My Humble Jumble Cookies

Hi everyone, Happy New Year!! I wish you all the best for 2012, mostly health and happiness. The rest is inconsequential.

I had a request from the Fabulous Miss V. over at Vonlipi's Favorite for my jumble cookie recipe, so here it is:

JUMBLES

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
2 1/4 cups flour
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
Sugar and nutmeg to roll biscuits in

Method:
Cream butter and sugar. Beat egg whites and yolks separately. Add to butter mixture. Slowly mix in flour. This should be a very soft dough. Roll into balls in sugar and nutmeg.

Bake:
Bake on a greased cookie sheet in 350 F oven for 7 - 10 minutes. Biscuits should not change colour.


I got this recipe from Dundurn Castle in Hamilton. If you're ever in the area, do yourself a favour and take the tour, especially at Christmas time. The home of Sir Allan Napier MacNab, one of Canada's first premiers, it is so magnificent that the locals called it a castle. We took a tour of it a few years back at Christmas and the tour guides are dressed up in era costumes. This grand victorian home was all dressed up in natural greenery for the Holidays and it looked breathtaking. It really appealed to my love of everything victorian.

We sampled the jumbles in the servants' kitchen in the basement, and you could get a copy of the recipe. I have been making them ever since at Christmas. They're particularly delicious with a cup of Earl Grey tea, with your pinkie in the air, of course. Or not.

The Enticing Aromas of Christmas

You know it's officially Christmas when the smell of baking fills the air! Nothing quite like it brings back memories of Christmases past and creates the anticipation of Christmas present.

My neighbours came over Tuesday to bake tourtières, a typical French Canadian meat pie that is traditionally served during the Holidays. For me, the smell of the cinnamon, clove and allspice flavoured meat baking represents one of my oldest and and most cherished Holiday memories.

I decorate mine by adding dough cut with a cookie cutter.

This beautiful girl was supervising...

Thursday was cookies and squares baking day with my girls.

Rolling out the dough for the shortbread

Adding the condensed milk to the Puttin' on the Ritz squares

Here they are ready to go in the oven

 Here are our jumble cookies. This is a recipe from Dundurn Castle in Hamilton. 

It's a delicious nutmeg flavoured cookie.

Here they are, fresh out of the oven.

And finally, Magic Squares! Hmmm, always a hit!

And of course, the best part of all this? Christmas baking has no calories whatsoever. Zero. Nada. None. So go ahead and enjoy!