Complete your Christmas menu with these mouth-watering pastries

Tasty cookies served at Villa Rosa Kempinski in Nairobi. (Photo:Wangeci Kanyeki/Standard)

Its Christmas and hotels and homes have sweet smelling pastries lined up to delight your palate. Executive Chef Ciaran Gantly of Villa Rosa Kempinski Nairobi chose to prepare pastries from around the world.

Arrayed at their Lucca Kempinsky Restaurant are sumptuous looking marzipan stollen from German, mince pies from United Kingdom, gingerbread stars from Poland as well as ginger bread cookies for Austria.

A Christmas pudding called ‘The Glenfiddich Rich Fruit Pudding’ is made using a traditional British recipe made from rich fruits such as raisins, sultanas, candied peel, mixed spice and syrup. The puddings are thoroughly steamed to give a moist and rich festive taste. After steaming a “tot” of Glenfiddich Whisky is added, to mature the pudding.

Ginger bread house Christmas decoration at Sarova Stanley Hotel. (Photo:Wilberforce Okwiri/Standard)

Meanwhile Sarova Stanley Hotel in Nairobi made a whopping 590.2 kg ginger bread house in line with European family traditions of decorating gingerbread houses as an annual holiday event. An Armenian Monk is credited for bringing Gingerbread to Europe back in the 10thbaking to both Christians and French Priests.

Gingerbread houses are some of the Christmas pastries at Fairmont The Norfolk Hotel, Nairobi. (Photo:Wilberforce Okwiri/Standard)

Fairmont The Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi displayed a table full of gingerbread houses frosted with icing sugar that make a sumptous and enticing sight. Ginger bread making is not just for the hotels.

Try out the following recipe courtesy of Villa Rosa Kempinsky in Nairobi and treat your family and friends to your home made ginger bread cookies.

Ingredients

Plain flour 800 grms

Mixed spice 4 tablespoons

Golden syrup 16 tablespoons

Butter 150g

Brown Sugar 150g

Baking powder 2 tablespoons

2 Eggs

2 Eggyolks

 

Method

1) Sieve the flour, baking powder and spices together

2) Melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup together until all the sugar has desolved

3) Add the ingredients together and mix well.

4) Add in the eggs and eggyolks and form into a dough.

5) Cover with clingfilm and leave to rest for 1 hour approx.

6) Roll out the pastry to a thickness of 6mm and cut out the required shapes

7) Bake at 180 degrees centigrade for approximately 8-10 min.