The Sandpoint Eater: Traditionally Speaking

By Marcia Pilgeram
Reader Columnist

A trip to France will do the trick if you need a nudge to get into the Christmas spirit. I’ve just returned from an international travel show in Cannes, to which I added a couple of overnight stopovers to take in Christmas markets in Nice and Paris.

The anticipation of the upcoming holidays fills the busy French markets and bakeries with vast crowds of shoppers lined up to indulge in all the specialty items to create their perfect holiday. The crowds are out in force even if they’re not there to shop. In Paris, there’s an ice skating rink in front of the Eiffel Tower, where adorable youngsters, dressed against the cold, push little wooden carts on the ice for stability (I could have used one of those things when I was young).

Hordes of families line the sidewalks of popular Paris department stores — Galeries Lafayette, Samaritaine and Printemps — nearly every parent with a child on their shoulders, viewing the magnificently decorated and animated window displays. 

Fortunately, I had a cozy little room smack in the middle of the Champs-Élysées, the famous Paris boulevard filled with high-end shops and noisy sidewalk bistros. At 5 p.m. every night in December, the trees that line the famous avenue are lit until 2 a.m. from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde. It was quite a sight, and even though it was raining, I bundled up against the weather for a five-mile walk to explore the most famous street in the world. 

For me, it was mostly window shopping, peering at displays of exquisitely made pastries and chocolates in shops that have been around for more than a hundred years. It’s not uncommon for these shops to be managed by third and fourth generations of the founders. The same can be said for the shoppers — many are grandchildren, carrying on the tradition of a favorite pastry they ate as a child, served after midnight mass on Christmas Eve.

I love holiday traditions, and coming from small-town Montana, most of my big-city magic came from watching black-and-white Christmas movies; though, thanks to my mother, we did indulge in fine chocolates. Her birthday was exactly two weeks before Christmas, and each year, without fail, we bought her a box of Whitman’s Samplers. It was the finest chocolate our money could buy. Mom would dole them out every couple of nights, sans the pure chocolate one shaped like a messenger and the caramels — after all, it was her birthday gift. Thanks to the legend printed on the underside of the box, my mom knew exactly where to find her coveted caramels.

Since she passed in 2007, each year on her birthday, I have purchased a small, four-piece box of Whitman’s for everyone and included it with their Christmas gifts. Sadly, I couldn’t find the little pocket-sized boxes to share this year. Even the bigger boxes are not as nice and sturdy as they used to be and don’t look like they would hold up well in the mail, so that I won’t be shipping any this year. 

However, in my search to find the mini-boxes, I discovered that my favorite American chocolatier, Whitman’s (purchased by Russell Stover in 1993), is now part of the world-famous Swiss chocolate family, Lindt & Sprüngli. Ironically, I spent an hour in their flagship Paris store while I was there.

We may not have access to fancy Parisian pastry shops such as Pâtisserie E. Ladurée, but my family is content with our holiday traditions, simple as they may be. We’re keen on my mom’s recipe for Chex Mix, though I have spoiled my children by making them their designer batches: additional cashews for Zane, rye chips for Doug, lots of extra Cheez-It crackers for Ryanne, and Casey likes hers with plenty of Goldfish.

Also topping our list of traditional holiday fare are soft peanut brittle, English toffee and petite snowball cookies. I can’t begin to imagine how many thousands of perfect little pastry balls my mother rolled out, year after year, to produce our favorite melt-in-your-mouth pastries.   

With all my recent travels, I have a lot of baking to catch up on in the next few days. But I am happy to report that Ryanne and her helpers have perfected our family recipe for snowball cookies. Though our recipe is supposed to make six dozen cookies, we often fall short of that yield, so I recommend you keep an eye on your helpers.

Snowball cookies

By any name — Russian Tea Cakes, Mexican Wedding Cakes or Melting Moments — these are a favorite on any festive cookie tray. They freeze and ship well. You can make your own superfine sugar by pulsing granulated sugar in a food processor. Makes 6 doz.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole pecans, chopped fine

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 ¼ tsp fine sea salt

• 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature 

• ½ cup superfine granulated sugar

• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract

• 1 ½-2 cups confectioners’ (powdered) sugar for rolling cookies, after baked. You can add a bit of edible glitter to the confectioner’s sugar for holiday flair. 

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325° F and adjust shelf to middle rack. Mix flour, salt and half the chopped nuts in a medium bowl and set aside. 

Place remaining nuts in a food processor and pulse for 15-20 seconds until it resembles cornmeal. Stir the pulsed nuts into the flour, other pecans and sea salt. Set aside until ready to use.

Beat butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until well combined. Add the vanilla. Scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula and mix once more. 

Turn the mixer to low, and slowly add flour mixture, just until dough is cohesive. Don’t overmix! 

Scoop dough a tablespoon at a time, form it into a round and place dough balls on baking sheet about 1 ½” apart. Bake for 15 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to completely cool. Don’t overbake. Cookies should have a barely browned bottom. 

Cook cookies about 2 minutes and, while still warm, roll gently in confectioners’ sugar. 

When cool, place the remaining powdered sugar in a gallon-sized zip-top bag. Add about a dozen cookies to the bag at a time, and gently toss to coat. Store in an airtight container for up to a week or freeze for up to a month.