Each year for as long as I remember, my mama has made her traditional Swiss Christmas biscuits. a number of biscuit parcels have followed me across Australia! Lucky me! when I was seventeen and heading off into the sunset in my new yellow kombi, my mama tucked a parcel in my van to open for Christmas a month later. they store very well… Thankyou mama for these parcels of love and cinnamon. I inevitably cry and miss your hugs, and then i share them out to those lucky ones nearby xx

now i have taken up my own ritual Advent baking of biscuits. We bake on Advent Sundays these cinnamon stars and hearts. It’s the only time of the year i use this recipe and one other {after lots of experimenting}. the house smells of spices and sweets and we nibble them for morning tea through the week. We parcel them up in little paper bags we make, and leave them on our friends and neighbors door steps. this year we are using teeny tiny cutters and i cleverly saved a batch of rolled out dough and froze it last week so today i simply cut and baked…

last week i took some to my knitting class. one of my students said they looked like dog biscuits but tasted like the real thing!! ha ha!!

My Adapted Traditional Swiss Advent biscuit recipe

Basler brunsli/Zimpt Sterne

{gluten free}

500 gm almond meal {450 gm for recipe and 50 gm for sprinkling paper when rolling out}

2 c rapadura sugar or less

31/2 tspn cinnamon powder

1 tspn clove powder

4 egg whites beaten stiff

baking paper

rolling pin

baking sheets

1. blend almond meal and sugar
2. add spices and beaten egg whites
3. sprinkle a 1m stretch of baking paper with almond meal and squish your dough out in the middle length of it, press quite flat then sprinkle with almond meal and another sheet of paper
4. roll out to about 5mm thickness
5. let dry for 3 hours
6. cut into stars and hearts
7. bake at 150’c for 10-15 minutes til slightly puffed {mine took less than ten as very small, and i burnt the second batch! waahhh} really, bake them lightly. don’t get distracted vacumning…

share with friends and neighbours. leave goodwill packets on doorsteps… happy advent! i love all this memory making family activity amidst the deeper pathway of living through my own personal darkness and seeking the renewal of my inner light.