Advent Reading-The Baker's Dozen, A saint Nicholas Tale

The Baker's Dozen retold by Aaron Sheperd is the final St. Nicholas book we will read this week, on the day before the feast of St. Nicholas.

The Baker's Dozen is beautifully illustrated and within this short tale is to be found a great lesson in generosity. The baker of this story is taught by the saint himself that giving "more" of one's self can lead to great rewards. It looks as though this book is out of print because it is outrageously expensive at Amazon. I own it, but know I didn't pay that much for it just last year. I cannot remember where I purchased it though....check you library for this one.

More baking today using our St. Nicholas cookie cutter available here (it looks just like the cookies from the book) or other styles here. The recipe we used for the cookies is a German spice cookie called Speculatius-I've included the recipe we used below, from the St. Nicolas center site. It makes a beautiful, spicy dough. Makes about 5 dozen cookies using a 31/2" tall cutter. Note to self:make half a recipe next year! We just used a basic icing recipe for decorating. ( Roughly 2/3 cup powdered sugar to 2 t. milk.)

I didn't snap any pictures today, but that just gave me an excuse to revisit these ridiculously cute ones from last year.......pink bishops robes and all!

And just for kicks, look at all the SNOW we had at this time last year!!! I'm getting kind of excited for snow right about now, but sadly it is just brown and cold.

Speculatius (German Spice Cookies)

Here is a recipe for a traditional Nicholas cookie that comes out of the Rhineland. The cookie is called "Speculatius" which means "image." In Europe, the "image" is the mirror-image of a Nicholas which had been pressed into a wooden mold and then turned out on a sheet to bake in the oven.

Mix in order:

1 cup shortening
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs whole
¾ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
4 cups flour
4 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons allspice
2 teaspoons nutmeg
2 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons cloves

Turn out onto a floured board. Knead in about one cup additional flour or as much as you need until dough is no longer sticky and is easy to handle.

Put into a plastic bag and refrigerate until chilled and stiff. Then you are ready to roll out and cut the cookies. Cut off a manageable piece and keep the rest cool until you are ready for more.

For many little cut-out shapes, roll out the dough thinly. Thin cookies are tastiest.

For the larger, decorated St. Nicholas cookies, roll the dough to about ¼ inch thickness. Cut out cookie around paper pattern. Place on greased baking sheet.Then get inspired. Use scrappy bits of dough to decorate your Nicholas. For a beard press a little dough through a sieve or a garlic press. Use little balls of dough for eyes or buttons.

The same dough lends itself to all sorts of shapes and symbols and is useful for making "St. Nicholas awards" to certain people on this special occasion.

Bake at 350º F. until golden-brown. These keep forever in tins in the freezer or for two–three weeks on the shelf.