When Mother moved to England from Germany in 1950, she brought her own mother’s recipe book which included these Christmas cookies, traditional to the region of Silesia where she grew up. She has made them regularly since, and we now share that responsibility; they have become part of our family tradition.

Over the years, we have had to modify the recipes slightly to accommodate what is available in the stores – finding hirschhornsalz* and pottasche can be somewhat challenging – but Christmas just doesn’t feel like Christmas until the kitchen smells of sweet spices and is buried in mounds of Pfefferkuchen, ready to package up and present to friends.

* I have since learned that Hirschhornsalz is sold in the US as “Baker’s Ammonia”!