Kulleraugen : Saucer Eyes Cookies

Kulleraugen or Saucer Eyes Cookies are Christmas shortbread biscuits that looks like big saucer eyes.

They are remain in our Christmas cookies sortiment ever since we experimented with different recipes since 2007.

It is fun baking these cookies. And we love their taste, too.

Ingredients:
250 g flour
1 / 2 tsp baking powder
100 g sugar
1 pack vanilla sugar
a pinch of salt
3 egg yolk
150 g butter
1 egg white
50 g chopped almonds
60 g strawberry jam

Preparation:

Mix flour with baking powder. Add sugar, vanilla sugar and a pinch of salt. Separate the eggs yolk from the egg white. Set aside the egg white. Add the egg yolk to the flour.

Add butter to the flour and knead until it forms a firm dough. Cover and store for an hour in the refrigerator.

Afterwards, form small dough balls and place on a baking paper-lined baking sheet. Leave a space of at least an inch between each balls.

Press the center of each ball with your finger to make a hollow hole. Dip the upper edge of the dough balls in egg white then dip again into the chopped almonds. Fill the holes with strawberry jam.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. The Kulleraugen needs around 20 minutes to bake.

Today is St. Nicholas Day

Seven-year-old IC is adamant, insisting that there the real St. Nicholas is already dead.

Well, I can't argue because it is true as she knows that the story of Santa Claus begins with Nicholas, who was born during the third century in the village of Patara. As Bishop Nicholas, he became known throughout the land for his generosity to the those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships. December 6 became his feast day and the day for gift-giving in Germany to preserve the memory that it was the Christ Child who are to be celebrated during Christmas day.

Now the question is, who brings the gifts during St. Nicholas Day? Her ready answer, of course, Mama and Papa! Well, I told her, that might be true. But who leaves those extra chocolates and gifts outside our front door during the early morning of St. Nicholas Day?

Well, she had no ready answer for that. And I am not ready to tell her that those are from generous neighbors playing St. Nicholas. Indeed, early this morning, (good thing Rikki, our pup, wasn't the first one out of the front door); both girls stumbled into gifts from St. Nicholas on the front door. There's even a letter stating that those are from St. Nicholas and it's not in my handwriting so...

And then again, they saw St. Nicholas chocolate baskets beside the garage door! They know it could not have been their Papa nor their Mama as we were both busy in the kitchen and they were the first ones out.

Oh, we cleared things up, too. I informed them that the St. Nicholas gifts that adults receive are mostly bought by kids because St. Nicholas only have time to prepare gifts for the kids. Thus, they shopped to buy us gifts; wrapped them in secret. And sneaked those presents in our home office which really surprised us :-D

Mama and Papa's St. Nicholas gifts arranged by the girls

After school, where they received more gifts coming from St. Nicholas; the girls enthusiastically finished showed off their gifts, made their homework as fast as they can. They know that we are going out, despite being a school day. We drove off to shop a bit, then we visited the Mannheimer Weinachtsmarkt (Mannheim Christmas Market).

Mannheim's Christmas Market

Back home, they noticed that St. Nicholas chocos are scattered around. They collected those sweet figurines, before finding out that their presents are sorrounded by more of them. All gifts from St. Nicholas, of course. After all, we were all not home, right???

Happy St. Nicholas Day everyone!

DIY: Santa Boots Advent Calendar

I did say in my last post that we wanted to have a Christmas City Advent calendar and Santa Boots Advent calendar, right?

We started with creating the boots of Santa first. I gave one pattern each to IC and MC. But since it is a last minute thing, we don't really have all the necessary items for the boots. So we had to improvise, meaning, it would take more time and effort.

The first two booties took the kids almost an hour to finish!! If we would continue working, it would be the first week of December and we are still cutting and painting. Therefore, a compromise. One Santa boot goes into their Christmas City Advent calendar or else we will not meet the deadline. The girls agreed. That's our Advent calendar story 2011 and now here's how our Santa Booties were created:

Materials needed:

cardboard or a thick paper
glue
ribbon
pair of scissors
darning needle
watercolor
paint brush
Santa Boot template : CLICK

 
How to:

Print the template.
Cut it out and transfer to the cardboard.
Fold the boots along the dotted lines.
Punch the holes.
Paint or paste trimmings on the boots.
Glue the heel.
Take the front flap and roll it according to the shape of boot.
Then using the darning needle and your chosen ribbon, thread them into the holes of boots.
Add the number by painting it on the boot.

The inspiration for the Santa booties is here.