Bake, Bake Kake (baking, baking cakes)

I have always had a faible for baking and cooking. And of course, Christmas is a time when the kitchen is used more than usual. Sometimes I start baking something without ever looking up any recipe and when the attempt ends with a success Bea is chiding me for not having written down the recipe. But who needs recipes? A few days ago I was thinking of my grandmother and the cookies she made before Christmas. Could I have a shot at it without a recipe?  Well from the top of my head I started making a dough. And to my own and everybody else’s surprise the result was stunning. They did not turn out exactly like my grandmother’s but they were great anyway. I adorned them with a sugar coating and believe it not, once I had them in a cake box they started vanishing like snow on a sunny spring day. Soooo…the need occurred to do it all over again.  And just so you know, this time I wrote it all down. Ingredients: 1 egg 2 cups sugar 1 stick butter 2 cups of all-purpose flour 1 tsp baking powder 1 cup water 1 cup crushed walnuts or almonds 1 Tbsp corn starch 1/2 cup cocoa powder 1/2 tsp of clove powder 1/2 tsp ginger powder 2 tsp cinnamon In the running food processor start with the egg, add one-by-one sugar, melted butter, baking powder, flour, corn starch, water, nuts, cocoa, and all the spices. The dough is gonna be somewhat wet. Unless you have a kneading machine which can finish the process, you must take the dough out of the food processor. Spread a layer of flour on your work plate and begin turning and kneading the dough manually. Use flour on your hands to avoid dough sticking to your hands. Dough needs to be made into pliable and should not stick to neither hands nor cake roll, when starting to roll the dough. You probably need another cup of flour under kneading and rolling. Roll out only portions of dough at a time. If you have Christmas motive stick-out forms use them or just cut squares with a knife. It is important that the dough is gonna be rolled out as thinly as possible. Put the raw cookies on parchment paper on a baking sheet and bake for max 10minutes at 350F.   Now you are done. If you want frosting or sugar coating on them you can make sugar coating with an egg-white and powdered sugar. Add some colour to the coating or lemon or make it a cinnamon coating. It all works out. Whenever my cookies are boxed up I am my own best customer. MERRY CHRISTMAS!