50 Fun Facts About Christmas Cookie

Modern Christmas cookies trace back to the biscuits of which period?

Cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, almonds and dried fruit had just arrived in the west. Those same spices still define the flavour today.

Who brought the earliest Christmas cookies to the United States, in the early 17th century?

German imports later flooded American markets with cookie cutters. Shaped biscuits became a mass-market tradition as a result.

What made cookie cutters widely available in American shops between 1871 and 1906?

Importation rules changed and inexpensive products flooded in. Shaped biscuits became a household activity rather than a bakery product.

Since which decade have US and Canadian children left cookies and milk out on Christmas Eve?

The custom grew during the Depression as a lesson in gratitude. Most of the cookies are eaten by the household anyway.

Who created the modern sugar cookie, according to its history?

They came from Germany to the Nazareth area in the mid-18th century. The biscuit is sometimes still called a Nazareth cookie.

Which royal couple helped make gingerbread a Christmas fixture?

They brought a run of German Christmas customs to Britain with them. The biscuit had existed for centuries before that.

Where do pfeffernüsse originate?

They date from medieval times, when spices were reserved for holiday baking. The name means pepper nuts.

Which two regions of southern Germany have baked springerle for centuries?

Austria shares the tradition. The biscuits carry pressed images from carved moulds.

How far back can springerle be traced?

They come from Swabia in south-western Germany. The dough is pressed into carved moulds before baking.

How is springerle dough treated before it goes in the oven?

Drying is what preserves the moulded image during baking. The sheets are dusted with anise rather than the dough being flavoured.

How does anise flavour get into a traditional springerle?

The flavour rises into the biscuit as it bakes. It is one of the oldest tricks in German holiday baking.

Who is said to have invented lebkuchen, and when?

Bakers were recorded in Ulm as early as 1296. Honey and imported spices made it a luxury from the start.

What has Nürnberger Lebkuchen been since 1996?

It must be produced inside the city boundaries. The city has been baking it since at least 1395.

What is the thin wafer base under a traditional lebkuchen called?

It stops the sticky honey dough from welding itself to the tray. The dough itself is loaded with nuts and candied fruit.

Which Italian region are pizzelle originally from?

The town of Ortona is credited specifically. They spread from there into Molise and Lazio.

What equipment gives pizzelle their pattern?

The batter is pressed flat and cooked in seconds. The design is stamped into both sides at once.

Pizzelle are thought to descend from which ancient food?

That would make them among the oldest biscuits in the world. Anise, anisette, vanilla or lemon zest supply the flavour.

Which spice blend defines speculaas?

Black pepper is part of the mix, which surprises most people. The biscuits are pressed with images from carved boards.

Which feast were speculaas traditionally eaten around?

Sinterklaas is the Dutch name for the occasion. The biscuits come from the historical Low Countries.

Which country did shortbread come from?

The traditional wedges are called petticoat tails. Evidence linking the biscuit to Mary, Queen of Scots is thin.

What is the traditional ratio for shortbread?

There is no leavening at all in the recipe. That is what makes it crumble rather than rise.

What are triangular wedges of shortbread known as?

The shape is associated with Mary, Queen of Scots. The connection is popular rather than well evidenced.

What is a snickerdoodle rolled in before baking?

Cream of tartar gives it the characteristic tang and chew. The surface cracks as it bakes.

Which ingredient gives a snickerdoodle its signature texture and tang?

It also helps produce the cracked surface. The name may be German, or may be nonsense from New England.

Where does the Joy of Cooking suggest the name 'snickerdoodle' comes from?

The alternative theory is that it is a nonsense word. New England had a tradition of whimsical biscuit names.

Who is said to have brought gingerbread to Europe in 992 AD?

His name is given as Gregory of Nicopolis. The biscuit had a long career before Christmas claimed it.

Which monarch is credited with the first gingerbread men?

She had the figures made to resemble visiting dignitaries. Guests were served small versions of themselves.

According to the popular origin story, who asked a sweet maker for sugar sticks in 1670?

He wanted to keep children quiet during a long Christmas Eve service. The crook was added so the sticks resembled shepherds' staffs.

Why was a crook added to the top of the original sugar sticks?

It gave the choirmaster a religious justification for handing out sweets during Mass. Hanging them on trees came later.

When was a recipe for striped peppermint sticks first published?

The book was The Complete Confectioner, Pastry-Cook, and Baker. Stripes came almost two centuries after the sugar sticks.

What did the Keller Machine, patented in 1957, do?

Its inventor was a Catholic priest in Arkansas. Automation turned a fiddly craft into a mass-market product.

Which Georgia company became one of the world's leading candy cane producers?

Robert McCormack started by making them for local children in 1919. The firm changed names twice before settling on that one.

What are the main ingredients of the plain cut-out biscuit iced at Christmas?

Baking powder or soda finishes the list. The dough is stiff enough to hold a cutter's shape.

Where does the name 'Nazareth cookie' come from?

The settlers had come from Germany in the mid-18th century. The same biscuit is also called an Amish sugar cookie.

What is the traditional shape of speculaas?

Carved boards press pictures into the dough. The images often show Saint Nicholas or windmills.

Which region were speculaas developed in?

That covers modern Belgium and the Netherlands. The biscuit is now a supermarket staple worldwide.

In which city were lebkuchen bakers recorded in 1395?

Ulm's bakers were documented a century earlier still. Nuremberg's version now carries protected status.

Which flavourings are usual in pizzelle?

Anisette is a common substitute for anise. The batter is simple: flour, eggs, sugar and fat.

What are lebkuchen's usual ingredients?

Aniseed, cardamom, coriander, cloves, ginger and allspice all appear. Honey rather than sugar carries the sweetness.

What is a snickerdoodle's most recognisable visual feature?

Cream of tartar and the cinnamon sugar coating do the work. The biscuit spreads and splits as it bakes.

Chocolate crinkle cookies, with their snow-like cracked sugar coating, come from which US city?

The dough spreads as it bakes while the powdered-sugar coat splits, which is where the 'crinkle' comes from.

What does the name of the Norwegian wafer cookie krumkake mean?

They were once baked over open fires in decorative irons and are still wrapped into a cone while hot.

The crescent shape of Vienna's vanillekipferl is said to mark a 1683 victory over whom?

The dough is so buttery that it must be shaped quickly with cool hands, and the fragile baked crescents are rolled in vanilla sugar while still hot.

Rugelach, the rolled crescent pastry, originated in the Jewish communities of which country?

The name comes from the Polish rogaliki, from rog meaning 'horn' or 'corner', with a Yiddish plural ending.

The word biscotti comes from a Medieval Latin term meaning what?

Twice-baked breads kept for months, which made them a staple ration for the Roman legions.

Struffoli, fried dough balls bound with honey at Christmas, are a speciality of which Italian city?

The same treat goes by scalilli in Calabria and cicerchiata in Abruzzo, and is often decorated with nonpareils and orange rind.

The Spanish holiday shortbread polvorón takes its name from the Spanish word for what?

Around 70 factories in Andalusia belong to a syndicate producing polvorones and mantecados, traditionally from September to January.

Dutch kerstkransjes are ring-shaped Christmas cookies most often decorated with what?

The Dutch name means 'little Christmas wreaths'; the ring shape has made them a tree decoration as well as a treat.

How are Norway's medieval fattigmann cookies cooked?

The name translates as 'poor man', an ironic label for a cookie that came from the Middle Ages and is still a Norwegian Christmas staple.

In 1444, Swedish nuns at Vadstena Abbey reportedly baked gingerbread to ease what?

German immigrants had carried gingerbread to Sweden in the 13th century; by the 17th century only guild bakers could make it outside Christmas and Easter.