Vanille Kipfel
In English these are called Almond Crescents. These are my family's favorite Christmas cookie. My mom taught me how to make them when I was a kid. They are fun to make with family and friends because you shape the cookies between your palms and it is good to have extra hands to help.
Dough:
2 cups flour (you can start with 1 3/4 cups of flour and then add the rest at the end as you are collecting all the dough into one ball.)
1 cup ground almonds (I grind the almonds in a blender so they are like coarse almond meal)
1/2 cup sugar
1 pkg. vanilla sugar (My mom used to use Dr. Oetker's packaged vanilla sugar but she also showed me how to scrape out a vanilla bean and put the hollowed bean and the beans insides a container of sugar and make vanilla sugar over the course of a few months. One bean for each two cups of sugar.)
some salt
1 1/4 cups butter, cold
Extra vanilla sugar or powdered sugar for dusting the cookies
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. You don't have to grease a baking sheet because the cookies will spread out too much if you grease it. Blend the flour, almonds, sugar, salt and vanilla sugar in a bowl. Cut the cold butter into small pieces over the dry ingredients. Mix the butter into the flour mixture with your hands. Roll the butter and flour mixture between your fingers over and over to mix the butter evenly into the dry ingredients. Work theses ingredients together quickly into a smooth dough.
To make the crescent shape, I pinch off a small amount of dough and shape it into a ball using my palms. The dough ball should be smaller than golf ball. I then roll my palms together back and forth to make the ball into a cylinder or log shape. I push the ends in if they are tapered too much. I then form the cylinder into a crescent with my fingers and put it on the baking sheet. My mom's friend, Emily, made very small delicate looking crescents, whereas my mom made bigger more hearty looking cookies. It is fun to do with others and see how people have different styles of shaping these cookies.
Bake on the middle rack in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until light golden in color. Let cool slightly before removing the cookies from the baking sheet otherwise they will break. I put the cookies face down in a shallow bowl of vanilla sugar a few at a time and then turn them over to coat both sides of the cookies. I then take them out of the sugar to make room for the next few. Some people use powdered sugar instead of granulated vanilla sugar.
I like these cookies a lot.
Spekulatius
500 g. flour
1 pkg. baking powder
250 g butter or margarine
250 g sugar
2 eggs
150 g almonds
zest of a lemon
5 g cinnamon, 2 g nutmeg, 1 g cardamom, 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
Bake for 10 minutes at medium heat.
or
this recipe, but it has only cinnamon as the added spice
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
2 cups flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking powder
In a large bowl, mix the butter with the sugar until creamy. Beat in the egg until fluffy. In another bowl, stir together flour, cinnamon and baking powder. Gradually add dry ingredients to creamed mixture, mixing at low speed until well blended. Cover and chill at least 2 hours. To cut out with cookie cutters, roll well chilled dough on a floured board to 1/16 thickness. I usually decorate the top of the cookie with a few blanched almonds before baking. Bake in a 350 degree oven until edges begin to turn dark, about 6 to 8 minutes.
Lebkuchen (or German Honey Cookies)
heat slightly in a large saucepan:
1 1/3 cups honey and 3/4 cup (or less) sugar
add and melt
3 Tbsp. butter
Sift together and add:
about 2 cups flour, 1 tsp. baking powder and 1/2 tsp. baking soda
add:
1/2 cup almonds
1/4 cup chopped citron and 1/4 cup candied orange or lemon peel
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cardamom
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. cloves
add:
1 1/2 to 2 cups more flour to make a sticky dough. You can chill the dough overnight or roll it out right away. Use cookie cutters to cup out shapes or roll the dough to fill a buttered jelly roll pan. Bake about 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Cut into squares and ice with lemon glaze made with powdered sugar and lemon juice.
No comments:
Post a Comment