Christmas Day

Today is only the first day of Christmas- the start of the twelve-day festal tide adopted by the Christian Church; in 567 C.E. church leaders proclaimed the days from December 25 to Epiphany as a sacred, festive season.

Now the preparations are finished, and I can relax with my family, do a puzzle, eat, drink, and generally wallow in joyful abandon. In some old traditions, this season was seen as a sort of Sabbath: Prepare ahead of time and then spend the Twelve Days doing as little work as possible. It's a good time to rest, reflect, and find peace within.

Agenda today:
1. Give gifts:
Celebrate the birth of Jesus by giving gifts to those I love.

2. Danish Prune Bread:
This is a day of unrestricted feasting. The table is filled with goodies- breads, cheese, apples, tangerines, nuts, chocolates, and cookies. We will snack all day long.

Christmas sweet bread is a tradition in most every country. Since I grew up in a Scandinavian town, I’m partial to this bread from Denmark. You can easily make the dough and filling in advance and shape it to bake fresh on Christmas morning.

Ingredients

• 3-1/2 - 4 c. flour
• 1 ½ c. chilled unsalted butter
• 2 tsp. active dry yeast
• 1/2 c. warm water (105-115ºF)
• 1/2 c. heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 c. pitted prunes, packed
• 1 c. sugar
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/2-tsp. vanilla
• 1/2-tsp. cinnamon

Yield: 2 loaves-

1- Cut cold butter into chunks; combine with flour, and cut with a pastry blender until the butter is the size of kidney beans.

2- In another large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Let stand 5 minutes. Stir in the cream, cardamom, salt, eggs, and 1/4 c. sugar. Mix very lightly with a fork.

3- Turn flour and butter mixture into the yeast mixture and mix lightly with a fork or spatula just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour or up to 4 days.

4- Filling: Put prunes, water and 1 c. sugar into a saucepan. Heat and simmer until prunes are soft, plumped and have absorbed most of the liquid. Puree in a blender, transfer to a bowl and stir in lemon juice, vanilla and cinnamon. Cool.

5- Prepare a baking sheet with lightly buttered and floured parchment paper. Take dough out of the refrigerator, divide in 2 parts, and put half back. On a floured surface, roll dough into a 12 x 6-inch rectangle. Place on the baking sheet.

6- Spread half the prune filling down the length of the center of the dough. Cut strips along both sides with kitchen scissors. Fold strips over the filling in a crisscross manner.

7- Let rise 1 hour or more, just until the pastry appears puffy (it will not double.)

8- Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Bake about 20 to 25 minutes, until golden.

3. Pudding:
Tonight we will reheat the Christmas pudding I made a month ago by steaming it again for about an hour, and slide it out of the pudding basin onto a plate.

Then we will put some brandy into a metal ladle (about 1/4-cup), heat it over a candle flame until it steams a bit, set it on fire with a match, and pour the flaming brandy over the warm pudding. This is really worth the effort! We turn the lights out and the blue flame dances all over the pudding for a minute or more. (I was too fascinated to take pictures.)