Zedernbrot - Almond Cookies with Lemon Icing

These cookies with a very misleading name might just have reached my top 3 of best Christmas cookies ever! The name is deceiving, since Zeder is actually German for cedar, yet (luckily!) the cookies have no cedar in them. Instead, Zeder refers to Italian, where cedro stands for citron (citrus medica) - and yes, there’s a lot of lemon in Zedernbrot!

Zedernbrot cookies are very easy to do, they are not too sweet, and they combine two of my favourite flavours - almond and lemon. Besides, the consistency is very pleasant - like chewy marshmallow. (If you do it right, that is. I forgot to check on my second batch and it stayed too long in the oven - and they got too dry..)

For about 30 small rectangular cookies you need:

• 1 egg white


• 125g powder sugar


• a pinch of salt


• 200g ground almonds


• zest of 1 lemon


• 3 tsp lemon juice


• a bit of flour for rolling the dough out

For the icing:

• 100g powder sugar


• lemon juice

Beat the egg white with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form. Add sugar and continue beating until glossy and firm. Add lemon zest, lemon juice, and almonds, and stir with a wooden spoon until all ingredients are well combined.  Place the dough in the fridge for one hour or so.

Roll the dough out about 1cm thick. Originally, these cookies are cut out with a moon-shaped cookie cutter, but I couldn’t find mine, so for my first batch I used a rectangular cutter. The dough is sticky and quite tricky to cut, so for the second batch I rolled the dough out into a square and used a sharp knife to cut out small rectangles.

Dry your Zedernbrot in a preheated oven (150 C) for about 20 minutes, or until their surface isn’t sticky to touch anymore. While the cookies are in the oven, you can prepare the icing: add as much lemon juice in the powder sugar as you need in order to get a mixture that is easy to stir with a spoon. Let the cookies cool a bit, then spread some icing on top of each, using a small spoon. I wanted mine extra lemony, so I squeezed a couple of lemon juice drops on each cookie before spreading the icing. Let the cookies dry, then store them.

P.S. So, two more days to go! If I don’t change my mind in the last minute, there’s going to be still something fruity and something chocolatey on the list ;)

Kaffeemakronen - Coffee Macaroons

A friend of mine was asking for me to bake hazelnut macaroons, which are a must in any self-respecting Plätzchen assortment, but I was craving for something with coffee. That’s how I came up with this recipe that combines both wishes -  and it worked! There’s not enough coffee to my taste, but then again, will there ever be? ;)

German macaroons are very easy to do compared with their French counterparts. Just beat the egg whites, add the rest, and bake. Most recipes tell you to wait a couple of hours before baking them, but today I didn’t have the time for that, and they turned out good even so.

For about 28 macaroons you need:

• 2 egg whites


• a pinch of salt


• 85g sugar


• 145g ground hazelnuts


• 30g all-purpose flour


• 3 tsp instant coffee - make it as strong as you can!


• 2 Tbsp molasses


• 28 chocolate covered coffee beans

First make the coffee: dilute as much instant coffee as you can in about 2 Tbsp hot water. Note that you'll only need part of this - the rest you can drink, provided you add  a lot of sugar ;) (This is how I did it, maybe there would be better methods.)

Beat the egg whites together with the salt until they form soft peaks. Then add gradually the sugar and continue beating until shiny and firm again. Then add hazelnuts, flour, and 3 tsp of that strong instant coffee you made. Stir with a wooden spoon until all ingredients are well combined.

Now, drop batter by teaspoonfuls on an oven tray covered with a parchment paper. It’s best to use two spoons - in one, you have the batter, and with the other one, you help the batter to land on the oven tray.

Bake your macaroons in a preheated oven (160 C) for about 20 minutes, or until they are not sticky anymore form the outside but still soft from the inside. Glue one coffee bean on top of each macaroon, using molasses as glue.

Crunchy Caramel Hearts with Cashews

Caramel and salt is a match made in heaven. These crunchy cookies topped with salty cashew caramel are so far the favourites of two test persons- and I don't blame them! The recipe comes from a little book called Weihnachtsplätzchen, and the only thing I changed was the amount of caramel - I made a bit more for the cook to be able to savour some of it as well ;)

For about 35 hearts you need

Caramel:

• 90g sugar


• 55g cashews


• salt to taste

Cookies:

• 180g flour


• a pinch of salt


• 2 Tbsp sugar


• 16g vanilla sugar


• 120g butter or margarine


• 50ml (vegan) cream


• a bit of milk for brushing

First, make the caramel: in a pan, heat the sugar until it melts and gets light brown - but be careful! Caramel burns very easily. Then add the cashews, turn a couple of times with a spatula to make sure all cashews are coated with caramel, and take away from heat. Pour the caramel onto a surface covered with parchment paper and let cool.

In the meantime, prepare the dough: in a baking bowl, combine flour, salt, sugar, and vanilla sugar. Add butter (cut in small cubes) and work with your fingertips until fine and crumbly. Then add cream and form the dough into a ball. Place the dough in the fridge for 10 minutes or so.

Now, it’s time to cut the caramel. I used a sharp knife to cut it into small pieces, but you could also use your food processor. Add salt to your taste and stir well.

Take your dough out of the fridge, roll it out to about 3mm thin, and take out heart formed cookies with a cookie cutter. Place them on an oven pan covered with a parchment paper. Brush each cookie with a bit of milk and sprinkle caramel on top.

Bake in a preheated oven (190 C) for about 12 minutes, or when the cookies are golden brown. Let cool on a rack - and enjoy!

Kathrinchen - the Gingerbread That Opens the Christmas Season

So a Roman emperor asks you to marry him, and your answer is “No, thanks.” Better think twice! Catherine of Alexandria turned down a marriage proposal coming from the emperor Maxentius in year 305, and guess what happened? Maxentius tried to kill Catherine using a breaking wheel (hence the wheel in this picture) - but didn’t succeed and had her beheaded instead.

In memory of that event the Germans traditionally start their Plätzchen season on the 24th of November, on the eve of St. Catherine’s day, and bake a special form of Lebkuchen, or gingerbread, called Kathrinchen. I only found about this tradition today, but next year I’m definitely going to serve these lemon-scented gingerbread cookies on that day. And bake them a couple of days in advance: these cookies need 4-5 days to get softer and to better reveal their nice lemony taste.

This recipe is again from Feinste Weinachtsbäckerei. I don’t have a proper Kathrinchen cookie cutter, so I used another rectangular cookie cutter, about 4cm wide and 6cm long.

For about 40 of  cookies that size you need:

• 100g honey


• 50g sugar


• 25g butter


• 1 egg yolk


• 30g sugar


• 2 tsp gingerbread spice mixture


• zest of one lemon


• 1 Tbsp rose water


• 1 tsp potash


• 250g all-purpose flour (I baked mine with spelt 1050)


• 1 pinch of salt

Plus for the icing:

• 4 Tbsp sugar


• 2 Tbsp hot water


• 1 Tbsp lemon juice

Place honey, 50g sugar, and butter in a pan and heat until sugar has melted. Mix egg yolk, 30g sugar, spices, and lemon zest together in a baking bowl. Mix potash with rose water and add to the egg-sugar mixture. Now add honey mixture and flour (I added a pinch of salt in the flour, although it wasn’t in the original recipe) and stir with a wooden spoon until all ingredients are well combined. Place the dough in the fridge for one hour or so.

Roll out the dough 0,5cm thick and cut it into rectangular cookies either with a knife or with a cookie cutter. Bake about 15 minutes in a preheated oven (180 C).

Once the cookies have cooled a bit, brush them with lemon-sugar icing (just mix all ingredients together). This makes the cookies sprinkle like they had a bit frost on them!

Coconut Balls with Almonds and White Chocolate

My advice is - do NOT try out this recipe. I did, and there’s no turning back. These crunchy almond coconut cookies dipped in white chocolate and rolled in coconut flakes are highly addictive.

The recipe is from a small booked called Weinachtsplätzchen, and had to be somewhat modified - I had to add a bit of water in the dough, and the amount of white chocolate (100g) just wasn’t enough. That’s why half of my cookies are covered with dark chocolate (which didn’t work as well as white chocolate, though). You can also leave the coating out - the cookies taste great even without it.

For some 35 cookies you need:

• 300g all-purpose flour


• 100g ground almonds


• 100g desiccated coconut


• a pinch of salt


• 100g sugar


• 250g butter or vegan margarine


• about 50ml water

For the coating:

• 200g (vegan) white chocolate


• 100g desiccated coconut

In a baking bowl, combine together flour, almonds, coconut, salt, and sugar. Add butter or margarine in small cubes and work with your fingertips until fine and crumbly. Add enough water so that you can form the dough into a ball.

Divide the dough into about 35 pieces. Roll each piece into a small ball. Bake in a preheated oven (180 C) about 15-20 minutes, or until cooked but not brown yet. (Lower the temperature if needed.)

Once the cookies are baked and cooled a bit, melt the white chocolate - add some (vegan) cream if needed. I’m too lazy to use a bain-marie, so I melted mine in a pan - it worked, too, but I needed to add a bit of milk. Drop a couple of cookies at a time into the chocolate, take out with a spoon and roll in the desiccated coconut. Let dry on a plate and transfer into an air-tight container.

I’m going to bake a second portion of these cookies and coat them only just before Christmas. My guess is, even well-hidden, they won’t keep as well as other Plätzchen types.

Spitzbuben

“Quite good, but not as good as the ones my mother-in-law bakes”, was the honest judgment of a friend of mine when she tasted my Spitzbuben (= rascals), these little sandwich cookies that are amongst the most popular Christmas cookies in Germany. And she was right. The recipe I found in Feinste Weinachtsbäckerei results in very decent Spitzbuben - but not the best I've eaten.

While I’m waiting for my friend to convince her mother-in-law to reveal her secret recipe, I’ll share this one with you. Spitzbuben are not difficult to make, but you need to count with at least 2 hours to get 40 cookies. I was lucky today to have some baking company, so it went faster - and was a lot more fun!

For 40 or so you need

• 125 g butter or margarine


• 100g sugar


• 8g vanilla sugar


• 1 pinch of salt


• 1 Tbsp rum


• 1 egg


• 60g ground almonds


• 250g all-purpose flour


• plus some jam (raspberry, apricot..) and powder sugar to decorate

Beat butter, vanilla sugar, and sugar together until pale yellow and fluffy, then add the egg and rum and mix well. In a bowl, combine almonds, flour, and salt together, and pour the mixture on the butter mixture. Use your hands to combine all ingredients well together. Form the dough into a ball and place in the fridge for an hour or so (or even overnight).

Roll the dough out about 0,5 cm thin. Cut out stars (or circles) with a cookie cutter. In half of the cookies, make a hole in the middle (I used an apple corer). Bake your cookies in a preheated oven (180 C) for about 10 minutes, or until cooked but not brown yet. Set aside to cool and bake the rest of the cookies.

Spread about ½ espresso spoon of jam on top of each hole-less cookie and place a cut-out cookie on top. Place on a plate. When all your sandwich cookies are done, sprinkle some (vanilla-flavoured) powder sugar on top.

Zimtsterne or Cinnamon Stars

At this time of the year, thousands of Germans are attending baking lessons to find about the best method for baking better Zimtsterne as their neighbours do. Newspaper articles are written about what is the safe daily amount for kids to eat of these cinnamon stars. To put it short: Zimtsterne are THE German Christmas cookies. And luckily, if you have a good recipe, they are actually not that hard to make!

I was lucky to find the perfect recipe right in the beginning. It’s from a small book called Lieblings-Winachtsplätzchen. Making Zimtsterne takes some time - for my 40 stars or so I spent 90 minutes in the kitchen - and you need to be practically glued to your oven to make sure your precious little stars don’t overcook. But like I said, it’s not difficult.

For about 40 little stars you need:

• 400g ground almonds


• 3 tsp cinnamon (I use only Ceylon cinnamon these days, not the Cassia variety)


• 1 pinch of salt


• 16g vanilla sugar


• 2 egg whites


• 100g powder sugar

And for the meringue topping:

• 1 egg white


• 100g powder sugar


• 1 Tbsp lemon juice

In a bowl, combine almond, cinnamon, vanilla sugar, and salt. In a baking bowl, beat egg whites until they form soft peaks, then gradually add powder sugar and continue beating until firm again. Add almond mixture to the egg white mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until all ingredients all well combined.

Take this wet dough in your hands, form it into a ball, and place between two layers of cling film. Roll it out (still between the cling film) about 1cm thick. Remove the upper layer of cling film and cut out small stars using a cookie cutter. (The dough is sticky, so you might need to dip the cutter in some powder sugar.)

Now comes the hardest part: on each star, you should spread an even layer of meringue topping (beat the egg white until soft peaks form, add gradually sugar and lemon juice and beat until very firm again) - with a brush, it said in my recipe. My baking brush is quite big and it just didn’t work with these small stars, so I used an espresso spoon. I took one star at a time in my left hand and used my right hand to place a half of an espresso spoon of the topping in the middle, then spread it to each point.

Bake your stars in a preheated oven (150 C) for about 10-15 minutes. Don’t let them get any colour! If they are still a bit wet but you fear they’ll gain colour, reduce the temperature and let them dry just a bit longer.

After they have cooled, place your cinnamon stars in an airtight container.

And what is the amount of Zimtsterne that kids can safely eat per day? Well, if you’re using Ceylon cinnamon, you don’t have to worry. But if you prefer Cassia cinnamon, kids should not eat more than three of your stars a day - the coumarin it contains causes liver damage (!) in bigger amounts.