The first Christmas we spent together was back in 2009. Gina flew over from Praha to Wales to spend some time with me, and to my delight, bought with her something that was totally new to me; Czech Christmas cookies!! She didn’t just bring a handful, oh no – she bought with her a box full, about 2kg. They were epically delicious. From then, I’ve always wanted more, and due to us not being able to spend last Christmas together, Gina made some more epic Cookies!
In preparation, Gina created the dough over in Prague when she headed there for a couple of days, but the epic task wasn’t over, as we had a very productive day, watching National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, and baking to the max!
A very busy Gina
Heart Shaped Cookies
Gina went ahead and started cutting the dough with our newly bought cookie cutters, into various shapes, such as hearts, half moons, bear paws, christmas tree, shooting star (comet), rounded ones, and some with holes in the middle. We had a pretty good system going, with Gina doing pretty much all the work, and me chilling :) That is, until the epic task of filling in the holed cookies with Gina’s mum’s homemade Jam.
Iest being busy
Heart Shells
Then, while Gina took a wee break, I was left in charge – only temporarily, to cut up the dough into nice wee heart shapes. Gina got busy, snapping away. Once the cookies were ready, they were sent away into the over to be baked, and when finished, laid out by the window to cool, and to fill the apartment with their beautiful smell.
Baked Hearts
Hazelnut Moons
Cocnut Christmas Shapes
Chocolate Dipped!
Then, sadly, the cookies were taken away, and stored in our nice cookie boxes until they were ready to eat – which was about two weeks later. When they were brought out, we could munch on as many as we wanted – although, I was banned from opening the boxes, as Gina knew damn well, that I’d eat them all. They were delicious, and I’m already looking forward to next years batch!!
Chocolate cooling production line
Cookies and our Tree