Spare Spoons Kitchen
Spare Spoons Kitchen · Christmas Kitchen

Christmas Kitchen

Cookies, candy, and sweets for the season — some handed down, some Norwegian, all worth making.

Most of these keep well in a tin, which means you can spread the baking across a few days instead of doing it all at once. The pepperkaker dough holds in the fridge for a week. The brittle and penuche walnuts are good gifts. The wassail can simmer all afternoon while everything else comes together.

Baking & candy

Cookies and sweet gifts — the heart of the Christmas kitchen.

Pepperkaker
Traditional Norwegian ginger cookies — deeply spiced, crisp, thin. Dough chills overnight; baked cookies last three weeks in a tin.
T ●●●○○ Requires Planning
Vegetarian
Spritzbaaken
German pressed butter cookies — rich, tender, delicate with vanilla and almond. Through a cookie press into rosettes and wreaths. Under 40 minutes.
T ●○○○○ Quick
Vegetarian
Mexican Wedding Cakes
Powdery butter cookies with pecans, rolled in two coats of powdered sugar. Also called Russian Tea Cakes, Snowballs. Crumbly, barely sweet.
T ●○○○○ Quick
Vegetarian
Penuche Walnuts
Walnuts in a brown sugar candy coating — fudge-rich, slightly grainy, caramel-sweet. Five ingredients, one pan, under 30 minutes. An easy edible gift.
T ●○○○○ Quick
VegetarianGF
Peanut Brittle
Light, airy hard candy from baking soda — deeply caramelized, satisfying snap. Needs a thermometer and your full attention. Better than anything from a tin.
T ●●○○○ Some Doing
Vegetarian
Brown Sugar Pecans
Crisp candied pecan clusters in a brown-sugar meringue — holiday snack and easy edible gift. Bake low and slow until crunchy. Naturally GF.
T ●●○○○ Some Doing
VegetarianGF
Betty's Fantasy Fudge
The marshmallow-creme fudge from the back of the jar — sugar to soft-ball, then chocolate and nuts. Rich, old-fashioned, and foolproof with a thermometer.
T ●●○○○ Some Doing
VegetarianGF

For gathering

Things to keep warm while people arrive.

Boar's Head Wassail
Apple cider and citrus, mulled with cloves and cinnamon. Fills the house with the smell of Christmas. Vegan, GF. Keeps warm in the slow cooker all afternoon.
T ●●○○○ Anytime
VeganGF
Little Smokies
Slow-cooker smoked sausages in a sweet-tangy glaze of Russian dressing, apricot preserves, and onion soup mix. Make ahead, keep warm, watch them vanish.
T ●●○○○ Anytime

All 9 recipes also appear in their home rooms — The Sweet Parlor and Aunt Betty's Comfort Kitchen.