Our Traditional Christmas Baking 2012

The three Christmas bakers in our home

As soon as November looms in the air, my husband would be counting the days for the traditional Christmas baking in the family.

He would be prodding me to make sure that the recipes of his famous traditional Christmas goodies are ready. The recipes include three biscuits/cookies: Kulleraugen (Saucer Eye Cookies), Spritzgebackenes (German version of Shortbread cookies), and Buttergebackenes.

The last two, are what we miss coming from Oma's kitchen; while the Saucer Eye Cookies we simply added because we just love them.

Now, I am the one who take care during the pre-baking period: checking that the recipes are on-hand, making sure that all the ingredients have all been bought, providing them all the necessary materials including the Spritzgebackenes machine, the baking forms, the baking paper, the containers for the baked goodies, etc.

Not to mention, I am the disc jockey as I always tell them, to have Christmas inspiration, we need Christmas music in the air. I would rummage to find those cherished CDs and play them over and over and over again 'Silent Night, Oh, Holy Night'...

When it is time to bake, I keep out of the way because it would be my husband who normally takes over, happily assisted by our two girls (and our dog who became an instant reindeer that day).

The girls are very much involved in the making of the Spritzgebackenes 

They would usually start in a weekend morning and would end up late in the afternoon. They would normally need sometime to start the rhythm, (there would be some bickerings on who would do what, etc) but in the end, they would simply move. They would typically eat the first batches of the cookies/biscuits, but hey, they baked them after all! 

And of course, when all's been baked and done, it's me would would end up cleaning after them. All's fair!

P.S. Since having Rikki, our golden retriever, cleaning time after baking became easier as she would have already licked up clean some corners :-)

P.S.S. I also have my own Christmas baking moments, with different goodies, but I have to clean after myself. Still fair?