Welcome back to my little corner of the internet!
‘Tis the time of the year where my German DNA is strong. As soon as the Advent time starts, I feel this urge to start baking cookies.
Every good German bakes a minimum of 4 different cookies. My grandma used to make 18 different types of cookies. I usually stop at around 8 to 10. Anyways, I thought you could be interested in my recipes, if you would like to start this Christmas tradition or if you are just looking for excuses to eat more cookies…;)
1. Simple Butter Cookies – Butterplätzchen
Ingredients:
250 g Flour
100 g Sugar
1 pckg Vanilla Sugar
1 pinch Salt
1 Egg
125 g Butter
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Work into a ball with your hands. Wrap in clear foil and refrigerate for approximately 30 minutes.
On a floured working surface, roll out the dough to 3 mm and cut out different shapes. Bake in the oven at 180º C for 8 minutes.
Now you can decorate the cookies to your liking, or leave them as is. I personally prefer them without decorations, but as a kid I loved decorating them!
2. You can’t be without – Lebkuchen
Ingredients:
125 g Brown Sugar
125 g Molasses
1 tsp Cinnamon, powder
1 tsp Ginger, powder
1/8 tsp Clovers, powder
1/2 tsp Cardamom, powder
1/2 tsp Coriander, powder
90 g Butter
1.5 tsp Baking Powder
500 g Flour
1 Pinch Salt
1 Egg, slightly beaten
In a pot, mix the sugar, the molasses, the spices and the butter. On low heat, heat it up, and stir until the sugar has melted. Be careful not to let it come to a boil.
Remove from the heat and pour the mixture into a bowl. Add the baking powder, the flour, the salt and the egg. Mix well and knead with your hands, until you can form a ball. It could be that the dough is crumbling, but this gets better the more you knead and work the dough. Yes, some hard work is required.
Wrap the ball into clear foil and refrigerate for a couple of hours. I usually leave it overnight.
Roll the dough out and cut out gingerbread shapes. Bake in the oven at 170º C for 8-10 minutes.
Now, once again, you can decorate it, if you would like to. My favourite was chocolate, when I was a kid. Now I prefer the cookie without any decoration.
3. Black and White Cookies
Ingredients:
500 g flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
250 g Sugar
1 pckg Vanilla Sugar
1 pinch Salt
2 Eggs
250 g Butter, softened
3 heaped tbsp Cocoa Powder
3 tbsp Sugar
1 tbsp Milk
1 Egg, lightly beaten
In a bowl, mix the butter, sugar and eggs until creamy. Add the baking powder, the salt, the vanilla sugar and the flour. Knead into a smooth dough.
Halve the dough and place both halves into one separate bowl. In one bowl, add the milk, sugar and cocoa powder. Knead the dough again until smooth and well mixed.
Wrap both ball into clear foil and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Now, on a floured working surface, roll out both balls. to rectangles. Brush the lightly beaten egg on one half. Place the other half on top and roll it up tightly. Wrap your roll into clear foil and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Preheat your oven at 200ºC. Slice the roll into slices of about 1/2 cm and place them on a baking tray. Bake for 12 minutes.
4. Coconut Cookies
Ingredients:
4 Egg whites
200 g Sugar
400 g Grated Coconut
Whisk the egg white till stiff. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Now heat up a frying pan and add the mixture to it. On a medium to low fire, heat up the mixture, until it thickens. Using two spoons, place small heaps on a baking tray and bake for 10/15 minutes at 180ºC.
5. Nougat Cookies – Kosakenthaler
Ingredients:
300 g Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
100 g Sugar
1 pckg Vanilla Sugar
3 tbsp Milk
150 g Butter
150 g Hazelnut Nougat
Some ground hazelnut for decoration
Mix all the ingredients, apart from the nougat and the ground hazelnuts in a bowl.
Shape into sausages of about 20 cm length. Wrap in clear foil and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven at 180º C. Cut the sausages into slices of about 3 mm. You should have an even number of cookies. Bake for 8-10 minutes.
Let the cookies cool down. In the meantime, melt the nougat. Now, spread the nougat on one half of a cookie. Place another cookie on top and roll the sides in the ground hazelnuts. Proceed with the remaining cookies.
6. Cinnamon Spirals
Ingredients:
60 g Butter, softened
50 g Cream Cheese
140 g Sugar
1 pckg. Vanilla Sugar
1 Egg Yolk
180 g Flour
1 Knife Point Baking Powder
2 tbsp Butter, melted
2 tbsp Cinnamon Powder
2 tbsp Sugar
Start by placing the cream cheese, the butter and the sugar into a bowl. Mix until creamy. Now add the egg yolk and keep on mixing.
Next, add the flour and the backing powder. Knead into a smooth dough.
Now halve the dough and place the two halves between two layers of clear foil. With a rolling pin, roll them out into rectangles of about 30 cm length per 20 cm width.
In a small bowl, mix the melted butter, the cinnamon powder and the sugar. Remove the upper layer of foil from both halves. Brush one half with the cinnamon and butter mixture. Place the other one on top, with the foil facing upwards, in order not to trap it in between the dough. Now, with the help of the foil, roll the dough up as tightly as possible. Wrap it and refrigerate it for at least three hours.
Once the dough is nice and chilled, it will be much easier to cut it. Preheat the oven at 180ºC. Take the dough, unwrap it and cut into slices of approximately 1/2 cm each.
Place on a baking tray at a distance, because it will grow and bake in the oven for 12 minutes.
7. Lady Fingers
Ingredients:
160 g Butter
100 g Powdered Sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla Sugar
350 g Flour
Mix sugar and butter in a bowl until it is creamy and foamy. Add the vanilla sugar and the flour. Keep on mixing. Now form sausages of about 3 cm in length. Place them on a baking tray and press them lightly down. Bake at 175º C for 10 minutes.
8. Linzer Plätzchen – Spiced Cookies
Ingredients:
125 g Butter
50 g Powdered Sugar
150 g Flour
100 g Hazelnuts, ground
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 Knife Point Clovers, powder
1 Knife Point Cardamom, powder
1 tbsp Cocoa powder
Raspberry jelly
In a bowl, mix butter and sugar until creamy. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, nuts and spices. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar. You will get a crumbling dough. Knead it carefully with your hands.
Place the dough between two sheets of clear foil and roll it out with the help of a rolling pin. Cut out biscuit shapes, preferably stars or hearts. Remember to have two of each shape, to be able to layer them. In one of the two, cut out a smaller shape.
Heat the oven at 200ºC and bake them for 10 minutes. Be careful that they won’t turn too dark. Without waiting for the cookies to cool down, spread some jelly on one cookie and place the same shape with the hole on top of the first one.
You can sprinkle over some powdered sugar, if you like.
9. Vanilla Cookies – Vanillekipferl
Ingredients:
180 g Flour
80 g Sugar
1 pckg Vanilla Sugar
160 g Butter
100 g Almonds, ground or powdered
Powdered sugar and vanilla sugar for sprinkling
Preheat the oven at 140ºC. In a bowl, mix the sugar and the butter until creamy. Add the vanilla sugar, the almonds and the flour. Using your hands, shape small half moons or croissants and place them on a baking tray. Bake for 20 minutes. The cookies will be soft once you remove them from the oven, but don’t worry. When they cool down, they will harden.
10. Spritzgebäck
Ingredients:
250 g Brown Sugar
250 g Butter
1 pckg Vanilla Sugar
1 tsp Baking Powder
200 g Flour
200 g Hazelnuts, powder
1 Pinch salt
1 egg white
In a bowl, mix the butter and the sugar until foamy. Add the egg white, the flour, the hazelnuts, baking powder, vanilla sugar. Mix well and transfer into a sac-à-poche. Squeeze out little shapes or mountains on a baking tray. Bake in the oven at 170º C for 20-25 minutes.
11. Simple Fudge
500 g Powdered Sugar
70 g Butter
3 tbsp Milk
175 g Bitter Chocolate
Over a water bath melt the sugar, milk and chocolate. If the mixture is too dry, you can add a bit more milk. Be careful not to burn the mixture. Once the sugar has melted, pour into a silicone mold or any other mold that will allow you to remove it once it’s solidified. You can put some parchment paper into a regular mold. Let it cool and then refrigerate until hard. Remove from the mold and cut into dice.
Do you have any special Christmas traditions? Let me know in the comments below!
Love,
Raffi
