Years ago I read The Brambly Hedge books to my children and now I’ve rediscovered them collecting dust in a bookcase- just in time to share with my grandchildren this Christmas season. The Brambly Hedge books are not only a children’s book series for Anglophiles but also a sweet story of the mice who live in Brambly Hedge. I’ll start reading the series to my grandchildren this Christmas with Winter Story by Jill Barklem, who wrote and illustrated each book and work my way through the collection, which includes, Spring Story, Summer Story and Autumn Story. In the spirit of sharing some holiday cheer, here is an excerpt from Winter Story, “Mr. Apple, warden of the Store Stump, was the last to leave for home. By the time he reached Crabapple Cottage, the first flakes were beginning to fall. “Is that you, dear?” called Mrs. Apple as he let himself in through the front door. Delicious smells wafted down from the kitchen. Mrs. Apple had spent the afternoon baking pies, cakes and puddings for the cold days to come. She drew two armchairs up to the fire, and brought in their supper on a tray.” I wish I could share the illustrations with you along with the text but here is a link to amazon to check out the entire series. I’m glad I bought these books back in the day-apparently the set of books is quite the collector’s item. Currently the sweetness, imagination and kindness of children and how much we love them are on my mind. I’ve thought about all the many ways we can express affection to our children and of course sharing a heart warming story with them is one of my favorites.
On a sadder note, in light of the school shooting tragedy we’ve hugged our children and grandchildren a little tighter and have counted our blessings more than usual this week. More than ever our country doesn’t feel like a very safe place for our children and that truly breaks my heart. My prayers go out to all the families and the communities that are suffering losses during this holiday season.
I thought a quick easy Christmas cookie recipe might be appreciated while everybody is so busy with their holiday preparations. I found this recipe in a special cookie edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch while we were in St. Louis for the 49ers game week before last. I think some of the best holiday cookie recipes come from the bakers around the country who share in their local papers and I’m so lucky to have found this one for peppermint sugar cookies which has become one of my favorite Christmas cookie recipes
.
Adapted from St. Louis Post-Dispatch by Kaylen Wissinger of Whisk Bakery on Cherokee Street.
Ingredients
- 2&1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar, plus more for rolling
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 egg whites
- 1 teaspoon natural peppermint extract
- 1/2 cup finely crushed natural peppermint candies or candy canes
- 1&1/2 cups white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer blend the butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add the egg yolk and beat until blended, then add the egg whites and peppermint extract.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients into the butter mixture and mix until combined.
- Stir in the crushed peppermints and white chocolate chips.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and tightly wrap in plastic wrap- chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350F and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment or silpats.
- Form the dough into 1" balls and roll in powdered sugar before placing 1&1/2" apart on cookie sheets.
- Flatten each ball with the tines of a fork in a criss-cross pattern.
- Bake until the cookies are golden brown on the bottom, being careful not to overbake- about 10-12 minutes.
- Remove cookies from the oven and cool on cookie sheets for 5 minutes, remove to continue cooling on metal racks.
Beautiful Christmas cookies, Patty! I love the flavors, I’m sure these are an absolute hit with your grandchildren!
Thanks Laura, these cookies were a big hit!
It’s really lovely when stories can be passed on from one generation to another – it must be especially neat for the grandkids to know they’re reading exactly the same books as their parents did.
I love peppermint at Christmastime and I agree, the best cookie recipes really do show up in the papers.
Thanks Teresa!
These are some really pretty sugar cookies! I love the add of candy canes.
Thanks Angie;-)
The cookies are so festive, Patty. What a great find of a recipe.
What happened last week is truly heartbreaking. I think we’re all still torn up about it. So hard to understand…
Thanks Jean, what happened last week is beyond understanding, thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment;-)
Patty, these cookies look so pretty and so festive…perfect for the Holiday…
Yes, it is so sad that our children have to experience such a tragedy…no words to describe the sadness.
Have a great week!
Thanks Juliana!
Love that you can now share those books with your grandchildren, I am sure they will remember it forever.
These cookies sound incredible – love anything with peppermint!
Thanks Erin!
I have fond memories of all the Beatrix Potter box- I’m not sure where my imagination would be today if my mom had not read to me so often.
These cookies look delicious!!
What wonderful books and beautiful memories you can now share with your grandchildren reading to them at Christmas. I just love it! The cookies look perfect! I agree, I love when bakers share their recipes in newspapers.
I just hugged and snuggled with my kiddos after reading them a Christmas story. yes, lots more snuggles than normal these days. I have to find this story set you love. I think you’re a fabulous grandmother and quite the baker, Patty:)xx
Thanks Lora, you’re so sweet-hugs to you and your kiddos too;-)
Patty, these cookies are beautiful and look so tempting. I love your story too and am imagining myself in it, it paints such a cozy, warm picture!
Truly, it’s going to be a sad christmas for Newtown this year. I pray for their recovery and their peace. And I, too, hugged my kids a little more extra hard this week. I try not to sweat the small stuff and just really appreciate the gift of life given to me and my family.
Patty, your cookies are just lovely. Peppermint in sugar cookies make these a wonderful christmas treat!
Beautifully festive Patty! That story book sounds like ones we had as kids with beautiful illustrations of toadstools and hedgehogs and porridge and scones
Your cookies are beautiful.
When my girls were little, I read them the entire Chronicles of Narnia series (THAT was a chore). They still talk about that – they hated the books, but loved “reading” time.
These are lovely and soothing looking. Would go great with my coffee this morning.
First of all let me say that I wish I’d known you were here in St Louis, I would have loved to meet you. I actually didn’t see this in the paper. I almost never miss the Wednesday food section but must have that week with my crazy schedule.
These look wonderful and I’m sure are delicious. I agree some of the best recipes come from people who have submitted recipes to the paper.
As for the children’s books, I can’t say I’ve ever read that series but it sounds delightful. I don’t think it’s ever too late to read a series like this even if it is for children. I may have to check those out at the library. Nothing like a happy tale to pick up the spirit of the season especially when all you hear in the news is horrible things.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Vicki, I didn’t realize you lived in St Louis, what a great city-we had a blast;-)
Hi Patty! What gorgeous cookies these are! They look almost identical to my peppermint shortbread cookies, but I’m going to bake your recipe this weekend because they sound delish! It’s great seeing a local blogger, I’m in Santa Rosa! Merry Christmas!!
Thanks Christina! I hope you like the recipe, let me know how they turn out;-) Thanks for leaving me a comment;-)
What a perfect cookie for this time of year! Love the cover photo. Great post and with the recent events it just makes you appreciate the littles and bigs in our families and with our friends!!! Happy Wednesday!
These cookies are so beautifully festive, Patty. Love the peppermint and white chocolate…sounds yummy! I have kept many books that belonged to my children and read them quite often to my grandchildren. There is something very special about reading a book to your grands that you read to their parents when they were children! Merry Christmas to you and yours!
I hope that someday SF plays Indy and you make a trip to Indiana! I’d even bake for the opposing team…shhhhh…just don’t tell anyone! Your cookies look wonderful (no surprise) and I’m hoping to have grandchildren to read to one day. Maybe I need to start a hope chest full of childrens’ books…I’m sure my oldest would be thrilled to know that
Love those peppermint cookies! Love the books too- I’ve never seen them before, but they look like ones that I’d love to read to my grandson.
These cookies look fabulous – and perfect for the season. Hope you have fun reading those Brambly Hedge books to a new generation. Merry Christmas.
Your cookies are so pretty, and the batch is large enough to serve any group size!
I agree – I’ve been holding my teenage daughters a little more tightly this week, and thinking about what we’ve all lost as a result of this tragedy.
The kids are going to love having you read them all those stories. I think the recent tragedy has us all reeling and quite frankly in shock. It’s hard not to be sad when we still get to enjoy our loved ones and those other poor families can’t do the same. I have to agree with you, I’ve found some great recipes in the paper.
Hugs,
-Gina-
Love your beautiful post! Those cookies are a special treat reserved for Christmas. Your books bring back memories when my 4 boys were growing up; there was a lot of reading in those and not much tv.
Rita
The cookies look delicious and really enjoyed reading your post!! Merry Christmas to you and your family!
I love baking recipes that I have clipped out of newspapers. This looks like a great one and they are so festive-looking!
Sounds like a sweet series of books Patty. Reading to your kids and grand-kids is so important there is something special that is built while cuddled up to one another. Your cookies look irresistible and I love the photo with the tree lights in the background. My heart goes out to the poor families who lost loved ones from the senseless tragedy, the holiday season will never be the same for those people, how sad.
I saved some of my daughters’ books and read them to our grandsons
What a lovely story and I’d love to see some of those books of yours!
What delicious cookies and so festive!
I should get some of those books for my niece
And maybe even give her a cookie for reading time 
These are just beautiful Patty!
I have the Brambly Hedge china, but have never read the stories! I read all the Beatrix Potter stories to my daughter, and later on the Miss Read books. We will be sure to try your peppermint cookies!
My cookies didn’t look as lovely as yours (however did you get yours so nicely round with a criss cross imprint that stayed?) but they sure tasted great! Thanks so much.