Speculaas – Dutch Windmill Cookies

Speculaas or speculoos cookies are a staple of the Christmas season in the Netherlands, Belgium and parts of Germany. Also known as the Dutch Windmill Cookies, these crispy and spiced cookies are traditionally stamped or moulded before baking to imprint an image into them, like the classic windmill.

Ingredients

250 grams plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

150 grams brown sugar

½ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp each ground nutmeg, ginger and cardamom

½ tsp ground cloves

150 grams cold unsalted butter

Rice flour (optional), to dust

Instructions

Process flour, baking powder, sugar, spices, ¼ tsp salt and butter in a food processor until mixture forms fine breadcrumbs. Add 1 tbsp iced water and process until mixture just comes together. Turn out onto a work surface, form into a ball, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes to firm.

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line an oven tray with baking paper. Roll dough into golf ball-size balls and press into a 6 cm-round mould dusted with rice flour. Trim excess dough, then turn out onto the lined tray and repeat with remaining dough, dusting the mould between each batch. Refrigerate for 20 minutes to help the biscuits keep their shape. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. You can store the cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Blessed Frances d'Amboise

(9 May, 1427 – 4 November, 1485)

Beatified: 16 July, 1863

Optional Memoria: 5 November

“Lay everything at the foot of His cross, and rest there in peace.”

Blessed Frances D’Amboise was born, probably at Thouars, France. At fifteen years of age, she was married to Peter II, Duke of Brittany and crowned with him in the cathedral at Rennes in 1450. She was widowed in 1457 and, not wanting a second marriage, she turned towards religious life. For this purpose, she built a Carmel for sisters at Bondon in 1463 following the advice of Blessed John Soreth, Prior General of the Carmelites.

However, she herself only entered the monastery in 1468. In 1477 she transferred to the monastery at Nantes, another of her foundations. To her is due the introduction of frequent communion (daily for those who were sick) and the fourth vow of strict enclosure.

During her last moments her testament was the phrase which she had said most often during her life: “In everything, do that which will make God loved the more!”

She was beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1866.

Blessed Josepha Naval Girbes

(11 December, 1820 – 24 February, 1893)

Beatified: 25 September, 1988

Optional Memory: 6 November

“Sanctify yourself and sanctify others.”

Blessed Josefa Naval Girbés was a Spanish Secular Carmelite. She has been recognized across Spain for her commitment to Church life and in the field of education. She became well known for her personal holiness and the conduct in which she led her life.

Blessed Josepha Naval Girbes was born at Algemesi in the Archdiocese of Valencia, Spain. When she was a young woman, she took a vow of chastity. A member of the Third Order Secular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Saint Teresa of Jesus, she had great devotion for the Virgin Mary. She always wore her scapular and her rosary.

Her mother died on 19 June, 1833 at the age of 35, and Josefa was forced to leave school in order to look after her siblings. She was the eldest of five children raised in a devout family.

Blessed Josefa lived a perfectly simple life, opening her home as a school for embroidery. She used the quiet hours of labour to instruct her young female students about the Catholic faith. She was well known for instructing her girls that their primary mission in life should be to “sanctify yourself and sanctify others.”

She worked with cholera patients towards the end of her life and this led to her death in 1893 combined with her heart condition that hastened her death. She began to feel chronic pains in 1891 due to a heart condition and was in great pain as a result of it. She died in 1893 after a long illness related to that heart ailment. Her last request was granted: to be buried in the brown tunic and white mantle of the Carmelite habit. 

Greek Melomakarona Cookie

A melomakarona is a traditional Greek Christmas cookie. Also known as Christmas honey cookies or Cypriot melomakarona cookies, these sweet and delicious cookies are one of the favourite traditional Christmas sweets in Cyprus.
Here’s the recipe for about 20 cookies:

Ingredients 
½ cup sunflower oil
50 grams (¼ cup) sugar
225 grams (1 cup) flour
A pinch of salt
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
Juice and grated rind of ½ orange
¼ teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons brandy
1 ½ cups walnuts + extra for decorating
For the syrup:
100 grams (½ cup) sugar
1 cup honey
1 cup water

Directions to make:
Preheat the oven to 165°C / 325°F. Whisk the sunflower oil with the sugar. In a bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon well. After finely chopping the walnuts, mix the orange juice and rind with the baking soda and the brandy. The mixture will start foaming. Mix in the nuts. Whisk in the oil mixture and add the walnuts to make soft dough. Form little egg shaped balls of about 25 grams (about the size of a walnut) and place on a cookie sheet covered with baking paper. Bake in the middle of the oven for 15-20 minutes until light brown and done.

Make the syrup
Meanwhile make the syrup. Bring all the ingredients for the syrup to the boil. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Leave to boil gently for about 10 minutes.

Dip and decorate
Take the cookies from the oven and dip them in the syrup for about 5 minutes. Turn them halfway. Take from the syrup and leave to drip on a rack. Decorate with the remaining chopped walnuts.

Birthday

It was my birthday on 11 July!

Right from my childhood, my birthday has been the most exciting day of my life - come July, and I circle the 11th day on the calendar and begin the countdown! I sing and dance and make everyone sing and dance!

As my dad used to make me list down the gifts I was looking forward to, I too list down the gifts I want! This has been happening from many years now!

But suddenly something had changed! I guess since 2010 - since the year I started getting carried away by the social media. There was a pressure to look good in the photos! So I started my birthday shopping months in advance and took a lot of pain to make everything and everyone look prim and proper! I went to the beauty parlour to get the right look for the photos!

But this year there wasn't any birthday shopping and no beautifying myself at the parlour! There was a kind of transformation in my life - just like the good old days -  I realized that I could celebrate my birthday without shopping in advance and spending hours at the salon to beautify myself! 

Yes, photos still matter to me for memory sake but not to be uploaded on Facebook! I could survive without posting on Facebook and still be happy!

Also, without receiving birthday wishes on Facebook since I had hidden the birthday notification! But still many of them wished me. 

So starting from this year I have decided to celebrate my conception day also. So on 11 November I will be celebrating my conception day!

❤️❤️

Christmas Traditions

Dear DLL Jesus,

From yesterday I have not been writing/researching on my book!

And I am feeling absolutely lost!

This is what happens to me when I don't have a fixed schedule for myself!

So from today I have decided to write about Christmas traditions and cookies and other Christmas related things. This will keep me busy and happy!

❤️❤️

All Saints Day

Today is All Saints Day. This day is also known as All Hallows' Day, Hallowmas, the Feast of All Saints, or Solemnity of All Saints. It is a day to commemorate all the saints of the church, both known and unknown, who have attained heaven.

While many saints have a specific feast day on which we celebrate their lives and work, the vast majority of the saints of heaven do not. Thus All Saints Day is particularly for those who have no special feast days of their own.

All Saints’ Day was not always a solemnity observed by the universal church, and is not celebrated everywhere on 1 November. The feast originated in the earliest centuries of the church, when Christians commemorated the many martyrs who died at the hands of their Roman persecutors.

As there were so many martyrs, they could not each have their own feast day; but they were seen as such important witnesses that the Christians did not want to leave any of them out.

As a result, a single commemoration for “all the martyrs” was observed each spring, which celebrated those who did not have their own unique feast.

Pope Gregory III consecrated a chapel at St. Peter’s Basilica to all the saints, as well, with an anniversary date of 1 November. Rome adopted 1 November as the date of the feast of All Saints in the eighth century, and in the ninth century Pope Gregory IV extended that observance to the whole of the Latin Church.

The celebration of this day expresses gratitude for their unique contributions and sacrifices, and acknowledges their continued spiritual presence in the lives of people today.