It feels more and more like Christmas. It´s getting colder every day, the Christmas lights are up, everybody is decorating and I´ve already had my first stroll over the Christmas Market. It hasn´t really snown yet (at least the snow is not staysing) but I am ceeping my fingers crossed. Untill then I am passing the time in my little kitchen, whipping up more Christmas cookies. This time: Vanillekipfer. After Zimtsterne, these are my favourites. I tried a different recipe this time, instead of the one I usually use. And they came out absolutely delicious. I should have known though, after reading that the dough requires four vanilla beans. Yummie!
The best thing about making these cookies is that the dough is made without eggs. So there is absolutely no harm in snacking a little bit while preparing the cookies. Or maybe a little bit more. You should try to control yourself though…you might get a stomach ache. Or there won´t be any dough left to make the cookies…
Aaanyway, let´s get baking.
This recipe make about 20 – 30 cookies. You´ll need:
4 vanilla beans
100 g grounded almonds
150 g flour
150 g cold butter
50 g sugar
A pinch of salt
A little bit of vanilla flavoured sugar
3 big spoons confectioners´ sugar
1) Cut open the vanilla beans and take out the core. Mix well with the almonds, using your hands to spread the vanilla. Add flour. Cut the butter into little pieces and add as well as sugar and salt. Knead well until you have a good shortpastry. Let the dough chill in the fridge for about an hour.
2) After the dough has chilled, take little pieces of the dough and roll in between your hands. Make cookies in form of a half-moon (see picture above). Bake the cookies in the preheated oven at 150°C for about 20 minutes, until they are still light but a little brown. Careful, the cookies break very easily once you take them out of the oven.
3) Mix confectioners´ sugar with the vanilla flavoured sugar in a bowl. Take the cookies out of the oven and let them cool a little bit. Then, carefully dip each cookie into the sugar and rotate a little. The cookies should still be warm, otherwise the sugar doesn´t stick very well. Let the cookies cool completely and enjoy with hot chocolate.
