Americans traditionally bake biscuits and leave them with a glass of milk for Santa Claus and his reindeers the night before Christmas. A little gift to thank him for his efforts. How about copying this tradition and baking and decorating biscuits together with your children? Just remember to make sure they’re gone the morning of the 25th!
Here at Ferplast we’re very good at making all your pets need, but cooking is not our strongest asset. So we’ve turned to Fabrizia of FABULOUS PARTY DESIGN for help. Fabrizia’s mission is to make children happy by creating beautiful items to decorate the room and sweets, and to wear. Her website has wonderful kits she makes with her own hands and her own creativity. There’s also a section dedicated to recipes by food blogger and baker Letizia Ghelfi. Stay with us, as Letizia is preparing a wonderful party for our furry friends.
In the meantime, let’s check the recipe for Santa Claus. These are Swedish Christmas biscuits we can decorate with sugar paste. They’re pretty enough to use as Christmas tree decorations.
Ingredients:
170 g butter
200 g sugar
3 tablespoons of honey
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of cloves
1 teaspoon of ginger
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of cardamom
1 teaspoon instant coffee
100 ml water
500 g flour
Directions:
Use a spatula to stir the butter into a cream. Add sugar, honey, the ground spices, and the baking soda. Dissolve the coffee in the lukewarm water. When all the ingredients are well mixed, add the water.
Knead the mixture while adding flour until the resulting dough is smooth and homogeneous.
Leave the dough in the fridge as long as possible (ideally, for 24 hours).
Cut the biscuits in the desired shape and arrange them on a baking pan lined with baking sheet.
Bake at 190° C for 8-10 minutes. Let them cool before hanging them on your tree using a ribbon. Decorate them with sugar paste if you want.
Creating Santa Claus and little animals is really simple, and doesn’t require the use of any special tool. Use a simple biscuit cutter and a dough cutter, and you’ll be halfway through.
No matter what you’re making, start by cutting out the base, a smooth circle of sugar paste, with the same circumference as the biscuits (measure after baking, as they tend to expand), then roll little balls of dough in your palms to create elements such as noses, eyes and mouths. Flatten and clip away as needed, to create all the characteristic features of our pets. They too will be happy to be a part of the party!
To make Santa Claus, you’ll need:
– a pink circle for the face - half a white circle for the beard - two halves of a small white circle for the moustache – half a red circle + a red triangle + a small white ball for the hat – a small red ball for the nose – two tiny black balls for the eyes
Assemble the different parts with a drop of water and let it all dry on the spiced biscuit. Now all you have to do is to hang the biscuits on the tree with a nice coloured ribbon.
