Door 16 – being brave

I’ve made another hat. So I guess, we can call that hat trauma overcome.

My daughter has a really gorgeous hat knitted by one of my husbands aunts. It is big enough but it keeps sliding up, so her ears are not fully covered which she hates.

She has an other, shop bought, one which her mother accidentally shrank in the washing machine.

So she urgently needed another one and I decided to make her one. I have used this pattern but I haven’t yet created a ravelry project.

IMG_1438I have decided not to use the requested pink because the other hat is pink anyway and I know that she likes many colours. She has a red winter jacket so I thought red, orange, yellow would match best, with a little bit of green because it suits her. I added braids to the ear flaps so she can pretend to have long hair.

And luckily she is very happy with her new hat… and green hair 🙂

Door 15 – bread and butter

IMG_1424Since it is probably our last baking day (ending with a big gingerbread party with a few mums and children “helping”), I wanted to post at least one recipe in my advent calendar.

I chose some of my favourite Christmas biscuits, it seems to be a a local speciality, didn’t find them online, or maybe they are known under a different name. Anyway, we call them “Butterbroetchen”, what could be translated best as “bread and butter”.

The basic recipe is in mini quantities, I usually triple everything.

100g of flour

60g of butter

20g of ground hazelnuts

20g of (icing) sugar

20g of ground chocolate

1 egg white

glazing: 1 egg yolk and 50 – 100g of icing sugar

cut cold butter into small pieces (I grate it) and put it into a big bowl with the flour. Rub it into crumbs. Add nuts, sugar and chocolate and mix loosely with the crumbs.

Add the egg white and knead together to a smooth dough.

Form a roll of 3-4cm diameter, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least half an hour.

Cut slices of 4-5mm and bake them at 200C for about 8min.

Glazing: Mix yolk and sugar over steam to a thick and smooth paste. The more sugar the harder the mixture gets. Spread it onto your “bread slices” and let it dry over night (alternatively 10min at 80C in the oven if you do not want to eat raw egg)

My “bread” looks a bit like a multi grain bread due to rather big pieces of chocolate, alternatively you could use cocoa powder for a more even look.

Door 14 – weekend treat

I guess, your weekend will be as busy as mine so I’ll keep it as short as I can:

Time for another coupon code for the shop. Use ADVENT3 to get 20% off at the check out. It will be valid for this third weekend in advent only.

Have all a  nice busy weekend, baking, decorating, writing cards and just enjoying time with your friends and family.

Door 13 – the rainbow

The theme of this term in nursery was colours and today my daughter is supposed to wear her “rainbow” colours. So, I have used yesterday’s sewing class to make her a rainbow skirt – what a great way of using up little bits and pieces.

Since it is a bit cold for a light cotton skirt, I made a second layer in blue, so the rainbow gets a bit of sky in the background.

IMG_1436I am very pleased with the result of this very improvised project.