Christmas cookies parts 2 and 3: Lebkuchen and Pavlovas

Lebkuchen, or German spice cookies for Christmas, are so popular that they're sold from October to March. I first encountered them in Nuremberg in late January 2006, on one of the coldest days I've ever experienced. They're not my usual cookie - they're not that sweet, and chocolate doesn't need to be involved - but when I found the recipe in my America's Test Kitchen International Recipes book I had to make them. They were a little intimidating - I've never baked with nuts before, and these had to be toasted as well as ground. Fortunately, I already had all the spices I needed, and they came out perfectly. I took the last few home for my dad to try, and they were gone before lunchtime.

After the Roshky and Lebkuchen, I was looking for a Christmas cookie from a country outside of Europe. I found a fruity Mexican concoction, but it looked like a lot of work, and I was busy and sick. Then I hit upon a recipe for Pavlovas, named for a ballerina many years ago. No one's sure whether they come from Australia or New Zealand, but everyone agrees that they're delicious. You make a cake of meringue, then top it with freshly whipped cream and fruit (I used blackberries). I don't have pictures of the final product because I made individual ones for my coworkers (yes, I did whip cream in my office's kitchen) and cameras are verboten, but they were delicious. A little sticky, but the possibly overwhelming sweetness was balanced out by the cool whipped cream and tart blackberries.

Christmas cookies part 1: Roshky

I love Christmas cookies. My family has a bunch that we always make: snickerdoodles, chocolate sugar puffs, thumbprints. But what actually inspired this series was the recipe for Lebkuchen (coming up) in my new America's Test Kitchen International cookbook.  When I asked around on Twitter about international Christmas traditions, my friend Katie said that her family makes roshky, a Slovak delicacy. Or rather, she said, her grandmother and mother make roshky, and she stands around feeling helpless. I read this and thought to myself, I'm a great baker, this should be no problem. Oh, hubris.


I don't love walnuts, so I only made the apricot one and cut the recipe way down (I used one egg and proportional other ingredients). The major issue was the dough. I'm not that good at working with dough that needs to be rolled out. When I read "roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface," I thought let's use wax paper, that'll be much quicker and easier. False. The dough was incredibly sticky (I probably should have kneaded it beyond what the hand mixer could do) and I'm pretty sure I lost about half of it on the wax paper. Instead of getting a cute little tightly rolled spiral log, I couldn't roll it over more than twice. I lost enough of the dough that apricot filling was everywhere. I was pretty sure they were going to be the worst cookies ever. Miraculously, though, the dough did rise a bit while I let them sit, and the cookies taste pretty good (not because of anything I did, I'm sure). Before I try this again, though, I plan to obtain a pet Slovak, preferably of the grandmother variety.