A Sweet Giveaway for St. Nicholas Day

updated 12/6: Giveaway OVER St. Nicholas Day falls on December 6 each year, and will be here before you know it!  Why am I doing a cookie giveaway in honor of St. Nicholas, the good Bishop of Myra, who gave gifts and did good works in secret?  

Giveaway from The Springerle Bakery

Well, in central European countries such as Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland, it is a time-honored tradition to bake and give specially molded Speculoos (gingerbread spice) or Springerle (orange, anise, or lemon flavored) cookies throughout the Christmas season, but especially on St. Nicholas Day.

The Springerle Bakery has kindly partnered with me for this special cookie giveaway! Their cookies are little works of edible art!

Alice has baked up a special collection of 15 cookies just for my lucky winner.  You can see them pictured above.  There are 8 Gingerbread and 7 Springerle (vanilla-orange or lemon): from cookie molds depicting St. Nicholas, Nativity Scenes, Angels, and even a Gingerbread Man. The cookies range in size from approximately 2-1/4" to 4" tall.

I hope you'll take a minute to peruse The Springerle Bakery website.  These beautifully detailed cookies would make a very special (and tasty) gift - you still have time to get in a Christmas order!  There are large single cookies available, or collections of smaller cookies - each one handmade. (Note: they only ship to the U.S.)

A little bit about these cookies: To make these Springerle, very cold, stiff dough was rolled thin and pressed into a mold. The dough was unmolded and then left to dry for about 24 hours before being baked at a low temperature on greased, baking sheets. The leavening caused the biscuit to at least double in height during baking. This "pop-up" effect may be the source of the name in German. The baked biscuits are hard, and are packed away to ripen for two or three weeks. During this time, they become tender.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:
(The Springerle Bakery can only ship to addresses in the U.S., so to be eligible for this giveaway, you must live in the U.S.)
How to enter -
1- Leave a comment here between now and December 5 at 11:59 p.m. (PST) on this post and any others I post through December 5, 2013, to enter this giveaway.
2- Leave a comment on Facebook ("likes" don't count, must be a comment) when I link to any blog posts between now and 11:59 p.m. (PST) on December 5, 2013, to enter this giveaway.
3- Enter as many times as you like between now and 12/5/13.
Giveaway winner announced -
Giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. on December 5, 2013. The winner of this giveaway will be chosen using List Randomizer and announced on St. Nicholas Day - Friday December 6, 2013, at 7:00 a.m. (PST).
Shipping -
1- The winner needs to contact me via e-mail (wendyb[spam]1963@[spam]sbcglobal[dot]net) with their mailing address by 11:59 p.m. (PST) on Saturday, December 7, 2013.  If not, a new winner will be chosen.  
2- The winner's mailing address will be given to The Springerle Bakery so that the cookies can be shipped on December 10, 2013.

If you're not familiar with St. Nicholas Day (Dec. 6) and its traditions, you will find lots of information in my past posts below (click on the titles to read):
Will the Real Santa Claus Please Stand Up?

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Who is the Man in the Red Suit? 

St. Nicholas Day in Greece (Gold Coins!)

Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien

BELGIAN COOKIES FOR ST. NICHOLAS DAY

On December 5th, the evening before St. Nicholas Day, children in Belgium put their shoes (or small baskets) on the hearth - along with hay, water, carrots, and a sugar lump for the saint's horse, with a glass of wine for the saint. The children may also include a picture they've drawn (or a list) showing what they would like. They believe St. Nicholas rides on horseback over the rooftops, dropping his gifts down their chimneys. What do they find in their shoes the next day?  Chocolate, oranges, marzipan, small toys, and ...speculoos cookies!

Originating in Belgium and the Netherlands, speculoos cookies were first traditionally baked to celebrate St. Nicholas Day. The name may derive from the Latin speculum, "mirror", in reference to the bas-relief image of Saint Nick stamped into the cookies. These cookies (some very large) are still displayed every year on December 6 in the windows of Dandoy, in Brussels.

Alternatively, the name of these thin, crunchy cookies could have been derived from specerij, the Dutch word for "spices". The cookies are flavored with holiday spices—cardamom, cinnamon, clove, ginger and nutmeg—plus white pepper. Less spicy and sweeter than gingerbread, speculoos cookies make a perfect accompaniment to a hot cup of coffee or cocoa.

Biscoff (as in "BIScuits for COFFee") is the most readily available brand of speculoos cookies. An all-natural (nut-free) spread is made of the ground spéculoos cookies.  And it's lucious! It was created in 2007 on a Belgian reality TV show contest seeking the year's best new invention. The spéculoos spread made by contestant Els Scheppers was a top finalist.

My daughter discovered this spread when she and her husband were living in France. As of about two months ago, and to our extreme delight, it's finally available in the U.S.  You have to try it on apple slices!

By the way, did you know that St. Nicholas is also the patron saint of bakers?

Saint Nicholas
Patron Saint of Bakers

Copyright © 2002-2011 St. Nicholas Center

What does all this have to do with children's books?  I found two wonderful picture books about baking to share with you today. (Even St. Nicholas would have liked them!)

The Baker's Dozen: A Saint Nicholas Tale, by Aaron Shepard, gorgeously illustrated by Wendy Edelson (Make your own St. Nicholas cookies!  Aaron has included the recipe here, on his website).

Van Amsterdam the baker was well known for his honesty as well as for his fine Saint Nicholas cookies. He always gave his customers exactly what they paid for -- not more and not less. So, he was not about to give in when a mysterious old woman comes to him on Saint Nicholas Day and insists that a dozen is thirteen! The woman's curse puts an end to the baker's business, and he believes it would take Saint Nicholas to help him. But if he receives that help, will it be exactly what he imagined? This is a great way to teach young children about the the joy of giving, and about the life of St. Nicholas.

Christmas Cookies: Bite-Size Holiday Lessons, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, with cute illustrations by Jane Dyer.

Similar to Rosenthal and Dyer’s previous book, Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons (2006), this adorable picture book offers a variety of terms defined in child-friendly ways, while relating to the theme of Christmas cookies: FRUSTRATED means, "I can’t believe we burned them again" / PERSEVERANCE means, "We tried and tried and tried, and finally we made the perfect non-burned batch,”/ and HOPE means, "I’m filled with good feelings about what will be.”

A variety of cutely dressed children and animals are depicted throughout the book with a little carryover of characters from one picture to the next. A sugar-cookie recipe is included in this "sweet" and wholesome Christmas story. Ages 3-6.

Happy St. Nicholas Day tomorrow, and Happy Reading!