Another Christmas Cookie recipe: Martina’s Rum balls /Dalsi recept na vanocni cukrovi: Martininy rumove koule

Now that Thanksgiving is out of the way (still have a bellyache by the way) let’s talk CHRISTMAS!!! My Czech friend Martina agreed to some truly delicious guest post…

Ted kdyz je Dikuvzdani jiz za nami (porad mam z neho jeste precpane bricho), muzeme se zacit bavit o VANOCICH!! Moje kamaradka Martina (ceska) nam popisuje sve vanoce…plus vyborny recept.

CZECH COOKIE BAKING AND HOW CHRISTMAS IS THE TIME OF PEACE ;0)

– by Martina

When I think about a Christmas time back in Czech – when I was just a little girl – my mind pictures the classroom environment just before the winter break. The blackboard was written all over with notes for our teacher not to test us anymore since we had to be helping our moms with Christmas baking and had no time for studying. That’s right, we had to help with  baking of the cookies, gluing them together with filling and decorating them. The note would usually sound something like this: “Christmas is the time for peace and not for testing; if we get an ‘F’, your fish will not taste the same’ (it rhymes in Czech)”. And to our surprise, the teachers took the note to their hearts and left us alone. Probably they were really afraid that their carp will not taste that good. It worked every year.

I have lived in the US for 16 years and I can tell you there is quite a bit of a difference between the Czech style baking compared to the American ‘chocolate-chip-cookies’ style of baking. Don’t get me wrong, I love chocolate chip cookies but the Czech style cookies take so much more work! The whole family has to participate!! Children are sticking cookies together; men are peeling and grinding the nuts. In the Czech Republic the women usually take some time off from work (or at least that was the case when I was still living there) in order to have all of the cookies ready in time. You see, Czech Christmas baking takes 2 to 3 weeks, plus other decorating and arranging that goes with it. When I tell that to my American friends here, over a plate of already made cookies, they just keep munching on them and shake their heads with disbelief. I am sure they cannot imagine spending their vacation time baking, cleaning and window-washing! Well, every country has different customs. Many people have told me to make a business out of this but I would not like to bake every day; that would not be a hobby anymore – I love to do this once a year and that’s it! (Although I know I would make quite some money out of it).

I can’t imagine Christmas without the smell of vanilla crescents and gingerbread cookies. And even though I live in Califronia now, I bake every year about 8 types of Christmas cookies. My mother-in-law does the same and then we swap them. My Czech husband is fortunately very helpful when it comes  to cookie baking. I don’t know why but when we bake I keep chasing him away from the cookie trays because I am afraid there won’t be enough if he keeps eating them. And then after Christmas there are so many leftovers that I have to force him to eat it. We usually have cookies up until Easter!!!

At the beginning it felt kind of strange to bake cookies when there is still hot out, sun is shining and I can see the reflection of the palm trees in the pool. One Christmas our friends brought some Czech Christmas ornaments (made out of chocolate) when they were coming back from Czech. They put them on their Christmas tree, here in Californa, and since it was standing close to the window, the sun melted them. So then they had a hot chocolate instead ;0)

I also remember those winter times in the Czech Republic when we would come home totally freezing from waiting at the bus station for too long. The remedy was to have a cup of grog (tea with rum). So out of a pure habit, my husband and I drink some tea with slivovice during Christmas time, because we are true Moravians!

Tanja asked me to give you guys some recipe for Christmas cookies. She already posted linz tarts and vanilla crescents, so I decided to give you guys recipe for RUM BALLS. You may know it already but if you don’t, make some! Also, if you have any other recipe that you would like to share, I don’t mind learning something new.

Good luck everyone and Merry Christmas! Hopefully Jezisek will bring you bunch of presents together with good health.

PECENI CESKEHO VANOCNIHO CUKROVI aneb VANOCE JSOU SVATKY KLIDU ;O)

(Autor: Martina)

Pri vzpominani na predvanocni cas v CR, kdy jsem byla dite a chodila do skoly, se me vybavi skolni zimni prazdniny, pred kteryma byla vzdy kazdou vyucovaci hodinu popsana tabule se vzkazem nas zaku pro ucitele, at nezkousi, protoze my deti musime doma maminkam preci pomahat s pecenim, slepovanim a zdobenim vanocniho cukrovi, tak se nemame cas ucit!!! Znelo to takhle, mozna mnoho z Vas jste meli stejny slogan:

“Vanoce jsou svatky klidu, nezkousejte nasi tridu, kdyby jste nam 5-ku dala, ryba by Vam nechutnala”! No, a k nasemu prekvapeni to ucitele brali, asi meli strach, ze by jim kapr opravdu nechutnal, takze jsme to delavaly s uspechem rok co rok.

Nyni, kdyz jiz ziju v USA 16 let, a kdyz srovnam vanocni peceni ceskych a americkych zen, je v tom mensi rozdilek ;o)

Tradicni ceske cukrovi, se neda hlavne casove srovnat s americkymi “chocolate chips cookies”, I kdyz je mam taky moc rada. Proste ceske vanocni cukrovi da hrozne moc prace cele rodine!!! Deti pomahaji slepovat, muzi loupou a melou orechy a taky melou pate pres devate, protoze maji zakazane predcasne ochutnavat ;o). V cesku si zeny vetsinou berou dovolenou z prace (aspon se to tak delalo za meho mladi), aby vse stihly, protoze ceske cukrovi vezme 2-3 tydny peceni , slepovani a zdobeni. Kdyz to rikam americankam a davam jim pak sve vytvory na ochutnavku, tak jen krouti hlavou, a kazda by urcite stravila dovolenou jinak, nez pecenim, mytim oken a gruntovanim na vanoce. Proste jiny kraj, jiny mrav! Mnoho lidi me reklo, ze kdybych pekla cukrovi na prodej, urcite by slo na odbyt. Ale to uz by me asi tak nebavilo, pect kazdy den, z “hobby” by se stala prace. No a me to uplne staci pect jen 1x do roka, i to uz je dost!

Ja sama si uz proste nedovedu predstavit vanoce bez vune vanilkovych rohlicku a pernicku po byte. Takze I kdyz ziju v USA, Californii, kazdorocne pecu az 8 druhu cukrovi, moje ceska tchyne taky, a pak ja dam pulku ji, a ona me, a tak mame obe druhu cukrovi nescetne. Nastesti muj cesky manzel me i s nasi dcerkou taky velice pomaha. Nevim proc, ale vzdy kdyz zacinam pect, odhanim mazela od plechu, protoze mam strach, ze vsechno sni, a na vanoce uz nebudeme mit nic. No a pak vzdy po vanocich mame porad plno cukrovi, tak ho zase naopak nutim, at to ji, ze se to zkazi a to pak mame cukrovi malem az do Velikonoc!!!!

Musim priznat, ze ze zacatku to bylo pro me nezvykle pect vanocni cukrovi v Californii, kdyz pres den pali slunce, palmy se zelenaji kolem bazenu. Dokonce znami si dovezli cokoladove kolekce na stromecek z ceska, jejich stromecek byl u okna, kde zrovna ten den palilo slunce, cokoladove ornamenty se rozpousteli, tak z nich meli “Hot chocolate” ;o)

Tak vzpominam, kdyz v zimnim obdobi v CR prijde clovek promrzly domu, protoze stal delsi dobu na autobusove zastavce, tak si dal pri navratu caj s rumem ci grog. Tak I ja si delam samozdrejme JEN ze zvyku okolo vanoc caj se slivovici, protoze jsme s manzelem pravi moravaci!

No, a Tana me pozadala, abych napsala nejaky recept na vanocni cukrovi, tak jsem mela v planu napsat recept na tradicni vanilkove rohlicky a linecke kolecka, ale pak me Tanja oznamila, ze uz tyto recepty jsou na jeji webove strance (Tanjo, muzes re-link ty sve recepty ZDE), a tak jsem vybrala recept na rumove kulicky, ktere mozna znate taky, a pokud ne, tak to zkuste a udelejte si taky vonave ceske vanoce! Podelte se s nama vsema treba o nejaky vas oblibeny recept na nejake dobre cukrovi, rada se priucim necemu novemu.

Hodne zdaru a pekne prace a zabavy s pecenim (cest praci ;o)) a vesele vanoce, at Vam Jezisek najezi mnoho darecku pod stromecek, a hlavne zdravicko, to ostani uz prijde samo!

I also remember those winter times in the Czech Republic when one came home totally freezing because he got stuck at the bus station for a long time and the remedy was to have a cup of grog (tea with rum). So out of a pure habit, my husband and I drink some tea with slivovice during Christmas time, because we are true Moravians!

Tanja asked me to give you guys some recipe for Christmas cookies. She already posted linz tarts and vanila crescents, so I decided to give you guys recipe for RUM BALLS. You may know this one already, but if you don’t, go for it – make yourself delicious Czech Christmas! Also, if you have any other recipe that you would like to share, I don’t mind learning something new.

Good luck everyone and Merry Christmas! Hopefully Jezisek will bring you bunch of presents together with good health.

RUM BALLS/ RUMOVE KULICKY (nepecene cukrovi)

• 3.5 oz (7 Tbs; 1 stick) of unsalted butter (10 dkg)
• 1.4 oz (2.7 Tbs) of sugar (4 dkg)
  
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 Tbs of rum
  
• 1 cup of  grated coconut
  
• 1 bar of dark chocolate for baking
• 3-5 graham crackers (to thicken up the dough)

Method:

1. Mix softened butter with sugar, rum, crumbled up graham crackers and egg yolks.
2. Put the dough into the fridge for about 30 minutes
3. Take out the dough and make small round balls out of it
4. Melt the dark chocolate and dip the balls in it
5. Immediately roll them in the grated coconut
6. Leave them in the fridge again for about 10 minutes until the chocolate surface has hardened
   
7. Place finished rum balls into small pastry paper baskets
8. Enjoy!

Tanja’s note: My dough kept being very runny so I added in some crunched up graham crackers to thicken it. You have to wait until the crackers suck in some of that extra dough moisture and work them in either with your hand or with a mixer. Check out how did my rum balls turn out (i.e. the picture)!!