50 | 52 Cardamom Biscotti

Christmas is just around the corner. 

(I know, I know, #takeadeepbreath...)

I have to admit that with sunny days, blue skies, and around 14°C (57°F) outside temperature, I find it very hard to get into the Christmas spirit.

(Not that I'm complaining about this awesome weather! No, I'm really not. But it's not very christmassy for this part of the world.)

So anyway - I mostly blame it on the great weather that I haven't baked any Christmas cookies yet.
So let's start with some Biscotti that are not entirely christmassy. Alright?

 

Cardamom Biscotti

From Martha Stewart

160 g (1 1/4 cups) flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

pinch of salt

(1 cup) almonds, blanched and ground

1/2 teaspoon cardamom, ground

150 g (3/4 cup) sugar

2 eggs, plus 1 egg white for brushing

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

• Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F).
• Combine flour, baking powder, and pinch of salt in a bowl. Add almonds, cardamom, and the sugar (minus 2 tablespoons). Whisk eggs and vanilla together and add to dry ingredients. Knead together with your hands until well combined.
• Transfer dough onto baking sheet with parchment paper, roll into a log of about 22cm / 9in length. Flatten top a bit and bake for about 30 minutes.
• Whisk egg white a bit, then brush log with it. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons sugar. Bake for another 15 minutes.
• Let cool for 10 minutes. Cut into 0.5cm/0.25in thick slices and lay them out flat on the baking sheet. Bake for another 15 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

 

My modifications:

None. (Except for using ground cardamom and not grinding it myself.)

The taste:

Good, like biscotti. Very subtle cardamom flavor (but maybe it will come through more after a couple of days.)

What is your favorite cookie that's not so christmassy?

47 | 52 Prinzenrolle

Do you ever buy cookies at the grocery store? 

Even if you love to bake, I am sure you do. At least every once in a while.

One of my husband's favorite store-bought cookie is 'Prinzenrolle' (which translates literally to 'Prince's roll').  It was apparently invented by Belgian baker de Beukelaer in 1870 and was originally called 'Le petit prince fourrée' (the small filled prince). It is now called 'Prinzenrolle' in German because it comes stacked in a roll. 35 millionen rolls go on sale in Germany every year.

So one night when the hubby was craving them but we didn't have any, I tried to make them.
(Yes, I know, I'm a good wife. I'm patting myself on the back as I'm writing this.)

Prinzenrolle

From woman.at

For the cookies

500 g (4 cups) flour
250 g (2 cups) powdered sugar
1 package vanilla sugar (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
pinch of salt
250 g (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons) butter
2 eggs

For the filling

250 g (1/2 lb) dark chocolate
150 g (1/2 cup) Nutella

• For the cookies, knead together flour, sugar, salt, butter, and eggs until you have a smooth dough. Wrap up and let cool in the fridge for 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 160°C (320°F). 
• Roll out dough on a floured surface (about 0.5 cm/0.2 in) and cut out rounds. Place on cookie sheet and bake for about 15 minutes. Let cool completely. 
• For the filling, melt the chocolate over a bain marie. Add Nutella and stir to combine.
• Put a bit of filling on one cookie and press second cookie on top.

My modifications:

The original recipe adds 4 tablespoons of Amaretto to the filling. I don't like it so I just left it out.

The taste:

Not like Prinzenrolle. But like a good, homemade chocolate-filled cookie.

What's your favorite cookie? Store-bought or homemade? Filled or not?

26 | 52 Funfetti Cookies

Colorful sprinkles.

Don't they just make you happy?

Not necessarily eating them but just looking at them.

Very rare with any other food, I'd say.

(And yes, you might actually not want to categorize sprinkles as food...)

So. Let's bake something that will make you happy.

Cookies. Sprinkles. Lots of sprinkles. And cookies...

Funfetti Cookies

From Averie Cooks

113 g (1 stick) butter, room temperature

150 g (3/4 cup) sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

190 g (1 1/2 cups) flour

2 teaspoons corn starch

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

100 g (3/4 cup) sprinkles

• Beat together butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla extract for about 5 minutes until creamy and fluffy.
• Add dry ingredients (except for sprinkles) and beat to combine.
• Fold in sprinkles.
• Cool dough in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours.
• Make balls with your hands, flatten them a bit, and put on your prepared cookie sheet.
• Bake at 175ºC (350ºF) for 8-10 minutes. Make sure they don't start to brown. 
• Let cool.

 
My modifications:

The recipe also called for almond extract which I omitted.

And I doubled the amounts because I wanted to give some cookies away. 

The taste:

I know I should be writing about the baked cookies.

That dough though. Don't even start tasting the dough before baking the cookies. It's dangerous. VERY dangerous. Don't say I didn't warn you.

And the baked cookies - they're alright, too :)

Which baking recipe makes you happy by just looking at one ingredient or the result?

13 | 52 Easter Egg Cookies

There's still enough time to makes these for Easter!

Maybe you can even include them in your egg hunt!

(What do you mean, you don't do any egg hunting anymore?!)

Browsing through Easter recipes online, I found these two Easter Egg Cookie recipes and couldn't decide which one to make. 

Chocolate? Chocolate! Lemon? Lemon! Alright. Both then. 

It's Easter, after all. And if we can't eat them all, I'm sure the Easter Bunny will help us...

(Maybe I should start ironing my tea towels...)

Filled Chocolate Easter Egg Cookies

From Donna Hay

Cookies:

65 g (1/3 cup) butter, cold and in pieces

40 g (1/4 cup) powdered sugar

75 g (1/2 cup) flour

2 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1 1/4 egg yolk

white chocolate, melted, for decorating

Filling:

200 g (7 oz) dark chocolate, chopped

125 ml (1/2 cup) cream

• Preheat oven to 180ºC (355ºF). 
• Process all cookie ingredients (except for the white chocolate) in a food processor until a soft dough forms. Or - the way I do it - use your hands to knead all ingredients together until you have a soft dough. Wrap and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.
• Roll dough between two sheets of baking paper to about 3mm thick. Using your Easter egg cooie cutter, cut out cookies, place on cookie sheet (on baking paper) and bake for 8-10 minutes. Let cool.
• For the filling, melt chocolate and cream together in a small saucepan over low heat. Put in the fridge until cooled down. Spread a bit of filling on half of the cookies, making sandwiches with the other half.
• Melt white chocolate and decorate cookies to your taste.

My modifications:

None. Oh actually, yes. I only used 1 egg yolk. Because 1 1/4 egg yolks? Seriously???
And I only needed half of the filling...

The taste:

I haven't tasted them yet! Will update you asap!

Sunny Side Up - Lemony Easter Egg Cookies

From Chefkoch.de

For the cookies:

150 g (2/3 cup) butter, cold and in pieces

75 g (1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon) powdered sugar

1 tablespoon milk

150 g (1 1/4 cups) flour

75 g (1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon) cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1/2 sachet vanilla sugar

lemon peel of 1 lemon, grated

For the filling and glaze:

lemon curd

40 ml (3 1/2 tablespoons) fresh lemon juice

130 g (1 cup) powdered sugar

• Preheat oven to 180ºC (355ºF). 
• Process all cookie ingredients (except for the white chocolate) in a food processor until a soft dough forms. Or - the way I do it - use your hands to knead all ingredients together until you have a soft dough. Wrap and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.
• Roll dough between two sheets of baking paper to about 3mm thick. Using your Easter egg cooie cutter, cut out cookies (half of them with an additional small round hole in the lower half), place on cookie sheet (on baking paper) and bake for 8-10 minutes. Let cool.
• Make a simple glace from lemon juice and powdered sugar and put on the cookies with hole. Let dry. Put a blotch of lemon curd on the other half of the cookies and sandwich with glazed tops.

My modifications:

The original recipe used a different method of combining the ingredients for the dough and said to bake the cookies at 200ºC (390ºF). But that's it.

The taste:
Yummy! Very lemony. But I love that. Lemony is good.

What's your favorite baking recipe for Easter?

12 | 52 Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake Bars

Phew. I mean. Could this name be any longer???

But it all boils down to this:

Peanut butter - yes, please! 

Chocolate Chip Cookie - always!

Cheesecake - yum!

Any more questions?

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake Bars

From A Pinch of Yum

114 g (1 stick) butter, room temperature

100 g (1/2 cup) white sugar

70 g (1/3 cup) packed brown sugar

130 g (1/2 cup) peanut butter

1 egg

140 g (1 cup) flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teapsoon salt

50 g (1/2 cup) rolled oats

230 g (2 cups) chocolate chips

230 g (8 oz) cream cheese

70 g (1/3 cup) sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

• Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F).
• For the cookie dough, beat together butter, sugars, and peanut putter until smooth. 
• Add egg and beat to incorporate. In a small bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt, and slowly add it to the butter mix. Stir in oats and chocolate chips.
• For the cheesecake filling, cream together cream cheese, egg, sugar, and vanilla.
• Put half (or a bit more) of the cookie dough in your pan (square 22 cm / 9 in) and press to the bottom. Pour the filling on top of it. Crumble remaining cookie dough over the filling.
• Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 20 minutes.
• Serve warm or cold. Store leftovers in the fridge.

My modifications:

I had to change some things because I didn't have everything at home.

I used 60 g coconut oil (1/2 cup) instead of the butter. I reduced the white sugar to 75 g (1/3 cup) in the dough and 55 g (1/4 cup) in the cheesecake filling. I only used 200 g of chocolate chips (and even that is quite a lot!). 

The taste:

What can I say. It's as finger lickin' good as you would think it is. Definitely a keeper!

And my cookie bottom and top even tasted a bit more like cookie dough (unbaked), which I love. But that might just be because of my modifications. 

What's your favorite recipe with a long (or complicated) name?

51*52 Vanillekipferln / Vanilla Crescents

You guys.

For the first time since I started this blog I'm gonna have to cheat. On my own rules.

Because I only wanted to blog about recipes that I had never made before.

This week's Vanillekipferln are a classic. And a recipe that I've been making for years.

But I have a good excuse. Unfortunately.

You see, sometimes life changes suddenly. And even though my hubby was unbelievably lucky and must have had about a million guardian angels, it was still a huge shock when he was hit by a van last Thursday, on his way to work, while crossing the street. He's scratched, bruised, and in pain but thankfully that's all.

And still - priorities shift when something like this happens. I know y'all understand that my baking mojo is not its old self right now. No matter if Christmas is around the corner or not.

But a classic is still better than nothing, right? So here we go:

Vanillekipferln / Vanilla Crescents

From Bild der Frau Christmas Baking Special 1997

Cookies:

250 g butter, cold

125 g sugar

125 g almond meal

300 g flour

1 egg

2 sachets vanilla sugar (or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract)

pintch of salt

For dusting:

2 tablespoons ground vanilla

150 g powdered sugar

• Combine all cookie ingredients and knead until well combined. Wrap in plastic wrap and let cool in fridge for one hour.
• Take small bits of dough, roll between your hands then "curve" to form crescents. Put on prepared cookie sheet and bake at 180°C (360°F) for 10-12 minutes. Take out and let cool slightly. Dust with vanilla powdered sugar.

My modifications:

None.

The taste:

Like a true Chrismas classic. I used to find them boring when I was a kid but I got over that a couple of years ago...

What is a Christmas classic that you bake every year?

50*52 Haselnuss-Spekulatius (Hazelnut Speculoos)

Thanks to this blog, I finally started the Christmas baking.

So thank you blog, for putting at least a tiny bit of pressure on me.

Haselnuss-Spekulatius (Hazelnut Speculoos)

From Weihnachten - Das Goldene von GU

100 g hazelnuts, slivered

250 g flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

50 g hazelnuts, ground

100 g butter, room temperature

100 g sugar

3 teaspoons Spekulatius/speculoos spice

pinch of salt

1 egg

• Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F).
• Put parchment paper on two cookie sheets and sprinkle slivered hazelnuts on them.
• Combine flour, baking powder, and ground hazelnuts.
• Beat together butter, sugar, spice, and salt. Add egg and beat until creamy. Add flour mix at once and work into butter mix.
• Roll dough 3-4 mm (about 0.15 in) thick and cut into rectangles (about 4 x 6 cm/1.6 x 2.4 in). Put each one on the slivered hazelnuts, press lightly.
• Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown.

My modifications:

None.

The taste:

Very yummy. But not very christmassy. More speculoos spice next time, maybe.

What are your favorite Christmas cookies to bake?

37*52 Sesame Cranberry Cookies

What to do with lots of sesame?

Bake cookies?

Bake cookies.

Sesame Cranberry Cookies

Adapted from Chefkoch.de 

300 g flour 

100 g sugar 

100 g sesame seeds 

125 g butter 

1 sachet vanilla sugar (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract) 

2-4 tablespoons yoghurt 

50 g dried cranberries, roughly chopped 

• Combine all ingredients until you get a smooth, slightly sticky dough. (If you feel like it: it works very well just using your hands.)
• Cool dough in fridge for about 30 minutes.
• Roll small balls using your hands, flatten, and put on prepared baking sheet.
• Bake at 180°C (350°F) for about 15 minutes.

My modifications:

I reduced the sugar by 50 g. I added the cranberries and had to double the amount of yoghurt to 4 tablespoons or the dough would have been too dry. I also added a splash of milk but only because it was necessary. Leave out if your dough is moist enough.

I also accidentally baked them at 180°C and not 200°C which left them a bit soft (which I love!).

The taste:

I really like it! Not too sweet and very sesameny (or sesamy?). Definitely don't omit the cranberries! 

Where do you search for recipes when you have lots of one ingredient that you want to use? 

31*52 Snickerdoodles

These weren't planned.

I had a recipe for this week in mind for quite a while now but then I bought this book (on sale) and saw these quick and easy cookies. And I needed quick and easy today.

Snickerdoodles

From Backen. I love baking. by Cynthia Barcomi

385 g flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

250 g butter, room temperature

300 g sugar

2 eggs

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

• Preheat oven to 185°C (365°F).
• Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and continue to beat until well combined.
• Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Add to the butter mixture and fold in with a wooden spoon or spatula until just combined to a dough.
• Combine sugar and cinnamon.
• Using a teaspoon, roll balls of dough between your palms and roll in sugar-cinnamon until they are covered evenly. Place on a prepared cookie sheet, leave 6 cm (2.5 in) between them and don't flatten. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool.

My modifications:

None.

The taste:

Yummy. Basic but very addictive.

What are your favorite recipes from the category "quick & easy"?

18*52 Raspberry-Chocolate-Peanut Butter-Cookies

There's some real talk in order this week. It's about cookies. Ugly cookies.

How do you handle them? I'm serious - you will need to think about this before baking these cookies. Because they are ugly. But only from the outside.

After the first bite you will be completely hooked, despite their ugliness. They're irresistible.

So - without wanting to sound philosophical here - treat them well.
It's not their fault that they're ugly. Only judge what's inside. You get the idea...

Raspberry-Chocolate-Peanut Butter-Cookies

Adapted from Rumbly In My Tumbly

114 g (1 stick) butter, room temperature

65 g (1/2 cup) brown sugar

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla

60 g (1/4 cup) sour cream

390 g (2 1/2 cups) flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 teaspoon salt

50 g (1/3 cup) chocolate chips

50 g (1/3 cup) peanut butter chips 

100 g (1 1/2 cups) raspberries

• Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). 
• Mix butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla. Add sour cream and combine well. 
• Fold in dry ingredients until just combined. Add chocolate and peanut butter chips. 
• Carefully add raspberries - don't mix them in too much because you will do that with your hands when forming the cookies anyway.
• Using your hands, form balls (about the size of a golf ball), put them on your prepared cookie sheet and flatten a bit (they won't 'run' but stay the size and height you made).
• Bake for 10-15 minutes.

 no, they're not pretty to make either...

My modifications:

I replaced white chocolate chips with peanut butter chips.

I used fresh raspberries instead of raspberry jam.

The taste:

Oh. My. As I said - ugly but divine. And definitely best on the day you bake them. Very dangerous if you're by yourself. And you haven't told anyone that you're making these. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Is there any food that does not look good but tastes heavenly? Let us know which one comes to your mind. 

16*52 Almond Thumbprint Cookies with Dark Chocolate & Sea Salt

Almonds. Covered in dark chocolate. And a layer of sea salt.

Doesn't that sound like a great combination? It really is. Best from a Confiserie here in Basel.

We were invited to dinner at a friend's house and she and her boyfriend love those almonds. As a small thank you gift for them, I thought I would bake something that goes into that direction. Makes it a bit more personal than just buying a pack of those almonds which they could always do themselves. Luckily, I found the recipe below which sounded like it would hit it on the spot. Let's see if the cookies can hold up to the almonds...

Almond Thumbprint Cookies with Dark Chocolate & Sea Salt

Adapted slightly from Food52

Makes about 2 dozen small or 1 dozen big cookies

120 g (1 cup) all-purpose flour

115 g (¾ cup) almond meal

114 g (1 stick) butter, at room temperature + 2 tablespoons (for chocolate filling)

55 g (¼ cup) granulated sugar  

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

113 g (4 oz) dark chocolate, in small pieces

2 teaspoons light corn syrup

sea salt, to taste

• Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
• Whisk together flour and almond meal in a small bowl.
• Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla, then the almond-flour mixture and mix until combined (do not overmix).
• Roll dough into small balls, place them on your prepared cookie sheet with enough space between them, and make an indention in the middle of each ball. This works best with the back of a wooden cooking spoon. Bake 10-15 minutes until the cookies are only slightly colored. Let cool on a cooling rack.
• For the chocolate filling, combine chocolate, 2 tablespoons of butter, and syrup. Melt over hot water and stir until smooth. Let cool a bit, then fill thumbprints with chocolate and sprinkle with sea salt. The chocolate should be completely set within about one hour.

My modifications:

The recipe called for the zest of 1 lemon which I omitted. I didn't think it fits into the overall flavor I was hoping for.

The taste:
Heavenly. I really, really like them. And so quick and easy to make - this recipe is definitely a keeper!

Do you like the combination of chocolate and salt? Any favorite products or recipes?

15*52 Amerikaner (aka Black & White Cookies)

My grandma gave me two of her cookbooks recently.

One into which she wrote the recipes herself. Very cool and I'm so glad to have this. But it's really hard to read/decipher.

The second one is a baking book classic that probably every household in Germany owns: Backen macht Freude (Baking brings Joy) by Dr. Oetker. Unfortunately, there is no publishing year in the book but I assume that it is from the 50s or 60s.

 

Looking through the book, I decided to make 'Amerikaner' (Americans). 

It's a classic that I haven't had in a loooong time (I'm actually gonna have to check if bakeries still sell it. If they do, not as much as they used to, that's for sure). 

In the States, Amerikaner are known as Black & White Cookies. It's funny, isn't it? And while making the dough I was wondering if the German term for it is actually politically inspired :)

Amerikaner (Black & White Cookies)

Makes 10 bigger ones or up to 20 small ones

100 g butter, room temperature

100 g sugar

1 sachet vanilla sugar (1 teaspoon vanilla extract)

2 eggs

pintch of salt

1 sachet pudding powder with almond flavor (or 40 g cornstarch and a few drops of bitter almond oil/extract)

3 tablespoons milk

250 g flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

Glaze

100 g powdered sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

• Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
• Beat butter until creamy. One after the other, add sugar, vanilla (sugar), eggs, salt, and pudding powder (dissolved in the milk). Add flour and baking powder. The dough should be very firm.
• Using 2 tablespoons, make heaps onto baking sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes (depending on size), brushing them with a bit of milk after the first 7-10 minutes. Let cool slightly. 
• Prepare both glazes by equally dividing the powdered sugar between two bowls, adding the cocoa powder to one half, and stirring in 1-2 tablespoons of water into each bowl. The glaze shouldn't be too runny, so be careful with the water and add only little at a time. Glaze the bottoms of those Americans with one glaze after the other.

My modifications:

None.

The taste:

Not like I remember an 'Amerikaner' but good. Nothing spectacular but nice as a little something to snack on. They are not really cookie-like nor really cake-like. Hard to explain - guess you'll have to try for yourselves...

Have your grandmas, moms, or anybody else passed cookbooks along to you? 

If so, do you use them a lot? Which is your favorite recipe?

7*52 Chocolate-Oat-Cookies

Yes, I know... Valentine's Day was 3 days ago.
But there was and is no sign of it here on this blog. Let me explain:

I was planning on baking and posting something pink and heart-shaped before Valentine's Day.
But then I got the flu and I just couldn't bake or taste (or do pretty much anything else for that matter). And while I do feel better today, I really couldn't bake anything complicated or time-consuming.

So this is the point where we just pretend that we didn't even know about Valentine's Day and feel totally excited about simple, fast, straightforward Chocolate-Oat-Cookies. Okay?

Chocolate-Oat-Cookies

Adapted from Green Gourmet

Makes 20 big or 40 small cookies

100 g chocolate chips

60 g butter

120 g oats

30 g flour

1 egg

50 g sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

• Melt butter, mix with oats. Combine with remaining ingredients.
• Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Using 2 teaspoons (or your hand), form balls, put them on the prepared baking sheet and flatten them a bit. 
• Bake for 9-12 minutes (depending on the size of the cookies).

My modifications:

I added the cinnamon to the original recipe. I just thought it would add a nice flavor.

The taste:

Well, as I said above, I can't taste that much right now. But what I did taste was good (and very chocolaty). The hubby agreed.

What is your quick & easy go-to baking recipe?

52.1/52 Chocolate Mint Thumbprints

Each Christmas, there has to be at least one cookie with mint, right?

Chocolate Mint Thumbprints

Adapted from Provecho Peru

290 g (2 cups) flour

75 g (2/3 cup) unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

227 g (1 cup) butter, room temperature

1 egg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

210 g (1/2 cup) sugar

120 g (3/4 cup) chocolate chips

3 tablespoons (45 g) butter

1/2 teaspoon pure peppermint extract

• Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
• Combine flour, cocoa powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
• Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add egg and vanilla. Gradually add flour mix and beat until just combined.
• Place 210 g (1/2 cup) sugar in a small bowl. Roll dough into 2.5 cm/1-inch balls, then roll in sugar. Place balls on baking sheets and bake for 8 minutes. Take out of the oven and make a small indentation in the center of each ball. This works best using the bottom of a wooden cooking spoon. Bake cookies for another 5 minutes and let cool.
• Melt the chocolate and butter and add peppermint extract. Let cool a bit, then put into small plastic bad, cut off a tiny corner, and pipe chocolate into 'thumbprints'. Allow chocolate to harden.

My modifications:

I omitted the 1 tablespoon of shortening in the chocolate filling (which didn't cause any problems).

The taste:

Very good! A bit like a brownie cookie with filling.

51.1/52 Eggnog Cookies

My grandma loves eggnog. And I have to admit that I like it more and more each year.

One of the gifts I will give my grandma this Christmas is homemade eggnog. I hope she will like it as I think that the rum I used was the kind that is actually too strong for eggnog...

These cookies were made with store-bought eggnog though.

Eggnog Cookies

Adapted from The Recipe Critic

 

250 g (1 1/4 cups) sugar

170 g (3/4 cup) butter, room temperature

150 ml (1/2 cup) eggnog

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 egg yolks

1 teaspoon nutmeg

300 g (2 1/4 cups) flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Glaze:

200 g (1 1/2 cups) powdered sugar

3 tablespoons eggnog

• Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F).
• Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggnog, vanilla, and egg yolks. Beat until smooth.
• In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add to the eggnog-butter mixture and beat until just combined.
• Using two teaspoons, form small balls and put onto prepared cookie sheet, leaving enough room in-between balls. Sprinkle with nutmeg.
• Bake 15-18 minutes. Let cool.
• Combine powdered sugar and eggnog to make the glazing. Drizzle over the cookies and let dry.

My modifications:

None.

The taste:

I wasn't so convinced right away. But after a couple of days: mmmmhhhh! I guess they just need some time to develop their full flavor. Right now still an 'infrequent-calssic'.

Do you bake any 'alcoholic' cookies for Christmas?

51.2/52 Lemon-Curd-Cookies

What's not to love about lemon curd?

Lemon-Curd-Cookies

Adapted from freundin special 23/2009

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

150 g butter, room temperature

75 g powdered sugar

1 egg

pinch of salt

150 g ground almonds (without skin)

150 g flour

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1 tablespoon Limoncello

125 g lemon curd

1-2 tablespoons powdered sugar

• Beat vanilla, butter, and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and salt. Add almonds, flour, lemon zest and Limoncello and knead until you have a smooth dough. Let cool in fridge for about 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F). Roll out dough on a floured surface and cut out about 70 hearts (or any other shape). Cut out a smaller heart in the middle of half of the already cut out hearts (these will make the top ones later when you put them together). Bake for 10-12 minutes and let cool.
• Put a small amount of lemon curd on each bottom heart (without hole), put top hearts (with hole) on top. Dust with powdered sugar.

My modifications:

None.

The taste:

Very good! But they could be even more lemony. Maybe add a bit more lemon zest to the dough or even lemon juice instead of Limoncello?

50.2/52 Cardamom Cookies with Rock Candy Sugar / Kardamomkekse mit Kandis

If you read my last post you might wonder what my 'classics' are, the cookies I make every Christmas including this year:

Basler Brunsli (chocolate cookie from Basel, Switzerland)

Vanillekipferl (vanilla crescents)

Witwenküsse ('widow kisses' - merinuges with chocolate and almonds)

Feenspitzen ('fairy tips' - the best EVER! cookie with Toffifee candy with meringue...)

Lebkuchen (the German classic, no need for translation I think)

Zimtsterne (cinnamon stars)

Then there are some 'infrequent-classics' that I don't make every year but every 2 to 3 years. Of those I made this year:

Kokosberge (coconut mountains)

You can see (almost) all cookies I made this year in this post.

And one of the new recipes this year:

Cardamom Cookies with Rock Candy Sugar / Kardamomkekse mit Kandis

Adapted from some magazin that I unfortunately don't remember. And it doesn't say on this one page that I ripped out. If anyone knows, please comment. Thanks!

75 g (1/3 cup or 5 tablespoons) butter, room temperature

50 g (1/4 cup) sugar

1 knife point lemon zest

1 egg

110 g (1 cup) flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

80 g (2.8 oz) brown rock candy/sugar

vanilla sugar

• Beat butter with sugar and lemon zest until light and fluffy. Add egg and continue to beat. Quickly work in flour and cardamom. 
• Grind rock candy/sugar coarsely (works best in a mortar), fold into the dough. Cool dough for 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F) (180°C (350°F) convection).
• Make small balls and put onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Leave enough room between the balls. 
• Bake for about 12 minutes until golden brown. Roll in vanilla sugar when still warm.

My modifications:

None. Except for the recipe just saying 'flour' without the measurement. I just guessed/tried.

The taste:

Very good. I'm still a little undecided about the rock candy/sugar though. I hope you have good teeth as they make the cookies quite crunchy... Could be one of those 'infrequent-classics' but I'm not quite sure yet.

What are your 'classics' to bake every Christmas?

50/52 Christmas Cookies pt. 1

Details to follow...

43/52 Apple Cookies

I really should have baked Halloween cookies this week. 

Too bad that I only thought of that now... 

(Yes, go ahead, laugh at me. No problem.)

But these apple cookies are not so bad, either. 

Except they don't have anything to do with Halloween, damnit...

Apple Cookies

Adapted from Living at Home

For the dough:

160 g butter

3 tablespoons (or bags) apple tea

200 g flour

1 packet vanilla pudding powder

salt

80 g sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons apple juice

For the glaze:

4 tablespoons apple juice

50 g powdered sugar

For the filling:

150 g apple jelly

•  Melt the butter over medium heat (or microwave until luquid), add loose tea or tea bags and let sit for about 10 minutes. If you used loose tea sieve through a fine colander, or just remove tea bags. Cool butter in the fridge until it is solid again.
• Knead all dough ingredients together until smooth. Wrap in saran wrap and let cool in the fridge for about 1 hour. Use your rolling pin to roll out dough and cut out little apples. Put a hole in half of them. 
• Note: if you don't need apple shapes and want to avoid rolling out the dough, form dough into a log, wrap in saran wrap and freeze for about 1 hour. Take out and cut off slices. Put a hole in half of them.

•  Preheat oven to 180°C (355°F). Bake cookies for about 12-15 minutes or until edges are a light golden brown. Take out and let cool completely.
• For the glaze mix apple juice and powdered sugar and glaze that half of the cookies with the hole in them. Let dry.
• Heat apple jelly to make it easier to spread and brush on those cookies without the hole. Put a glazed cookie on top, lightly pressing it on.

  what?! you think they look like a misshapen pac-man? no way!

My modifications:
I used apple juice instead of Calvados. Because I had it at home and because I didn't need the alcohol.

I used a tea called "Wintergenuss" (winter indulgence) to infuse with the butter. Besides apples it has a slight cinnamon taste.

I sliced the cookies because a) I don't have a cookie cutter shaped like an apple, b) I was lazy, and c) the most important thing is that these cookies taste like apples, not look like them.

The taste:

Like apple. Without the vitamins.
Is that a good thing, you might ask? Yes, in this case, it just may be.

What are you baking for Halloween? Something scary, I hope!

34/52 Almond-Orange Shortbread

I wanted to bake something this week that

a) I could easily bring to my mom and grandma (who live 330 kilometers away),

b) would be quick to make, and

c) wouldn't melt or go bad in the heat.

That's why I chose this recipe from my recipe collection on Pinterest:

Almond-Orange Shortbread

Adapted from Martha Stewart

Makes about 45

225 g (2 sticks) butter, room temperature

150 g (1 cup) powdered sugar

3/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

300 g (2 cups) flour

grated zest of 1 orange (about 2 teaspoons)

55 g (3/4 cup) sliced almonds

• Beat together butter, sugar, almond extract, and salt until smooth. On low speed, add flour and orange zest. Mix in almonds using your hands or a wooden spoon.
• On a piece of wax paper, roll dough into log about 12 inches long, 2 1/2 in wide and 1 in thick. Roll into paper and freeze for at least one hour. Wrap in plastic wrap if you want to freeze it for a longer period of time (up to 3 months).

• With a sharp knife, cut slices about 1/4 in thick and place on baking sheet. (If dough has been frozen longer, let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before cutting to avoid crumbling.)

• Bake at 160°C (325°F) for 15 minutes or until edges start to turn a light brown. Cool on baking sheet 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack for complete cooling.

My modifications:

None. I only froze the dough for an hour and it worked very well. 

The taste:

I love them! I realized that sometimes you just need a little shortbread in your (culinary) life...

They could be a little more orangy for my taste but that's easy to adjust.

Do you like shortbread? Any special recipes to share?