The best way to start

One of the the things I love so much about cooking is recipes. They are as diverse as the people they come from, laden with history, culture and religion. But, unlike people, recipes don't judge... I have never heard a recipe say: 'Are you sure you should be eating this?' or 'Stop trying to change me!' or, worse still, 'Didn't you want to fit in that cute, red little bikini this summer?' Trust me, I will never, ever, fit in anything cute, red and little. Especially when the three are combined into one (or this case, two).

Recipes can be sophisticated or crude, pompous or modest, simple or difficult, comforting or upsetting (I still don't care how much alcohol you pour over liver), festive or plain. There is a recipe for every occasion: birthday and wedding cakes (no explanation needed, I hope), triple-chocolate cookies (for when that special someone has done a boo-boo), lobster thermidore (for when you desperately need/want to impress someone but don't want to be slaving over a hot stove for hours), hot cross buns (for Easter). You can, most likely, come up with ten more that are traditionally served up in your family at certain occasions. And then with ten more for when you are sad, happy, in love, out of love, wanting to impress, wanting to comfort and so on.

A cabbie was stopped by a young man in Manhattan who asked, 'How do I get to Carnegie Hall?' 'Practice,' replied the cabbie. It's old but not just true for people who want to get to Carnegie Hall (as a musician). If you want a recipe to work, to be a success, practice is needed. That, and people who love you even if your first attempt is less than desirable. But, before you throw out your first attempt, have a taste (unless it is burnt beyond recognition or meat is uncooked) to try to come up with why something has (possibly) not worked. It wouldn't be the first time someone has thought 'This was a mistake' and yet the end result (although not intended in this way) turned out to be brilliant.

The best thing about cooking (and baking, for that matter), however, is not the recipes or the end result but the fact that anyone can do it. Not everyone can be a rocket scientist or a model or a biologist but everyone can be a cook or a baker. You don't have to have any domestic prowess (I can vouch for that) to present your guests with some home-made delights. But (there always is a but) when you want to start mountain climbing you don't start with the Himalayas or even the Matterhorn, you start with something easier. The same goes for cooking and baking; If you are new to this, start with something easy rather than going straight for the 'Momofuku Ramen' or 

'Consommé de Boeuf à la Royale'.

As Christmas is on its way (just 39 days to go), I thought I'd share an easy recipe for Christmas Biscuits; a recipe I came across as I was reading one of my favourite books, 'Winter's Children' by Leah Fleming. In the variations below the recipe, I have added some festive changes so that the biscuits can be used as edible Christmas tree decorations.

Nora's Christmas Biscuits

Ingredients:

• 85 gram icing sugar
• 85 gram custard powder
• 227 gram butter or margarine
• 227 gram plain flour

Method:

1. Put all the ingredients into a bowl and stir until it is all combined into a creamy mass (feel free to use your own power or the power of an electric whisk)
2. Shape the mix into small balls (about the size of a walnut)
3. Freeze the balls until chilled
4. Grease a baking tray and pre-heat the oven to 190°C
5. Place the chilled balls onto the baking tray (about 2 cm apart as they will go flatter and spread a little)
6. Place the baking tray in the centre of the oven and bake the biscuits for 5 minutes
7. Once baked, leave the biscuits to cool on a wire rack
8. (Optional) once cooled decorate the biscuits with (coloured) icing and silver balls

That is all there is to it but you can make these biscuits as festive as you like.

(Coloured) Icing is not difficult to make:

Take icing sugar and mix in some lemon juice or water until you have a thickish paste. Add a couple of drops of food colouring and mix. This paste can then be spread onto the biscuits with a knife. If you want to try your hand a piping, make the paste slightly thinner with some added water or lemon juice and place in small (paper) piping bag (see here on how to make one yourself). For the finest piping work, make sure to only have a little hole in your piping bag or the smallest possible piping cone.

Variations:

• Variation 1: 'Shaped Biscuits' (rather than round)
• Follow step 1
1. cover the bowl and let it chill for 30 minutes in the fridge
2. sprinkle some flour on a work surface and roll the pastry out
3. cut out biscuits with your favourite cutter
4. (optional) with the tip of a knife, make a little whole in the biscuit shape (for string) (this might need to be done again when the biscuits come out the oven and the are still piping hot)
5. Follow from step 3
6. (optional) decorate as desired with (coloured) icing and silver balls

• Variation 2: 'Stained Glass Biscuits'
  
• Follow step 1
1. cover the bowl and let it chill for 30 minutes in the fridge
2. sprinkle some flour on a work surface and roll the pastry out
3. cut out biscuits with your favourite cutter
4. (optional) with the tip of a knife, make a little whole in the biscuit shape (for string) (this might need to be done again when the biscuits come out the oven and the are still piping hot)
5. crush 100 gram of your favourite hard boiled sweet in the food processor (if you do not have a food processor: place a tea towel on a sturdy work surface and cover it with a piece of baking/grease proof paper, put the sweets on the paper and place an extra piece of paper on top, get a heavy pan or rolling pin and bash the sweets until the are fine)
• I prefer to use 'single colour' sweets (green, yellow, red) and crush them separately to get a clear stained glass
• You can use any flavour you like but I prefer to use fruit flavoured as they don't 'clash' with the flavour of the biscuits
1. cut out a little shape in the centre of the biscuits
2. follow steps 3, 4 and 5
3. fill the holes in the biscuits with some of the crushed sweets
4. follow from step 6

• Variation 3: 'Spiced Christmas Biscuits'
• Add 1 teaspoon cinnamon to the ingredients and follow as in the original recipe (or the variations above)
• Variation 4: a 'Biscuit Christmas Tree'
• Using double the ingredients, make the biscuits as in Variation 1 but cut the biscuits into 5-pointed stars, each one ½ centimetre smaller than the previous one
• gather up the leftover pastry, knead quickly together, roll out and keep cutting biscuits until all the pastry is used
• Bake and leave to cool
• Make a green coloured icing and spread this onto the biscuits, place a silver ball (baking isle at the major supermarkets) on each point f the stars, and leave the icing to dry
• Starting with the largest star, place the stars onto a serving platter
• place the first star with one point directly to you
• the second star with two points down
• the third with one point directly to you
• the fourth with two points down
• and so on, see image below

I hope you will enjoy these biscuits, both making and eating, as much as I do. Let me know how you got on and don't forget: It's okay if they don't form perfectly the first time round, they won't tell you off for not being perfectly round or not quite a star-shape.

I wish you an early Merry Christmas and happy eating.

Enjoy