Bredele Recipe

Traditional Christmas cookies from regional France

Ingredients:

• 500 grams of flour
• 500 grams caster sugar
• 150 grams of crystallised orange peel finely chopped
• 250 grams finely ground almonds
• 250 grams of unsalted butter
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Method:

1. Sift the flour into a bowl
2. Soften the butter and add to the the other ingredients [not yet into the flour]
3. Mix it all well until the sugar and butter are smooth
4. Now add it into the flour
5. Mix all this until a smooth consistency but do not over mix!
6. The cookie dough will be quite firm now
7. If the dough seems too dry add a little more egg yolk
8. Let it sit in the refrigerator until quite firm but keep it covered so that it does not dry out.
9. After the dough has rested for a couple of hours [leave it overnight but wrap it in Clingfilm] bring it onto a clean and very lightly floured bench and roll it out to about 3 or 4 millimeters.
10. Cut out the shapes with Christmas cookie cutters
11. Lay the shapes onto a lightly buttered cookie tray
12. Brush the cookies with egg to make them golden and shiny.
13. Bake in a medium oven at about 180 degrees
14. Bring them out to cool as soon as they are a golden colour.
15. Try not to eat them all at once!

Florentines Recipe

This is one of my all time favorites. The smell of the Florentines a heady mixture of chocolate, sugar and roasted nuts used to waft up the road and we would run home and beg her to let us have some and we'd munch on the broken pieces while she packed them into pretty jars to give to friends and neighbors.

Ingredients

• 90g toasted flaked almonds
• 60g diced cranberries (optional)
• 60 diced yellow, green red glace cherries, use both colours, very Christmassy!
• 60g sultanas or raisins
• 397g can condensed milk
• 310g dark cooking chocolate broken into chunks

Preparation

1. Heat oven to 180C/fan/160c
2. Line a couple of baking sheets with baking paper
3. Mix together in bowl all ingredients [omit the chocolate at this stage] until all the ingredients are sticky
4. Spoon tablespoons of mixture onto the sheets and leave room for spreading. Flatten each with the back of a wet spoon
5. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown.
6. Allow to cool until almost firm and with a spatula carefully turn each one upside down and cool completely
7. Melt chocolate over simmering water in a double boiler
8. When chocolate has melted, brush chocolate over the flat bases of the biscuits with a pastry brush
9. Once the chocolate is nearly set, make some wavy lines with a fork in the chocolate for a nice looking finish
10. Always use the best quality ingredients, try to make your Florentine with a good dark chocolate at least 70% cocoa.