Peanut butter’s also nice.

Gingerbread — or butter spritz?

My cookies crumbled into bits!

Snowmen, stars and Christmas trees —

Babka slices (Provided photo — Yvona Fast)

Yummy treats! We all love these!

Mix them, roll them, cut out shapes.

Bake them, cool them, decorate!

Stollen, Babka, Three Kings Cake —

What Christmas treasures will you bake?

Years ago, we used to attend an annual December cookie party at Art and Jean Robertson’s home. Everyone would make a plate of cookies. We sampled the many cookies, and returned home with an assortment of cookies.

Each European country has its own unique Christmas cookie treat. Traditional Italian cucciddati are stuffed with ground dates and figs. German families bake pans of Lebkuchen, buttery Spritz cookies, spekulatius spiced wafers and decorated gingerbread that is made into houses and men. In Austria and Bavaria, Springerle are anise-flavored sugar cookies made from plain egg-flour-sugar dough that is rolled and imprinted with designs using special molds. Swedes are fond of papparkakor, spicy ginger and black-pepper delights, and the Norwegians make krumkake, thin lemon and cardamom-scented wafers.

Holiday sweet yeast breads date back to Medieval times, pre-dating modern chemical leavening agents. Cakes with dried fruits and honey were a way to use preserved dried ingredients during the long winter when fresh fruits were not available. Symbolic shapes of breads and spices used vary by country of origin, but are all based on a rich, sweet yeast dough, and each is an integral part of holiday traditions. Some examples are German Stollen and Dreikonigsbrot, Polish Babka, English fruitcake, Three Kings Cake, Italian panettone. Nut, poppy seed, apricot and lekvar (prune) filled breads are a popular Christmas tradition from Ukraine south to Yugoslavia, and are known by various local names (potica in Slovenia, orehnica in Croatia, makoviec in Poand).

The custom of serving baked goods in December began long before Christmas was a Christian holiday — with the pre-Christian Teutonic and Germanic tribes from northern Europe as well as the Romans.

Today we make quick breads, such as cranberry nut loaf, made to rise with chemicals (baking powder or baking soda). These are quick to make because they don’t need time for kneading and rising, as traditional yeast breads do. Sometimes, traditional foods get replaced with modern ones. In our home, Betty’s cheesecake has replaced the traditional Polish poppyseed bread.

Not all holiday desserts are baked. In Scandinavian countries, rice pudding is traditionally served on Christmas Eve. In her latest book, Tumbleweed Years, Adirondack author Caperton Tissot shares a story (and recipe) for Grandma’s holiday wine jelly with custard sauce.

These special treats are only served this time of year and forgotten for the rest of the year. What are your sweet holiday traditions?

Cranberry Orange

Nut Bread

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/3 cup orange juice

1 1/3 cup all purpose flour

2/3 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup oats

2/3 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Butter loaf pans or spray with cooking spray.

Melt the butter. In bowl, beat eggs with sugar. Beat in melted butter and orange juice.

Combine flours with baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir into batter. Stir in oats, cranberries and nuts. Place in loaf pans about 2/3 full, place in oven and bake 35 to 50 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Babka (Polish Yeast Holiday Bread)

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons yeast

1 cup milk

6 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons orange zest

1 cup raisins

1 cup chopped nuts

2 sticks butter

Directions:

Prepare baking pans.

Heat milk until warm but not too hot. Dissolve yeast in milk.

Beat eggs with sugar and vanilla.

Combine flour with grated orange zest, raisins and nuts.

Add dissolved yeast to flour mixture; stir to combine. Add beaten eggs. Stir to combine.

Melt butter, and add slowly while beating.

Place in prepared pans, let raise. Bake about 45 minutes in preheated, 350 oven.