Festive cookies filled with mulled-wine jelly

Make these 5 edible holiday crafts

In this recipe from Robin Karlsson at ätabörman.se, classic Swedish raspberry cookies undergo a festive transformation into gingerbread cookies with a filling of homemade mulled-wine jelly. A 2-in-1 mulled wine and gingerbread taste sensation!

The jelly recipe gives more jelly than you need for the cookies, so you can halve the recipe if you prefer (and you’ll still have jelly over) but, let’s face it, you can never have too much jelly, can you? This jelly also makes a brilliant present!

Festive cookies filled with mulled-wine jelly

Approx. 3 hours
20 cookies + extra jelly

Ingredients:

Jelly

500 g/18 oz cooking apples
500 g/18 oz plums
500 ml/17 fl oz red wine
1 tsp cloves
Small piece of ginger
2 cinnamon sticks
2-3 pieces of citrus peel (e.g. orange, lemon, Seville orange)
1 tsp whole cardamom seeds
750 g/26 oz sugar
Approx. 300 g/10.5 oz raisins

Cookies

125 g/4.5 oz butter (room temperature)
70 g/2.5 oz sugar
100 g/3.5 oz wheat flour
40 g/1.5 oz potato flour (approx. 3 tbsp)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tbsp water

Other

Small paper cake cases
Raisins and flaked almonds for decoration
Kitchen scales (not essential but recommended)

Love gingerbread biscuits? Make holiday decorations out of them!

Jelly

1. Roughly chop apples and plums, and mix with wine, spices and 1 tbsp raisins in a large saucepan. Bring to the boil. Allow to simmer, stirring constantly (do not allow to stick to the bottom) until the fruit is completely soft, about 40 minutes in total. Then pass through a fine sieve into another saucepan or bowl by pressing through the jelly with the back of a ladle.
2. Add the sugar and bring to the boil again. Allow to simmer without a lid for approx. 15 minutes (it should reduce to approx. 2 litres/3.5 pints).
3. Place a saucer in the freezer. After 15 minutes, remove the saucer and place a dab of jelly on it. Let it stand for a minute or so, and test by tipping the saucer. If the jelly hardly moves, it is ready, but if it’s still runny, allow to simmer for a while longer before re-testing.
4. Set aside one or two ladlefuls for the cookies, then add the remaining raisins to the pan and allow to cook for a minute or two. Pour the jelly into clean glass jars, screw on the lids and turn the jars upside down to sterilize the lids. Leave the jars upside down until the jelly has cooled.
5. If you have been careful with the cleaning/sterilization process, the jelly should last for up to a year at room temperature, but keep any open jars in the fridge.

Cookies

1. Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Sift together flour, potato flour, baking powder and spices in a separate bowl, and then fold into the butter mixture. Add water and form into a dough as quickly as possible without handling it more than absolutely necessary. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.
2. Roll out the dough into a long roll and cut into 20 even pieces. Shape the pieces into balls and make a deep hole in each of them with your finger. Place them in paper cases on a baking tray.
3. Click a little jelly into each hole and bake for approx. 10 minutes at 200 C/400 F/Gas Mark 6. When they are ready, decorate with raisins and flaked almonds, and allow to cool on a wire rack.

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