Traditional German Christmas cookies

Christmas is approaching super fast, hence my family and I have been doing what we do every year around this time: bake Christmas cookies. When I first moved to Britain I was shocked to find out that they did not seem to know what proper Christmas cookies were (apart from Gingerbread men). In Germany people bake a variety of different sorts of cookies and biscuits around Christmas time. I believe my nan makes up to 30 different ones every year and they're all delicious. Anyways, I thought I would introduce one of the easiest and cutest recipes to you which always takes me back to my childhood.

What you need
For the cookies (makes about 60):

• 500g flour
• 250g butter
• 150g icing sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 small packs of vanilla sugar
• a pinch of salt
• rolling pin
• cookie cutters

For the icing

• 350g icing sugar
• 4-5 tbsp of lemon juice
• tons of sprinkles
• food colouring

First you need to combine all the dry ingredients for the cookies and mix them really well. Then mix the (softened) butter together with the eggs and slowly add this to the dry ingredients. Its best to use a spatula to combine everything to begin with and then make it into a dough ball using your hands. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place it into the fridge for 2 hours. 

After the 2 hours take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out to a thickness of about 0.5cm. At this point you should preheat your oven to 175°. Use your cookie cutters (if possible christmasy ones) to form your cookies and place them on a baking tray lined with non stick baking paper. Place in the oven for about 12 minutes or until golden brown.

These are a selection of the best decorated ones ;)

Now comes the fun part. Wait till your cookies are completely cooled down and mix your icing (you can add food colouring if you want). Spread it onto your cookies and go crazy on the decorations. The more sprinkles the better. And voila - you have made a delicious batch of Christmas cookies! I hope you try out this recipe, if you do make sure to send me a picture on twitter. Have fun!

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5 things I want to achieve this year

I know we're way into 2015 now, but it is never too late for a motivational post (that's what I think anyways). I don't really believe in the whole new year new me stuff, but I do believe in making the best out of  every year. We get the opportunity to fill another 12 months with experiences, memories and life lessons. Let's not waste it!

1. Spend more time offline

The Internet has become a massive part of my life, even more so now that I have started blogging. However I feel like I often 'waste' my time while on the Internet. Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest keep me online for hours but not in a very productive way. I see all these accounts of people who travel, meet new people and try out new things and always admire them. This year, instead of just looking at other people's amazing lives online, I want to make my own life just as amazing. I want to try out new sporting activities, do a backpack tour (ALREADY PLANNED) and meet new people! With all the support you find online, it is often hard to remember that there is a real world out there which yearns to be explored (haha I'm being cringy now).

2. Take more photographs

Through my blog and my art course I have started to realise just how much I love photography. Capturing beautiful things wherever I go has become my passion. Looking at the photographs and being proud of them is the best feeling in the world. In 2015 I want to take even more pictures and learn more about how to make them look their best!

3. Maintain friendships

In my perfect life I would be living surrounded by all my friends. However this is not the case in real life, and as we all move on with our lives, I sometimes find it hard to keep up friendships. Memories are more easily forgotten than you'd think and the saying 'Out of sight, out of mind' becomes reality. I need to find the time to meet old friends and make an effort to keep in contact. A simple 'How are you?' on whatsapp can go a long way. Don't forget what big part your friends have played in your past - give them a chance to be in your future!

4. Start cooking and baking

Recently I have really gotten into healthy eating. One day each week I eat vegan and overall I just try and eat food that is good for you. Since my family agrees with healthy eating but isn't really into being vegan or overly healthy baking, I have started to cook/bake more. I made the banana bread from Living The Healthy Choice as well as my own Healthy Oatmeal Cookies. In 2015 I want to keep cooking and baking healthy and increasingly often vegan.

5. Stand up for what I believe in

This is one of the reasons I created this blog. I wanted to share my thoughts and connect with people that feel the same way. I still find myself being shy when it comes to standing up for my opinion. I want to start being confident about my believes and passions. This should include telling my friends about this blog, as it is something I really believe in and am passionate about. Right now I am too scared to do so, but this year I want to tell people about my little space on the Internet. I want to find the courage to shout it out loud! (wow.... way to go Bell)

I hope this inspired you to make something of 2015! What do you want to achieve this year? 

Also you might have realised I changed my URL. Long story short I just found the old one wasn't fitting anymore, so I decided to change it to http://bellsantiago.blogspot.co.uk/. Moreover I am contemplating naming the blog 'My little space'. What do you think? Do you want a full blogpost explaining it?

Love you lots!

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Healthy Oatmeal Cookies

One of my most recent blogposts was about going partly vegan. I am proud to tell you that I didn't just claim that to make people read my blog. I really believe that eating vegan 2-3 days a week is super healthy and gets you fit.
So yesterday I had my first vegan day. I started off with oatmeal which I mixed with hot water, cinnamon and some raisins. I had a salad for lunch and mushroom paella (all vegan ingredients) for dinner. However I knew I needed something to snack on during the day, so I went online on a hunt for yummy, healthy cookies. As always I found the perfect recipe on pinterest: Oatmeal Cookies (Favorite Family Recipes)
I decided to put my own spin on it and make it vegan. The result were super delicious, healthy AND vegan cookies that are a filling snack. I must admit they are not the most photogenic cookies but let's ignore that for once ;)

Let's Start:

You will need:

• 3 bananas (mashed)
• 50g applesauce
• 200g oats
• 3 tablespoons almond milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 tsp. cinnamon (or however much you fancy)
• 50g dark vegan chocolate or raisins

Make the cookies:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir until they are the consistency of cookie dough (you might need to add a bit more almond milk).
3. Spoon the mixture onto a greased baking sheet (or use non-stick baking paper) and form small cookies (about 20).

       4. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

And that's it. Super easy! Even I, an unskilled baking amateur, could do it and it tasted amazing!
I really hope you try it out, if you do, make sure to send me pictures on Twitter.
Happy baking :)

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Christmas cookies

German 'Spitzbuben'

A tradition in my family is to start baking Christmas cookies as soon as December starts. It's one of my favourite things to do as it puts me in the Christmas spirit and I spend some fun time with my family who I normally don't see that much due to work and other stuff.
We have some recipes that have been in our family for several generations and this is one of them. It is a traditional German recipe of Christmas cookies that are called 'Spitzbuben'. Sounds slightly weird but I can't tell you how amazing they are. Sooooo delicious! Anyway, lets get started (Warning: Lot's of pictures are going to follow!)

You'll need:

• 200g butter
• 125g icing sugar
• 1 egg white
• a pinch of salt
• 10g vanilla sugar
• 350g plain flour
• Black currant jam (if possible without fruit pieces in it)

Mix the butter,icing sugar and egg white together. Then add the salt and Vanilla sugar.

 

Now add the flour and use your hands to make it into a smooth dough. Form a ball out of it and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

My sister and I got a bit carried away while forming the ball ;)

After 30 minutes take the dough ball out of the fridge and put it on a clean surface that you cover with a bit of flour to prevent the dough from sticking to it. At this point you preheat the oven to 200 °.

Now roll out the dough to a thickness of about 2mm (mine was a bit thicker it really doesn't matter that much).

Now you need cookie cutters of the same form in two different sizes, one has to be about 1/4 the size of the other. I used hearts, stars and weird circles. For one cookie you need to cut out two of the bigger sized forms and then cut out the middle of one of them with the smaller one.

I'm sorry for the bad explanation but this picture should make it clearer. Make sure you have one complete cookie half for each one with a cut out middle.

Put baking paper onto a baking tray and place your cookies on it. Put it in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes or until they are golden brown.

These aren't quite ready yet.

Then take them out and put them somewhere to cool down before you add your jam. I accidentally bought jam with bits in it which made the next part a lot harder so make sure you buy jam of a jelly like consistency. It doesn't even matter what fruit jam it is but I like it with black currant.

This is the colour they should be when you take them out.

Now spread the jam on one of the hole free cookies. Make sure you use a generous amount so you can taste it in the end. Then place the matching cookie with a hole on top of it. (This is the worst description ever but basically just stick the two cookie parts together)

Don't they look so yummy?

Finally you can sprinkle a bit of icing sugar on top to make them look all fancy.
I hope you enjoyed this post, I am really sorry I am so bad at describing the different steps but the only guideline I had was a really old recipe in German.
If you decide to recreate it send me pictures on twitter:
 https://twitter.com/fashionblogbell
Love you lots!