The spices of Christmas

 

Christmas spices are a part of the holidays, just as are the Christmas trees, lights, treats, mulled wine and gifts. 

One of the most popular Christmas spices is gingerbread mix. Featuring ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground cloves and ground cardamon, it is commonly used for cookies and cakes during the festive season.

You can easily make gingerbread spice mix at home by combining spices from our list. These winter spices will offer a festive treat for your taste buds and a beautiful aroma in your entire house. It can't be Christmas without them. 

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a very popular winter spice. It is made from the bark of the Ceylon cinnamon tree. The bark is dried and rolled up to create the cinnamon stick. Ground cinnamon is usually made from cassia or Padang cinnamon. Cinnamon sticks are a great Christmas decoration!          

Cloves

Dried cloves have a very intense, slightly bitter flavour. Use it carefully as it has quite a high content of essential oils and can overcome other flavours. You need cloves if you want to make mince pies and gingerbread - they can't go without them. One of the lovely natural Christmas decoration ideas is oranges studded with cloves. They create a citrus-spice aroma that fills the entire house, and they look beautiful. You can also put the oranges studded with cloves in closets or drawers for a fresh scent. 

Ground Ginger and ginger root

The dried ginger root is ground into powder. It is a popular spice used for baking, cooking and making mulled wine. The flavour of ginger is zesty and lemony, fresh and slightly spicy - it's a Christmas punch spice. 

Nutmeg

Nutmeg is made from the seeds of the nutmeg fruit, which grows on the nutmeg tree. Nutmeg has a robust nutty flavour.  

Ground coriander and coriander seeds

Coriander-dried seeds have an intense a bit spicy taste. It can be used for all kinds of Christmas dishes - both savoury and sweet. 

Cardamom

Cardamon is made from fresh immature seeds. It has a spicy and sweet flavour - perfect for desserts and hot drinks. 

Allspice

The dried unripe berries of the allspice tree are strong and spicy in flavour and an essential component of the ever-popular honey cake or gingerbread. Allspice develops its flavour when ground. You can easily do it in a stone mortar: place the allspice in the stone bowl and grind it slowly. 

Lemon and orange zest

How to make Christmas spices infusion?

The best way is to place the spices in a tea strainer or tea bag and then put them in the hot liquid so they can release the flavours and aromas. 

This way, you can remove spices easily from the liquid after heating them up and have a nice drink straight from the cup.  

How to make your own Christmas Spice?

Every family has different traditional Christmas recipes. Here's the recipe for gingerbread mix that my family uses every year. You can add it to cookies, cakes and pancakes. 

Gingerbread Spice Mix

3 tsp ginger

3 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp cardamom