English Christmas Cookies Recipes: Simple and Delicious Treats
There are countless kinds of Christmas cookies, and this year, Christmas baking is all about simple cookie recipes. The simpler, the better! In today's fast-paced world, especially before Christmas, it is desirable that their preparation does not take too much time. Let's explore some delightful and easy-to-make English Christmas cookie recipes that will bring joy to your holiday season.
Healthy Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cookies
A delicate peanut butter shortbread cookie made with only wholemeal flour and sweetened with coconut syrup matches perfectly with dark chocolate. This is a combination that not only many love. And when it's healthy on top of that, there is no problem baking these cookies any time of the year. The simplicity of this recipe is that you don't have to roll and cut out the shapes, but just make the dough into balls that flatten slightly. The biggest secret is the chocolate! You don't have to mess with any chocolate frosting. Just buy chocolate chips and put them on the warm cookies one at a time. The chocolate will melt with the heat of the cookies, and that's it.
Ingredients:
- Peanut butter
- Butter
- Coconut syrup
- Whole wheat flour
- Cinnamon
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Egg yolk
- Chocolate chips
Instructions:
- Make sure all the ingredients are at the same room temperature.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the peanut butter, butter, and coconut syrup until creamy.
- Sift in the whole wheat flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and stir well.
- Finally, add the egg yolk and mix with a spatula.
- Transfer the dough to a container with a lid and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to rest and firm up.
- Roll the chilled dough into 1.5 cm diameter balls and then lightly flatten them on a baking sheet.
- Bake the cookies for approximately 3-5 minutes in a preheated oven at 170°C until golden brown.
- Immediately after removing from the oven, place the chocolate chips on top of the cookies, which will melt with the heat.
WARNING - the cookies are still baking on the baking sheet after they are removed from the oven.
Why Use Wholemeal Flour?
Is baking with wholemeal flour healthier? Wholemeal flour contains more nutrients, fiber, and protein than white flour because the whole grain is ground into the flour, including the germ and hull. B vitamins, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, and iron are the most abundant in wholemeal flour. In addition, wholemeal flour products have a lower Glycemic Index. This means that they fill us up sooner, and the sugar is then released more slowly. You don't have to be afraid of using wholemeal flour in the cooking because it works in a similar way to white flour. It just has less gluten compared to regular white flour, which doesn't bother you at all with shortbread cookies, on the contrary! But if you don't know how to work with whole wheat flour, just add just a part of the whole wheat flour to the dough and for the rest use regular white wheat flour.
Sweetening Options
With what to sweeten healthy peanut butter cookies with chocolate? You can use whatever sweetener you like! It will also make the dough crispier and a bit more sweet. But mostly like to add instead. It has a wonderful caramel flavor, and the cookies are very delicate with this syrup. The benefit of the syrups is that they don't have to be whisked for a long time when making the dough because they are liquid. Maple syrup, honey, date syrup, or chicory sweetener will also work well, as will classic powdered or vanilla sugar with small crystals.
Dokonalé pečení začíná správným měřením mouky
Storage Tips
How to store healthy peanut butter and chocolate cookies? Once cooled, stack the cookies in an airtight box and refrigerate them. This should keep the cookies good for up to two weeks. The cookies can also be frozen for about 2 months. Warning! Depending on how much you melt the chocolate chips on the cookies, they may happen to begin to separate over time. Especially if they are kept in a cold environment for a long time or they are roughly manipulated.
Festive Christmas Cookie Decorating Ideas to Try This Year
Linzer Cookies
Linz pudding cookies are a popular classic in a modern twist. Here’s a recipe for classic Linzer cookies:
Ingredients:
- 70 g buckwheat flour + 20 g buckwheat flour for dusting
- 100 g almond flour
- 1 egg yolk
- 30 g honey
- 40 g butter
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Pinch of salt
Instructions:
- On a work surface, pour the flour with ground almonds, make a well in the center, and add the egg yolk, honey, and cold chopped butter.
- Mix the ingredients and work them well with your hands until the pieces of dough start to stick together.
- Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, and let it rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 160 °C for top and bottom heating.
- Dust the dough with flour and roll it out to a thickness of 4 mm.
- Cut out shapes and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Additional Christmas Cookie Ideas
- Lemon Cream Cookies: Delicate, fresh, and will make Christmas a real experience.
- Shortbread Cookies: Classic butter cookies filled with nuts.
Enjoy baking these delightful Christmas cookies and have a wonderful holiday season!
