Category Archives: Christmas Cookies

December 20th, 2013

Meringue Mushrooms

Category Christmas Cookies, Presents from the kitchen  Tags: , , ,   8 Responses

Baiser Pilze (2)Sometimes I see a recipe and I have directly a person in mind who would be like it as small treat.

That happened to me, when I saw the little meringue mushrooms on Food52 shortly before christmas. At this time it was already to late but I kept it in mind the whole year and made it this week as little Christmas present for someone who loves to go on a mushroom foray.

And I was surprised who simple they are made. Who ever made some meringue before will do this easily. You just have to pipe flat, round hats with a big piping tip. The stems are made by moving the tip slowly  upwards and the lamella are made by dipping the bottom side of the hat into molten chocolate. You see, it is really easy to do but the effect is great!

A perfect gift for mushroom fan!

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December 15th, 2013

Mohnkipferl

Category Christmas Cookies  Tags: , ,   7 Responses

Mohnkipferl

And here I am with another modification of my standard recipes. I saw a picture of Mohnkipferl (poppy seeds crescents) somewhere in the depth of the world wide web some weeks ago, but did not save the site nor the recipe (my fault, I know). And so I had to be creative…

I replaced the almonds in my vanilla crescent recipe with ground poppy seeds. I ground the poppy seeds with the mini chopper accessory of my hand held blender, but an electric coffee mill or a food processor should do the job, too.

The poppy seed experiment worked out perfectly, the kipferl a perfectly mellow and are a perfect contrast to my normal vanilla crescents!

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December 14th, 2013

Quince stars

Category Christmas Cookies  Tags: , , ,   2 Responses

QuittensterneThere are three recipes I bake each year for christmas: Vanillekipferl (with or without almonds), Liebesgrübchen and Linzer Ringe. These are family recipes, and a christmas “must have”.

But each year I have to bake some new recipes as well. And one of the recipes I tried this year are these quince stars. When I made my traditional Linzer Ringe recipe I had the Idea of a cookie made with a quince fillung and some grounded almonds and a little bit of tonka bean in the dough. I use the tonka beans always carefully because while they taste delicious, their aroma is a strong one, too.

I like my spontaneous recipe vey much, the combination of almond, quince and tonka bean fits very well!

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December 6th, 2013

Stollenkonfekt

Category Christmas Cookies  Tags: , , , , , , , ,   58 Responses

Stollenkonfekt

Stollenkonfekt – this is Christstollen baked as little bits. I saw it often in the last weeks in the supermarket. And I thought “I can do some of this delicious bits by my own!” This was the beginning of this recipe. I made some adjustments in my favourite Christstollen recipe, increasing the amount of water roux to prevent drying out in the oven and cutting the marzipan into the small cubes. I halve the recipe so it will yield one tray of Stollenkonfekt.

And because the Stollenkonfekt is so small, no one will recognise when you taste one or two still oven warm. They then already delicious, moist and fluffy. That makes it even harder to wait the one or two weeks of rest a stollen needs so the different flavours can infuse and melt together. But the taste is worth the patience. The crumb gets denser during that time and stays incredible moist. A perfect little bit of stollen in a size which fits on every christmas cookie plate.

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December 1st, 2013

Marzipan Almond Stollen

Category Cake & Pastry, Christmas Cookies  Tags: , , , , , , ,   21 Responses

Mandelstollen

I do not make an changes on the recipe of my Christstollen, but some members of our family do not like raisins, and so they do not like Stollen as well. So an alternative was needed! Years ago I already baked a Almondstollen for them, but Almondstollen always has the tendency to get very dry. And that is not so surprising when you take out the ingredients that keeps it moist like raisins for example! But nevertheless I take the challange once again and baked a Marzipan Almond Stollen this year.

The basis for the recipe is the proofed and true recipe of my Christstollen, of course without the raisins and with more almonds. For moisture I use a water roux and added grated Marzipan as well, which adds a nice flavour, too. The fine almond flavour get enhanced from some Tonka bean, and for the classical stollen flavour I grounded candid orange peel in the food processor as fine as possible.

After two weeks of ripening we tested the stollen, and it was still moist. Not as moist as Christstollen, but so much better then every Almond stollen I ever baked before! And it taste very good, too! Maybe I have to bake to different kinds of stollen from now on…

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December 21st, 2012

Pepparkakaor

Category Christmas Cookies  Tags: , , , , , , , ,   8 Responses

PeppakakorIs everyone still here? Or  did the apocalypse happened somewhere?

In our little corner of the world the “weather precast for the apocalypse” did not come true (luckily). It is good that I bought my christmas presents already, now I will need them Smiley mit geöffnetem Mund!

With 4°C and a lot of mist this day should be spend on the couch, snuggeled in a warm plaid with a cup of tea and some cookies. On my cookie plate I have some old friends as well as some new. A new recipe besides the Hazelnut Bars and Allspice hats is the recipe for swedian Pepparkakaor

This delicious recipe I found on My Italian Smörgåsbord and I had to try it. It is packed with nuts, spices, malt and honey and they are very delicious. The next time would just exchange the coconut with some hazelnuts, then they will be perfect for me!

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December 20th, 2012

Tender Hazelnut Bars

Category Christmas Cookies  Tags: , ,   5 Responses

zarte haselnussstangen

There was a small Booklet with cookie recipe in the Magazine Landlust in the November/December Issue. I fell in love with the recipe they put on the cover “tender hazelnut bars” – and so it was on top of my mental “have to try” list for Christmas baking this year.

The cookies are easy to made, you just have to form finger thick strands and cut them into 5 cm pieces. And for decorating the cookies with some chocolate stripes, they are put close to each other, so that there is no gap between them. To pipe the chocolate on all them is then easily done.

I like the Cookies very much. They are simple, but delicious– no spices will overpower the taste of hazelnuts here. And that is the magic of these cookies, they just relay on the quality of their ingredients. A perfect addition for my christmas cookie plate!

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December 19th, 2012

Chocolate & Spice Almonds

Category Christmas Cookies, Presents from the kitchen  Tags: , , , , , , ,   13 Responses

Schoko-Gewürzmandeln

Christmas eve is now near. And the nearer this day comes the more I enjoy the fragrance of almonds, cinnamon, vanilla, clove and other spices. And when I read a recipe for Chocolate Almonds I knew instantly that I has to try this recipe. But – and I knew this instantly, too – that I would have to make spiced chocolate almonds, with cinnamon, cardamom and vanilla – just like the delicious chocolate almonds that you can buy at this time of the year.

They are not very complicated to make but to coat them with chocolate needs some time. The chocolate is added in small increments and then the almonds have to be stirred until the chocolate sets. And then the next increment of chocolate  is added…  And that repeatedly until the almonds are covered with a thick layer of chocolate. It is a similar principal as dipping candles.

When the almonds are done you have to find a save spot hide the almonds, otherwise small or big christmas mice will eat them Zwinkerndes Smiley

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December 5th, 2012

Piment-Hütchen mit Quitten-Nuss-Füllung

Category Christmas Cookies  Tags: , ,   3 Responses

Kardamom-Quitten-Hütchen

There was a delicious looking recipe in the christmas cookie edition of the magazine “Brigitte”. I do not read this magazine, but I like their cookie recipes and so I was very happy that you can download their recipes as well. The recipe I fell in love with was a Spritzgebäck seasoned with cacao and allspice. I mixed the dough and tried to pipe some cookies. But then I had to realize that I either need a stronger piping bag or that the dough was to dry. And so I put the dough in the fridge and started to rethink the plan. And after half an hour the dough had the perfect consistence for rolling and I had a new plan.

And so I rolled the dough, cut out circle, filled them with a hazelnut and quince jelly filling and folded the sides of the cookie so they formed little triangles. The mixture of allspice, quince and hazelnut fits together very nicely. So I’m not longer disappointed over the original recipe but very happy with my variation of the recipe.

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