OK, Fran, this recipe is for you, and for anyone else who wants to try it. But I warn you, it looks really complicated, but when you get all the ingredients together and do it, it is quite easy. My mother's recipe was all in English weights and measures, my sister who has been making it for years translated it into metric, so I am giving you a combination, the one I used:
In a pan put:
I packet of margarine (half a pound)
three-quarters of a pound of sugar
one pound of golden syrup or honey
Heat that over the flame until it is smooth, but don't let it bubble although it gets really hot
In the meantime, in a very large bowl, put the dry ingredients:
Two and a half pounds of self-raising flour
1 tablespoon cocoa (not drinking cocoa, just pure cocoa powder)
2 teaspoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground cloves
half a teaspoon ground nutmeg
Mix all that. Make three "wells" in the flour mixture.
Into one larger "well" put three eggs (two if they are very large), slightly beaten.
In another "well," put one teaspoon baking soda mixed with a drop of water
In the third "well," put one teaspoon baking powder, mixed with a drop of water.
Then add the liquid mixture, and knead. It is very very soft dough. Maybe add a bit of flour to make it workable. Prepare greased baking trays.
Roll out the dough about a quarter of an inch thick (half a centimeter). Put a lot of flour on the counter top before rolling out the dough, otherwise it will stick to the surface. Cut to size by placing the baking tray on top of the rolled-out dough and measuring and then cutting off what is too much. Place in the baking tray (this is tricky because it tears; the trick is laying half of the dough over the rolling pin and then moving it over, or else folding it and moving it over onto the tray). Smooth the dough in the tray to fill in the corners and also to remove any air bubbles. Mark the dough before putting it into the oven. We do it diamond shapes, not big. Bake until it becomes golden brown, at the regular temperature that you usually do cakes and cookies. The smell in the kitchen is wonderful!
Prepare icing using icing sugar with a little hot water. You need quite a lot of icing sugar for this quantity. When the biscuits come out of the oven, cut the shapes immediately. Then ice the whole tray, and sprinkle cake decorations, and let them cool down. If you have baked them too long, they will be hard. So then, what you have to do is leave them out for a few days and they become softer by the day.
There! I did it. Sorry it is so long and complicated, but it is truly worth it. Once they are done you have a really good stock of biscuits. When I say "biscuits," of course I mean cookies!!! I presume that in Europe they were Christmas cookies and my mother used to make them for Hanukka every year -- one of my earliest memories. This year was the first time I did it myself, and I have already made the second lot. It took me two hours from start to finish which is not bad. It makes about 200 cookies (depends how small you cut them).
Fran, if you make them, let me know how it comes out. "Pfefferkuchen"
As regards latkes -- well, I have been trying to diet, and I just can't resist those latkes when I make them. I can already feel that I have put on weight.
Happy festivals to all!
Love, Esther
