Day 15: Linzer Cookies

Ten days to go, and I still hadn't baked almost any of the iconic German Christmas cookies - Zimtsterne, Spitzbuben, Zedernbrot, Linzerschnitte...

So now it was time to get back to the track. I decided to bake Linzer cookies, the recipe of which I was almost sure I already shared last year - but I didn't... So now it's time to share it!

These sandwich cookies taste a bit like gingerbread but they are much softer! Fill them with any red jam that you like - my favourite is a mixture of raspberry and redcurrant jam.

This is what you need:

• 150g softened butter


• 50g sugar


• 1 egg


• 150g all-purpose flour


• 75 ground almonds


• 75g ground hazelnuts


• 1/3 tsp baking powder


• 1/2 tsp cinnamon


• 1/4 tsp cloves


• 1/4 tsp cardamom


• a pinch of ground nutmeg


• a pinch of salt (if using unsalted butter)


• red jam (raspberry, redcurrant...) for the filling


• some confectioner's sugar to decorate

This is how to proceed:

Beat butter and sugar until the mixture is creamy. Add the egg and stir until well combined. In another bowl, combine all the other dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar-egg-mixture and stir until you get a smooth batter. It is a bit liquid at this point, but don't add any flour!

Let the dough rest in the fridge about 2 hours.

Now, preheat the oven to 180C. Roll the dough out and cut hearts (or other forms of your liking) with a cookie cutter. Bake the cookies until the start to get some colour.

Once out of the oven, let the cookies cool down. Then spread jam evenly on the flat side of half of the cookies. Sandwich with the rest of the cookies. Sprinkle with some powder sugar and serve!

If you're planning to keep the cookies longer, do the sandwiching part only just before serving them.

Day 13: Saint Lucy's Buns

Yesterday I didn't bake anything for my reverse advent's calendar. The reason is - I had the honour of doing the catering for my godson's birthday party! So I spent the whole day in the kitchen cooking and baking for the big event.

But around midnight I prepared the dough for today's project. I wanted to bake Saint Lucy's buns, which are a tradition in Sweden - and increasingly so in Finland as well. I've baked them a couple of times, only this time I wanted to use sourdough starter only instead of yeast. The result was incredibly soft and tasty - my starter seems to be in good form again!

Traditionally, these buns contain saffron which lends them a very beautiful yellow colour. Well, I had forgotten to buy saffron, and by the time I wanted to make the dough, it was already too late to buy any. So mine were white this year.. but very tasty nonetheless (and much cheaper, of course ;) ).

This is what I needed for 13 buns:

• 100g stiff sourdough starter


• 250ml liquid (I used a mix of water, cream, and quark)


• 50g sugar (this is very little, and the buns were just slightly sweet - feel free to add more)


• 1/3 tsp salt


• 100g butter, softened


• 1 egg


• 0.5g saffron (which I had forgotten to buy...)


• about 400g all-purpose flour

Combine all ingredients in a baking bowl. Knead until the dough is smooth, or about 10 minutes. Cover with a damp kitchen cloth and place in a warmish place overnight (or about 8 hours) to ferment.

When the dough has more or less doubled in volume, place it on a baking surface and punch the air out. Divide the dough in about 13 parts. Roll each part about 20cm long and form buns in a shape of S.

Place the buns on a baking tray covered with parchment paper. Cover with a kitchen towel and proof about 20-30 minutes. Brush the buns with egg yolk and decorate with raisins (place them deep enough so that they don't burn!). Bake in a preheated oven (220C) about 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Enjoy your buns just as they've cooled enough!

I froze five of my buns for Christmas.. let's see if they are still so soft when defrosted ;)

P.S. After having read the story of Saint Lucy in Wikipedia, I can't look at these buns without thinking that those two raisins symbolize the poor girl's eyes.. a very macabre story indeed!