies for Christmas

Mom used to make those cookies when we were kids and they bring back childhood memories. 

She calls them "healthy biscuits" in her recipe book . And I used her recipe to make Christmas cookies today.

According to the blog's stats, three percent of those of you reading the blog every day can probably follow mom's original Arabic recipe on the left.

For all the rest, here is the translated version for you to experiment with. But before you start, this is a messy, not straight-forward recipe and requires lots of manual labour and time.

But on a vacation day like today, me and cats had all the time in the world to make cookies and clean the mess afterwards.

So here you go...

1. Mix 4 cups flour, 3 tsp baking powder and 1.5 cups sugar.

2. With your hands, crumble in 1 cup butter.

3. Add grated orange (or lemon) zest, 1 tsp vanilla and 4 eggs already well mixed.

4. Knead for 15 minutes until all turns to dough.

Now roll the dough in between sheets of wax paper and cut into the shapes you want.

My mother would typically use a drinking glass to cut circles. But it is Christmas and I want to show off all those interesting molds I have.

And the challenges begun.
 

Very quickly I realized that I needed to change the wax paper after each roll.

The dough was too buttery that some molds simply would not lift well. I had snowmen with chopped heads, trees with no trunks, stars with one side chopped off, and on and on.

I found out very quickly that the easiest way to do this is to (a) roll the dough on the thick side and (b) use simple molds (like the shape of a mitten).

Baking was the easiest part of these cookies.

Just put the cookies on ungreased cookie sheets and bake in a 350 oven for 10 minutes.

If your cookies are on the thin side, drop down the time to 9 minutes or so. If the cookies are on the thick side, then leave them in closer to 12 minutes.

Once out of the oven, transfer off the cookie sheet within 5 minutes so they don't stick.

Three hours later, dozens of those cookies were made (minus a dozen that I ate along the way).

And with no help from cats.

Now my Christmas baking is all done and time to start eating and feasting. Stay tuned.