christmas cooking - shortbread and gingerbread

Cammy's Shortbread

as transcribed from a letter she sent to me when I was a young mother far from home.

14 oz flour -half each of plain and self raising
4 oz Castor sugar
2oz ground rice
1/2 lb butter -leave out over night to soften (nowadays I zap it ever so carefully in the microwave)

Sift flours, sugar and ground rice into a mixing bowl, adding soft butter work with clean hands  (I hope she didn't think that I'd forget to wash my hands as a young mother living miles from home in Kalgoorlie when she sent this to me!) until it becomes like soft bread crumbs that hold together when you squeeze a fist full, if it is too dry to hold add a little more butter. Using a willow tin (one of those small slice trays) or 3 Quiche pans (Cammy used to buy those round alfiol tin disposable pie dishes and use them to give as gifts wrapped up with cellophane)
Put the mixture into pans and press & pat (obviously the pressing and patting is important as she underlined it! She actually used to use her fist to press it down giving the surface a knobbly textured surface) until it becomes shiny & sprinkle with a little more caster sugar and cook in a slow oven 150-175 for 1/2 to 3/4 hour or until light golden brown. Allow to cool for 5 minutes and cut into serving size pieces while still warm.
She even included cutting instructional diagrams for me. For the rectangular slice pan it is 6 across the short edge and 5 along the longer edge then the round one has a circular small scone or cookie cutter cut out then one must cut it in quarters from the centre cut out and then each of those quarters into further thirds!

All recipes shared ended with love, God bless and enjoy

Swedish Gingerbread (Via Anki's Swedish cook book)

3/4 cup whipping cream

1 cup of sugar

2/3 cup light corn syrup or molasses

1 1/2 tblspns baking soda stirred into 2 tspns water

3 1/2 cups plain flour

Lightly whip cream. Add the sugar, syrup, ginger, lemon and soda - mix. Add almost all the flour (I tipped it all in because it seemed very sticky at this point - But don't panic it's ok) and knead lightly.

Cover and let rest at room temp over night. (Luckily I  had accidentally left my air con on all night as I found out later that as we are in australia and not Sweden Anki and her mum both leave theirs  to rest in the fridge!) But fortunately all was well and  the mixture was no longer very tacky and with a little flour and a couple of sheets of baking paper the dough was reasonably easy to handle and several hours later we have a huge dish full of yummy cookies, as I used the molasses my cookies have a slight hint of licorice to them. YUMMMMY!

Oh yes I forgot to write it down again bake for 7 minutes at 175 *C