Christmas Biscuits Through the World: Use Your Imagination, Bake and Celebrate

Christmas biscuits are desserts that are traditionally baked for Christmas. Christmas cakes have their origins in recipes from medieval Europe, in which modern ingredients such as cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, almonds, and dried fruit began to be used. By the 16th century, Christmas cakes had become popular throughout Europe.

The soonest instances of Christmas treats in the United States were brought by the Dutch in the mid-seventeenth century. Because of a wide scope of modest imported items from Germany somewhere in the range of 1871 and 1906 observing a change to importation laws, dough shapers opened up in American business sectors. These imported dough shapers regularly portrayed profoundly stylized pictures with subjects intended to hold tight Christmas trees. Because of the accessibility of these utensils, plans started to show up in cookbooks intended to utilize them. In the mid-twentieth century, U.S. dealers were likewise bringing in enriched Lebkuchen treats from Germany to be utilized as presents.

For centuries, the Winter Solstice was celebrated worldwide. Reunions of individuals accumulated between Norway and West Africa, Ireland and India are commending the shifting seasons. Feasts revolved around food; despite everything before hunger in colder seasons of the year it was important to feed. Solstice also meant the arrival of primary ice, allowing for the killing of creatines and the retention of them to eat safely during the colder part of the year and for the end of aging foods, including lager and wine, to be drinkable in the spring. As any cutting edge knows, the only thing you need to finish with a good meal and a firm drink is dessert.

First - spice it!

What is life without a dash of spice? Besides, what is Christmas without spices? Spices for Christmas are the most specific of all spices since history. Spices have been in consumption since the Neolithic era: they were first found in wooden dwellings. The spices swap has created cinnamon and dark pepper throughout the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East at most pinpoint in 2000 BCE, while herbs and peppers are found in East Asia. Ancient Egyptians used onions, garlic, juniper berries, and caraway from 4000 to 5000 years ago. 

Think of Christmas: this is a holiday that we celebrate with every sense and one of the most usual is, of course, smell... When we think about Christmas it is always the cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg smell that spreads through the house.

Christmas spices can be found in many dishes and they all have one thing in common: with their seductive fragrance and incomparable taste, they get us in the Christmas mood!

Current Christmas delicacies will follow their experience to Medieval Europe plans, as many advanced fixtures have been imported into the west, such as cinnamon, ginger, dark pepper, Almonds, or the dried natural product. Since Christmas was a period of extraordinary galas, numerous flavors got inseparable from this season, with customary dishes given an outlandish redesign with the presentation of some incredibly flavorsome flavors.

The most popular Christmas spices:

• Cinnamon
• Cloves
• Ginger
• Nutmeg
• Anise
• Coriander
• Peppermint: Candy cane – who can resist eating it? Their star ingredient is peppermint but this spice is popular in other, mostly, chocolate biscuits. Peppermint is, with all of that in mind, also healthy thanks to its high levels of beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin C. Also, research shows that the flavor may help prevent tension headaches, improve concentration, curb appetite, and even reduce cold symptoms.

Christmas through the world in biscuits

The most popular Christmas cookies in the U.S.

1. Sugar Cookie M&M’s Bars
2. Easiest-Ever Russian Tea Cakes
3. Sugar Cookie Cutouts
4. Peanut Butter Blossoms
5. Easy Spritz Cookies
6. Easy Holiday Oatmeal Cookies
7. Nutella Swirled Meringue Cookies
8. Black and White Cookies
9. Buckeye Delights
10. Melted Snowman Sugar Cookies

Peanut Butter Blossoms, the classic sugar-rolled peanut butter cookie with a Hershey kiss in the center, were the favorite in seven states: California, Florida, Kentucky, Nevada, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wyoming. The peanut butter and chocolate combination was also popular in Maine and Vermont, where residents favored Two-Ingredient PB-Chocolate Truffles; Nebraska, where Peanut Butter-Chocolate Cookies was the most clicked recipe; and in West Virginia, where Easy Peanut Butter Cookie Cups took the best position.

Another popular recipe during the holiday season are Easy Spritz Cookies—the buttery stamped cookies were the favorite among residents in Colorado, Illinois, North Dakota, and Washington. Russian Tea Cakes, the nutty powdered-sugar coated shortbread, were a hit in snowy Alaska, Arkansas, and Montana. Despite the popularity of gingerbread cookies and houses during Christmastime, Hawaii was the only state where Easy Gingerbread Cookies took the top spot. – according to Marta Stewart and General Mills' post.

Christmas biscuits in every state: Bacon what?

California

• Vegan Chocolate Chip Bacon Cookies

What a combination, right? Did you know that chocolate chip cookies were accidentally made and got worldwide fame? With that in mind, those biscuits have many versions but bacon ones are for sure the most unusual.

Hawaii

• Chinese Almond Cookies

Round shaped with almond in the middle, classic that we could always go for.

Kansas

• Giant Chocolate Chip cookies

What is better than a classic chocolate chip cookie? Giant chocolate chip cookie!

Arizona and New Mexico

• Bizcochitos Cookies

Popular in Arizona and also Mexico. Biscochitos are New Mexico’s State Cookies. It’s true! New Mexicans love Biscochitos so much that they made it official in 1989. It’s not Christmas here without them! 

Biscochitos are similar to shortbread cookies, but different due to their unique flavor twist.

The biscochito dough is made with a generous amount of crushed anise seeds, as well as a hint of orange and cinnamon. They’re packed with flavor, covered in cinnamon sugar.

Georgia

• Calypso Cookies

Coconut smell mostly reminds us of summer but it can fit perfectly for Christmas too if you bake calypso cookies. Shredded coconut, pecans, and rolled oats give calypso cookies a soft texture.

Let's stick to classics!

Here is the list of classic biscuits that are made thorugh the world.

Top 11 list:

1. Spritz cookies – Biscuit type that is also similar to a shortbread cookie, but spritz cookies usually contain an egg. Eggs help the spritz cookies hold their shape when baked so they don't crumble.They are also similar to sugar cookies due to their buttery and sweet texture. Spritz cookies are shaped with cookie cutters and shaped with a cookie press.
2. Gingerbread cookies – Holiday classic since the 16th century! Gossip has it that Queen Elizabeth first charged them to speak to her #1 individuals in her court. Simultaneously, society medication experts, witches, and entertainers recommended them as adoration tokens for young ladies to help men begin to look all starry eyed at them.
3. Linzer tarts – these treats are made of almond butter with a sweet jam filling inside, and they are certainly an occasion top pick. These treats started in the town of Linz in Austria numerous years prior, where they were called Linzertorte. A conventional Linzetorte has involved a rich mixture made of almonds, lemon zing, and cinnamon, and loaded up with dark currant jelly.
4. Snickerdoodles – Snickerdoodles are originated from Germany and the name is a corruption of the German word Schneckennudel, a Palatine variety of schnecken. They are also called snipdoodles or cinnamon sugar cookies. Snickerdoodles are soft and chewy cookies that are flavored with vanilla and coated in cinnamon sugar.
5. Oatmeal raisin cookies are always a choice! – Tasty and full of health benefits: Oatmeal cookies. With a special decoration or maybe frosting, it can fit perfectly for Christmas.
6. Chocolate Crinkles – Let's stick to classics! So irresistible, soluble chocolate snacks that Santa Clause wouldn't resist them. Chocolate dough rolled in powdered sugar and baked into a festive black and white cookie.
7. Russian Tea Cakes - Photogenic, tasty snowballs. The story behind these Snowball cookies is that they originated in Europe as a tea time snack and moved slowly to Mexico with European nuns where they became a popular cookie served at weddings.
8. Krumkake - Krumkaker is customary treats from Norway. They were initially prepared over open flames utilizing enhancing irons; anyway current cooks utilize electric or burner irons to heat these skinny rolls. Krumkaker owes their name, which signifies "bent cake" or "twisted cake", to the way that they are enclosed by a cone shape.
9. Springerle - Springerle has been conventional Christmas treats in south Germany (Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg) and Austria for quite a long time. They are anise-enhanced treats produced using an egg-flour-sugar batter. They are normally made in straightforward shapes, for example, square shapes or circles. After molding, they typically have an image or configuration squeezed into the delicate mixture with uniquely cut moving pins or presses. After they are heated, the plans are in some cases shaded if the aim is to utilize the treats as embellishments.
10. Last but not least – Vanillekipferl - Vanillekipferl begins from Vienna in Austria and is a strength of the Bavarian town of Nördlingen. Generally, they are made at Christmas and are very notable in Europe. Consequently, they can be delighted in lasting through the year and are regularly available to be purchased in Viennese coffeehouses. They are said to have been made looking like the Turkish sickle moon representing the festival of the triumph of the Hungarian armed force over the Turkish in one of the numerous battles between the countries.

Christmas biscuit decorations

Icing for biscuits, little drawings, sparkles – how can Christmas biscuits go without it?

Take your time and set your imagination free – choices are limitless! There is no wrong choice when it comes to decorating Christmas biscuits. If you feel extra creative, you can draw little snowmen, Santa Clause with icing or food colorings or you can even lay small sequins and balls into a little bell, Christmas tree, or else.

Embrace your inner baker and decorator!

Here's what you need:

1. cookie cutters
2. couplers – only needed if you're using the same icing color, but need to switch tips.
3. piping bags
4. gel food coloring – get the whole set – it can make the most creative biscuits in the world!
5. round piping tips

Sugar biscuits are the easiest to decorate because of their texture.

Striped Candy Canes

• red food shading
• piping bag
• piping tip

Here is the thought for Christmas top pick - candy sticks. Here are how to make them: Tint 1/3 of the icing red until you arrive at your ideal shade. Keep in mind, red icing dries more obscure so don't go over the edge with the food shading.

Diagram and flood the whole treats stick white with channeling tip #5. Before allowing that to set, pipe slanting red lines on top with funneling tip #3. Run a toothpick around the white edge. The toothpick will drag the red to make the "swirly" look.

You are lazy? Buy Christmas biscuit brands

Speculaas have originated in Belgium and the Netherlands. Hasselt, a famous Belgian town has been popular because of its Speculaas.

Speculaas can be very Dutch because of the images used for decoration. In the United States, Speculaas is popular for its windmill design, which is why the name Dutch Windmill Cookies is quite apt. Both Belgian and Dutch versions are prepared with beet or light brown sugar and raising agent (baking powder, usually).

Tradition dictated the Speculaas be baked and served on the 5th or the 6th of December, for the St Nicholas' Day Feast for the Netherlands and Belgium, respectively. Usually, the images on the biscuits were the characters or the sceneries gathered from the stories on St Nicholas. The most popular Speculaas image is that of St Nicholas himself, with the additional decoration of red dye (edible) as the red-hooded coat.

Dutch Windmill Biscuits

• Original Speculaas Dutch spiced cookies, 400g / 14oz
• Hellema is a unique family business with more than 150 years of experience in baking the best cookies and developing successful brands.
• The original speculaas spices and butter create a real taste sensation that you won't be able to get enough of!
• Original Speculaas is a sensation down to the very last crumb every day. Discover it for yourself!

Bake and celebrate!

We hope we have helped you with ideas, recipes, decorations, and at least aroused your imagination a little. The complete collection of biscuit types offers so many biscuits but Christmas is favorite ones.

Even if you don't feel like baking, buy some or stick to a limited edition Oreos, spend time with your loved ones, spread love and joy. If you have children, involve them in the decoration process because there is no doubt that they will like it. Also, we would be very happy to share recipes and decorating ideas with us, send us photos to contact@biscuitpeople.com - we are waiting for you. Happy holidays!

Leading image By Yuganov Konstantin/Shutterstock.com