Polish spiced Christmas cookies

Even if you don't normally bake it's worth taking the time at Christmas and what could be more perfect than this Polish spiced Christmas cookie recipe from Ren Behan's lovely book Wild Honey & Rye

I first met Ren years ago when she came along to a writing workshop I was giving at a blogger's conference and it's great to see how she's gone from strength to strength. Do visit her lovely website renbehan.com

POLISH SPICED CHRISTMAS COOKIES (PIERNICZKI ÅšWIÄ„TECZNE)

These Christmas cookies very quickly became the most popular recipe on my website when I first posted them in November 2011, just a year into starting my food blog. Since then, I’ve loved receiving emails and photos of the cookies that friends and readers have made for their own trees, or to give as gifts ahead of Christmas. Instead of making the icing to decorate the cookies, you could buy writing icing. Since I use wild honey and rye (flour) in my cookies, the title of my book was hidden within this recipe – long before I knew it!

Makes about 24 cookies, depending on the size of cutters used

115g/4oz/½ cup unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing

115g/4oz/generous ½ cup soft dark brown sugar

8 tbsp runny honey

450g/1lb/scant 4 cups plain (all-purpose) flour or rye flour, plus extra for dusting

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tbsp mixed spice

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1 egg

To decorate

150g/5½oz/generous 1¼ cups icing (confectioners’) sugar, sifted

1 egg white

1 tbsp water

food colouring (optional)

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6. Lightly grease three large baking sheets with butter.

Put the butter, brown sugar and honey in a small saucepan over a gentle heat. Stir only until the butter has melted. Set to one side.

In a large bowl, sift the dry ingredients together, mix well, add the egg and mix again. Pour the melted butter mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until the dough starts to come together.

Tip the mixture out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead to form a ball. If the mixture is too crumbly, add a tablespoon of water at a time and knead again until it comes together. Roll out the dough to about 3mm/1⁄8in thick. Cut out shapes using cookie cutters and carefully lift the cookies onto the baking sheets; leave about 1–2cm/¾in around each cookie – they don’t spread too much. Bake the cookies for 7–8 minutes per batch, until golden.

While the cookies are baking, make the icing by stirring together the icing sugar, egg white and water. If you like, divide the icing into different bowls and add a little food colouring to one or more bowls. Mix together really well until you have a thick paste that will pour evenly off a spoon. Fill a piping bag fitted with a fine nozzle with the icing and set to one side.

When the cookies are baked, they will still be a bit soft. Using a palette knife, carefully lift them onto a wire rack and leave to cool. If you are decorating the cookies for the tree, use a chopstick to make a small hole in the top of each cookie as soon as they come out of the oven, but be careful not to break the top off the cookie by pressing too hard.

Once cooled, decorate your cookies with the icing. Store in a tin for up to 2 weeks, as they will soften. If used as Christmas tree decorations, they can be left on the tree for the season.

Extracted from Wild Honey & Rye: Modern Polish Recipes by Ren Behan published by Pavilion at £20. Image credit Yuki Sugiura (cropped to fit from the original)

Rosemary, Polenta and Olive Oil Biscuits

At this time of year no-one wants to spend too much time in the kitchen but it's well worth the few minutes it takes to rustle up these incredibly easy and delicious home-made biscuits from food writer Xanthe Clay's lovely book The Contented Cook - perfect, she says, with ice cream or with raspberries and cream

Xanthe says they take well to other flavourings too. "Try a teaspoonful of lavender flowers, the grated zest of lemon and orange, a teaspoonful of crushed fennel seed, or ½ teaspoonful of ground cardamom seeds."

Makes 8–12

150g flour

30g fine polenta

60g caster sugar

Pinch of salt

Leaves from 3 x 10cm rosemary sprigs

90ml light olive oil (not extra virgin)

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Chop the leaves of the rosemary finely, then stir them with the oil into the mixture. Pat into a round about 0.5cm thick on a baking tray (no need to grease it, although a sheet of greaseproof paper is a good idea, as much to protect the biscuits from over-heating as anything), or use a 20cm round loose-bottomed cake tin. Mark into squares or segments with a knife. Chill for an hour in the fridge, then bake for about 40 minutes at 150°C/gas mark 2 until very lightly coloured. Leave for five minutes or so on the tray (or in the tin) then lift on to a rack to finish cooling.

From The Contented Cook by Xanthe Clay. Published by Kyle Books, priced £19.99. Photography: Tara Fisher

Pea, parsley & cheddar dip with pumpkin seed crackers

A recipe from a charming and inventive cookbook this week - blogger Rejina Sabur-Cross's Gastrogeek. I've picked it because I love dips - who doesn't? - but also because of the amazing-looking crackers.

Regina writes: "This is one of my all time favourite dips, and the crackers are insanely easy to make – in fact every time I’m in the supermarket and I see those expensive packets of gourmet crackers, I always remember just what a piece of cake it is to bake these and make a beeline straight for the flour section instead. Perfect for snacking on in front of the telly or passing round with drinks.

Serves 4

For the dip

1 garlic clove

1 teaspoon salt

150g frozen petits pois, defrosted

2 tablespoons soured cream

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1‑2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley

70g mature Cheddar cheese, grated

25g toasted pine nuts

1 tablespoon chives, finely chopped

1 teaspoon garlic powder

freshly ground black pepper

Crush the garlic clove with 1 teaspoon of salt to form a paste. Transfer to a bowl and add the remaining dip ingredients. Blitz together using a hand-held electric blender and place in the fridge to chill.

For the crackers

50g plain or spelt flour, plus extra for dusting

50g wholemeal or rye flour

5 teaspoons of seeds of your choice

3 tablespoons grated Parmesan or other hard cheese, for sprinkling

pinch of salt

In a bowl, mix the flours with about 6 tablespoons of water to form a supple dough. Turn a roasting tin or baking sheet upside down, dust it with flour and roll the dough out to cover the tin. It should be nice and thin - don’t worry if it doesn’t look perfect.

Preheat the oven to 180˚C/gas mark 4. Sprinkle the dough with a little water and from a slight height (to ensure even distribution) sprinkle over the seeds, cheese and a pinch of salt. Pop the inverted tin in the oven and bake for 15‑20 minutes or until golden and crisp.

Remove and slide a spatula under to loosen the cracker before breaking up into big bite-size shards.

Serve the hot crackers with the cold dip. Any leftover crackers will keep in an airtight container for a few days.

What to drink: I'd probably go for a Sauvignon Blanc or Semillon with this but you could drink an Italian white like a Vermentino, a rosé or even a glass of sparkling wine like a Cava.

Gastrogeek by Rejina Sabur-Cross is published by Kyle Books, priced £15.99. Photography: Chris Terry