ARGENTINA • 6
AUSTRIA • 8
BELGIUM • 12
BOLIVIA • 14
CZECH REPUBLIC • 16
DENMARK • 20
ENGLAND • 28
FINLAND • 30
FRANCE • 34
GERMANY • 38
GREECE • 42
HOLLAND • 44
MEXICO • 46
NORWAY • 50
POLAND • 56
REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA • 61
SCOTLAND • 64
SPAIN • 66
SWEDEN • 68
SWITZERLAND • 74
UNITED STATES • 76
UKRAINE • 90
WALES • 92
INDEX • 94
Throughout the world, wherever Christmas is celebrated, getting together with family and friends and making cookies is an old tradition. Cookie baking is the perfect holiday activity. People of all generations come together to make cookies, exchange recipes and share memories and what gift is more heartfelt than a tin of homemade cookies?
While the word cookie comes to us from koekje, the Dutch word for little cakes, many believe the earliest cookies date back to 7th-century Persia. The Persians, one of the first groups to cultivate sugar, may have stumbled across these sweet treats while experimenting with their newly cultivated crops.
The cookie has evolved since the 7th century-an evolution due in part to the cookie's ability to adapt to its surroundings, making it easy for countries to create traditional Christmas cookies from the spices, nuts, fruits and berries grown and harvested in their regions.
Not only are cookies created from the bounty of their native lands, but many have historical significance as well. One of Great Britain's most popular Christmas
"biscuits," or cookies, is
Shortbread (page 64). Shortbread, a rich, sandy-textured, crisp cookie made with lots of butter, is baked in a round mold that dates back to the time of the ancient Druids. After baking, the mold, patterned to represent the sun's rays, turns out a single cookie that is cut into wedges prior to serving. Today, many types of shortbread molds are sold in cookware stores, including molds for individual cookies.
Germany too is famous for its
"keks," or cookies, and Lebkuchen (page 40), the sacred cake, is one of the country's favorites. Bakers throughout Germany prepare the dough several weeks prior to Christmas to allow the dough to rest and the spices to blend. Once baked, the cookies are left to age and the end result of the extended baking process is a soft cookie with a pleasantly mellow flavor.
The Germans also had a hand in the development of Gingerbread Houses (page 85) and Gingerbread People (page 82). While they are commonplace in homes
throughout the United States at Christmas, the tradition took more than 8000 years to develop.
Many countries, including Asia, played an active role in the development of gingerbread, however, the Germans were the first group to produce the now familiar houses and people.
In Scandinavia, baking added a bit of sunshine and warmth to the dark and dreary days of winter.
