Winter Retreat Day 3: Festive Baking
Ginger, nutmeg, orange zest... all the warming flavours
Hello,
And a very warm welcome to day three of our Winter Solstice Retreat.
In case you missed day one or day two you can find them here. Today we’re going to immerse ourselves in all the festive fun of Winter baking season. Who’s excited?
From gingerbread and mince pies to sun bread, Winter Solstice baking is all about remembering the sun in the middle of winter, so recipes often include warming spices and sunshine citrus flavours.
Rather than overwhelm you with a long list of recipes, I’ve handpicked a small but perfectly formed collection of five recipes for your viewing pleasure today.
And the comments are open below for you to share your own Winter baking recipes too please.
Enjoy!
1. Spiced Christmas Hot Chocolate
The perfect drink for cold Wintry nights. This hot chocolate recipe is inspired by a traditional recipe from the 17th century and it has the genius addition of some orange zest along with the spices for a warming boost.
2. Winter gingerbread
This recipe by BBC Good Food for Ultimate Easy Gingerbread is a great basic recipe for gingerbread. According to their recipe ‘this biscuit dough is extremely forgiving if overworked, so it's perfect for baking with children.’ That’s my kind of recipe. And it can be made into any Wintry shape you like. Stars, suns, moons, trees…
3. Moon spell cookies
Talking of moons, these Moon Spell Cookies by Sugar Maple Farmhouse have a deeply Midwinter feel to them. They look beautiful and sound delicious. Full of Midwinter magic.
4. Yuletide Wishing biscuits
I shared these at the last Winter Solstice, but I’m sharing again as the recipe for these Yuletide Wishing biscuits by The Goddess and the Green Man is magical in itself. I felt happy just reading it. As the author says “What makes them special is your intention. Intention is powerful magic.” It is indeed.
5. Unbelievably Easy Mince pies
And finally, we’ve got to have mince pies haven’t we. This mince pie recipe by BBC Good Food promises to be ‘unbelievably easy’. And the pastry does sounds very simple. But if you’re pushed for time, I’ll tell you what’s even easier; just buy a ready made pastry sheet, cut it into circles, press into a cake tin then add a scoop of mincemeat to each and a little pastry star or moon on top. Job done. Add a dusting of icing sugar ‘snow’ over the top once they’re cool and you’re ready to go.
Ok, that’s all for now. Let me know in the comments if you try any of these recipes and I’ll see you tomorrow for day four of our retreat where we’ll be settling down with some cosy hibernation rituals.
Until then!
Vicky xx
Missed a day? You can catch up with all our Retreat activities on the Seasonal Retreat tab on my homepage. Enjoy.
Definitely making more than one of these in the coming days! Thank you for sharing with all of us!
Furious baking going on here! I love being in the kitchen at this time of year.