Gingerbread biscuits - An Alsatian tradition for Saint Nicolas

All right, I am late about that post...

Every year on the 6th of December, since I am a child, I enjoy this family tradition. Saint Nicolas, protectors of children, visit houses and reward well behaved girls and boys. It is cold and dark (in France). We - the children - are all excited about his coming but also a bit anxious that we may receive the visit of the Pere Fouettard - a nasty, scary, smelly guy who correct naughty children and may eventually take them in his bag. So this night, we would stay with our family sharing treats in a very special atmosphere: hot chocolate, ginger bread (i.e., pain d'epices in French), mandarin, walnuts and other treats. The little man, called Mannele in Alsatian, are made of brioche (a sort of a sweet bread) - these are also part of the tradition; I will write another post with this recipe - in the meantime, you could use my recipe for soft milk buns - here.

This is the recipe of a tasty-licious ginger bread that is originally coated in chocolate or cover with royal icing, on the top of what we put a picture of the majestic Saint Nicolas (see the picture). In order to involve No. 1, this year, we also used a ginger man cookie cutter. We made them for his daycare Christmas family party and especially for Santa.

At least, you can't say that you have not got time to practice this easy recipe for next year Saint Nicolas.

Hazelnut moon crescents / Croissants de Lune Sablés

With this unstable weather, I suggest to step back into your kitchen to make these lovely, crumbly hazelnut sablés. These hazelnut moon crescent are the home-made version of a famous French biscuit brand (Les croissants de Lune de Bahlsen).

I have my very own way to eat them since I was a child: one moon segment at a time! I love them on their own or a cup of tea, but they would probably be fantastic served with a cup of coffee (If I'd like coffee!).

As per the original recipe, I shape them as little crescents. The dough is so easy to work that you can let your kids express their own creativity. My 4 years-old made caterpillar and mushrooms, unfortunately they've been eaten before I could make any pictures, so there you can see them before baking. Dinosaurs are back!

Home-made praline / praliné

I'm preparing some special hazelnut sablé biscuits for my son's daycare snacks. Those French biscuits needs some flavoursome praliné paste, which probably can't be bought from NZ supermarkets or groceries. The good news is that it is super easy to make your own praline and once you have tasted this delicious topping or paste, I bet you'll become addict straight away!

The recipe I'm sharing today comes from a world-renowned French pastry chef: Philippe Conticini, so it is a high standard recipe, but you'll be stroke how easy it is. You just need a good food processor and a little bit of patience.

But what's praline or praliné? It's a combination of hazelnuts and/or almonds, but could also contain pistachio or cashew. The nuts are roasted, then cooked in a slightly dark toffee and pulverised finely. After few seconds in the mill or blender, you'll obtain a powder - the praline -, if you keep grounding, then you'll obtain a paste - the praliné -.

The praline is a gourmet topping for ice-cream or custard, crumble and apple pies, and I bet it would be lovely on the top of a pavlova... I'm just saying...
The praliné paste is delicious spread on toasts, combined in crème chantilly for choux filling, or combined in cake, brioches, cookies and biscuits.

My gourmet mango crumble

I won't hold the suspense any longer. Here is the recipe of my gourmet mango crumble!
For this absolute pleasure, you'll need butter cookies or shortbread cookies (see recipe here), vanilla ice-cream (see recipe here), salted caramel sauce (see recipe below) and of course fresh mangoes!
If you don't have the time to make all these elements yourself, you can easily use shortened biscuits, ice-cream and caramel sauce from the supermarket, but let's be frank: it will be much nicer home-made, and you can prepare all the elements in advance so that you just need to prepare the roasted mangoes before you serve. Don't be afraid by these elements; they are all super-easy to make!

Mango crumble (6 servings)

Ingredients

- 2 fresh mangoes, diced into very small pieces
- 1 knob of natural butter
- 1 tsp raw sugar
- 6 butter cookies or shortbread cookies - see recipe here
- 1 or 2 scoops of vanilla ice-cream per serving - see recipe here
- a generous dash of salted caramel sauce - see recipe at the end of this post

Butter cookies / Shortbread cookies

I cooked like crazy this week-end. It was so much fun and so much pleasure from the plate. I guess it will take me the whole week, if not more, to share with you all the new and old recipes I came up with!

With my No.1, we made Lebanese flat-bread and hummus - that was so fresh, so good as appetizer!
There was also a seven-hours lamb leg - this dish raised the bar very high and took us straight to heaven!
Then, I made vanilla ice-cream, salted caramel sauce and butter cookies to revisit a roasted mango crumble - that's was a pure pleasure to eat!
If this sounds like a nice meal, stay connected, I'll post all the recipes this week!

I'm starting with the butter cookies, sort of shortbread cookies, but sweeter - my son's favourites! He was so sad when after only few hours, he realised that there were only three left - daddy loved them, too! There were about 30 cookies freshly baked in the morning and only three left in mid-afternoon. I think that's a pretty sound indicator. But the best is for the mums: less than 10 mins preparation (yes in total!!!) + 7-8 mins baking! I bet you'll be baking those every second day. I prepare the cookie dough in the evening, rest it in the fridge over night. The next morning, it is ready for slicing and baking few minutes, just in time before morning snack or afternoon tea. These cookies are deliciously rich and crumbly. They suit very well with coffee or tea. I love them with ice-cream.