With christmas around the corner, I wanted to share some of my favorite German christmas cookie recipes! While I consider these to be a German staple, many other countries have adapted very similar cookies, so they may seem somewhat familiar to many of you. Since christmas, with its cozy vibes, snowy landscapes, hot beverages and spiced cookies is my favorite time of the year (and admittedly, things have been a little quiet on the blog for a while), I decided to pick up the pace a little and I will be posting a new recipe every other day until December 24th! Disclaimer: This recipe is not actually my own recipe, but my friend's grandma's recipe (Shout-out to my childhood friend Kaja and her grandma Heike)!
Ingredients:
- 4 1/2 cups (500g) ground natural almonds (not peeled!)
- 2 cups (250g) powdered sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3 egg whites
- 1 pack vanilla sugar/ 1 tsp vanilla extract
(- 3 drops of bitter almond flavoring)
Pre-heat the oven to 255 °F (upper and lower heat).
Whisk the egg whites in a bowl until stiff, then slowly add tablespoons of sifted powdered sugar and keep mixing. The resulting mixture should have a honey-like texture and not be too runny. Set aside 5 tablespoons of the egg white mixture, then start mixing the ground almonds into the remaining egg white using a dough hook.
Add cinnamon, powdered sugar and 3 drops of bitter almond flavoring (can be bough on amazon or German/European specialty stores).
Knead well, then roll out the dough. The dough should be relatively thick, between 0.5-1 cm (0.2-0.4 inches). Personally, I like to use 3 star cookie cutters of varying sizes, but one will do just fine. Move the stars to a parchment paper-lined cookie pan.
Finally, apply the egg white mix you previously set aside to the top of the dough using a brush. Don't be too stingy and try to apply it relatively evenly. Bake cookies for approximately 15 minutes. If they are starting to turn a little yellow-brown, remove the cookies from the oven right away as the topping should remain a nice, crisp white if possible.
I hope you enjoy making these whimsical little cookies and see you back here in two days for the next cookie recipe! :)
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