Cinnamon, star anise, cardamom, cloves and vanilla are kitchen essentials for anyone getting stuck into Christmas baking. — Photo: Christin Klose/dpa
Some spices trigger instant winter warmth, which is why we associate them so much with winter festivities like Christmas. For anyone discovering the fine art of yuletide baking, these are the five spices you're most likely to encounter in sweet recipes.
Finely ground star anise is used to flavour gingerbread and German Christmas market staples like Lebkuchen. However, it has a very intense flavour and should be used sparingly. Used whole as an eight-pointed star, it serves as an eye-catcher in spiced tea, punch or mulled wine. Kept whole, they need to be stored tightly closed and in a dark place - or away from light and air circulation. If you crush them fresh in a mortar, the aroma is particularly intense.
The queen of the spices is also one of the most expensive. The most important type is Bourbon vanilla (Vanilla planifolia). The elongated pods need to be fermented to develop their dark colour and creamy, floral aroma.
We can buy real vanilla as pods or in powder form. Products with real vanilla can usually be recognised by the small black dots of the vanilla pulp.
It features in many Christmas cookie recipes, notably in Austria's vanilla kipferl crescent-shaped biscuits. To make your own vanilla sugar (much more aromatic than what you might find in a shop), just add whole or finely chopped vanilla pods in a jar with sugar and leave to steep for two weeks. Mix or shake well from time to time.
In Europe, cardamom used to flavour gingerbread and some Christmas biscuits, but also wintery hot drinks such as mulled wine and fruit punch. In many recipes it's combined with cinnamon and vanilla.
To get the full flavour, buy whole, green and firm cardamom pods. Stored in an airtight, dark container, they will keep for about a year. The pods can also be boiled with food and removed before eating. Or you can open the pods, fry the seeds briefly and crush them in a mortar.
The sweet-spicy scent of cloves is especially used winter drinks like mulled wine and hot whiskey. The dried flower buds of the clove tree (Syzygium aromaticum) can be bought whole or as a powder. Both should be stored in a dark place and well sealed.
If you want to keep the typical Christmas scent in your home and also have a beautiful decoration, stud an orange with a handful of cloves, so that only the bud heads are sticking out.
Cinnamon is perhaps the most important of all winter spices, but not all cinnamon is the same.
High-quality cinnamon is Ceylon cinnamon, which comes from the true cinnamon tree (Cinnamomum verum). It has more flavour and less coumarin than the cheaper cassia cinnamon. Coumarin can be harmful to health in high doses. Ceylon cinnamon is usually declared as such when sold.
Once you've stocked up on those five, the next on your list are likely to be ginger, nutmeg, fennel seeds and allspice. – dpa
