First Day of Yule Cookies Recipe

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Time for some Yule Cookies….In my yesterdays post, I mentioned that I was going to start posting some wonderful cookie recipes that I found on Waverly Fitzgerald’s site, “Living in Season.”

Today is the first recipe. In different times and in different cultures, baking thirteen Yule cookies may have originated from the “Twelve Days of Christmas” that most of us know about which started on Christmas Day until “The Twelfth Night” on January 6. (I’ll be posting more about this sacred time period and asking all of you what rituals and meanings you either celebrate yourself or would like to start doing.) As far as having thirteen cookies instead of making twelve cookies, this is what Waverly says in her “Christmas/Yule Cookie” e-book:

The 12 days were originally 13 nights, celebrated from the dark moon nearest the solstice through the next full moon. Greek women celebrated a Dionysian ritual on the full moon nearest the Winter Solstice. By honoring the Thirteen Nights rather than the Twelve Days, we may be observing an earlier pagan sense of the festival when it was linked with the lunar calendar rather than the solar grid. (Waverly Fitzgerald, 1994)

The following recipe originates from the Rhineland and is created in the shape of Saint Nicholas who is far different and older than the commercial, “St. Nick/Santa Claus” that is popular today. There are many myths and stories connected to the original Saint Nicholas with one of them being that he received some grain from a ship in the Rhineland as people were starving. He kept half of the grain and then baked some bread in the likeness of him.

Thinking of this Saint Nicholos automatically reminds me of the King in Pagan traditions such as Dionysus, or Lugh , the Corn King, and other similar deities who were the Goddess’ consort who symbolized the cycles of birth, death and rebirth. And of course Jesus who “gives of his body” with sacramental bread.

When I bake these cookies, I won’t be thinking of the Christian Saint Nicholas as that’s not a figure I personally relate too. I’ll be ingesting the magick of the early pagan fertility gods and asking for strength and courage through the Winter darkness both internally and externally. I’d be interested in knowing your own connections to the symbols of Saint Nicholas and other “Grain” gods and what blessings you would like to receive, whether you bake these cookies or not.

Anyway, here is the recipe:

Speculatius: Images of St Nicholas

The name Speculatius means image, referring to the mirror image of St Nicholas which has been pressed into a wooden mold and then turned out on a sheet to bake in the oven (like other traditional Christmas cookies made in molds: springerle and cavalucci).

Since the original image of St Nicholas depicted him in flowing robes and a bishop’s miter, these first cookies might have looked a lot like gingerbread men. (Waverly Fitzgerald)

Mix in order:

1 cup shortening

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs whole

3/4 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

4 cups flour

4 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp allspice

2 tsp nutmeg

2 tsp ginger

2 tsp cloves

optional: black pepper, finely chopped blanched almonds, grated lemon peel

The traditional speculaas mix includes 3-1/2 tbsp of cinnamon, 1 tbsp each of nutmeg and cloves, 2 tsp of ginger and 1 tsp each of cardamom and white pepper.

Turn out onto a floured board. Knead in about one cup additional flour or as much as you need until the dough is no longer sticky and is easy to handle. Put the dough in a plastic bag and refrigerate until chilled.

Roll out and cut the cookies. Keep the rest of the dough cool until you are ready to cut it. To make the cookies in the form of the traditional St. Nicholas who’s celebrated on Dec 6., you can bits of dough pressed through a garlic press for the beard and raisins for eyes. Other traditional shapes for cakes served on St Nicholas’s Day include birds, fishes and animals.

(Or form your own shapes as I will do to represent a pagan Saint Nicholas).

If you do use a molded cookie sheet (like the springerle and cavalucci)  you can; roll your speculatius rolling the pin over the dough only once, pressing the designs into the dough to a depth of about 1/8 inch. Then cut the cookies apart before placing on the baking sheet. Bake at 350 until golden brown.

Here are a few links on where you can purchase a Springerle and Cavalucci online; if they’re hard to find locally.

Fante’s Kitchen Ware Shop

House on the Hill

Williams-Sonoma

And Mrs. B, from “Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom” has a great post with resources on where you can find some pagan cookie molds and cutters.

Here’s where I’d like to hear from you Kitchen Witch’s or anyone who works with spices and seasonings in a magickal way. What properties and associations do you know of that are used in this recipe? I’ll make a separate post from the comments I receive so that we can all exchange, learn and/or discover our own brand of kitchen witch magick. I know I would love to learn more about Kitchen Witch Magick and I’m sure other people would too.

© 2010, Wendy S.. All rights reserved.

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