Darling Clementine Christmas Cookies

We’ve all heard stories of folks giving and receiving an orange for Christmas. It’s part of the lore surrounding the holiday. It would have been a pretty magical gift in snowy Canada during the Great Depression; exotica from another land.

 

But why an orange for Christmas though?

One theory is that since Christmas is associated with giving and sharing, an orange is a perfect, small gift; you can break it apart into several equal segments which you can easily share. There is also the legend that Saint Nicholas used to drop sacks of gold down the chimney (let’s bring back that tradition!). The gold filled the stockings that were laid out by the fireplace to dry. The oranges that filled Christmas stockings during the Depression were said to represent these sacks of gold. Pretty lame if you ask me.

 

 

Of course getting some citrus fruit is not a big deal for most folks these days. But the tradition of having a small wooden crate of clementines is still part of the holidays. There is something about those little wooden crates that really says the holidays are here. And the actual story of the clementine is reminiscent of another Christmas tale, the one of Charlie Brown and his spindly little tree.

 

 

It all took place far from here, in Algeria, in the late 19th century. Algeria is bordered by Morrocco and Tunisia and is home to plenty of citrus groves. In one magical grove grew a little uncultivated tree. The grove was in an orphanage, and the old missionary who worked there noticed the tree. It had grown in amongst some thorny bushes as a wild cross- fertilization between a mandarin orange and a regular sweet orange. The curious missionary took grafts from the tree and he produced a new kind of citrus. The missionary’s name was Brother Clément Rodier and so it came to pass, in 1902, that the orphans named the new fruit the clementine to honour his name. He flew away to heaven in 1904 but his delicious creation lives on today.

 

 

So this holiday season stock up on clementines and try them in some recipes. They make an especially delicious cookie. Our favourite is a meltingly soft sugar cookie that smells heavenly, we’ve taken inspiration from various recipes to create our own version – The Darling Clementine. What makes these special is the classic mix of chocolate and orange. We love the bourbon ganache used by Sugar Spun Run for her thumbprint cookies (no thumbprint needed for Clementines, but add it if you like). Make a batch to leave out on Christmas Eve, or to share with neighbours. That would likely make Saint Nick, and the benevolent ghost of Brother Clément, pretty happy.