Everyone loves cookies!

As far back as I can remember I’ve always eaten the same cookies during Christmas with my Mother’s side of the family. I’ve been able to find some of the recipes and have posted them below. I still have a few to find and translate but this is a good start.

Emperor’s Cookies (Kaiser-plätzchen)

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

1 cup powdered sugar

1 package vanilla sugar

1 pinch of salt

4 egg yolks

7 tablespoons butter

For the Icing:

Powdered sugar, vanilla sugar

Raspberry, strawberry or other red jam

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

sift the flour onto work surface and make a hole in the center. Put powdered sugar, vanilla sugar, salt and egg yolks ins the hole and place the butter flakes on top of it. Quickly knead ingredients to form smooth dough. Cover with kitchen towel and let chill for 1 hour.

Roll out dough on a floured surface as thinly as possible. Cut out cookies with cookie cutters. If using different shapes, make sure to always cut out even numbers for each shape. use a small round cookie cutter to make a hole in the center of half the cookies. Place cookies onto a greased cookie sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 F in the preheated oven.

Let them cool down. Spread jam on cookies without hole and place the other half (cookie with hole) on top. Mix the powdered sugar and the vanilla sugar and dust the cookies.

German Crescents

Take 2-1/2 level cups flour, 1 cup of butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup finely chopped almonds. Mix sugar and almonds together and butter and flour together. Add sugar and almonds to butter and flour. Knead to a dough. Shape in small crescents and bake in moderate oven till a golden brown. while warm roll in powdered sugar.

Lebkuchen

* 1 cup honey

* 1/4 cup dark molasses

* 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

* 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves

* 2 tablespoons chopped candied orange peel

* 2 tablespoons chopped candied citron

* 1 cup chopped blanched almonds

* 1 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon lemon zest

* 1 1/2 teaspoons orange zest

* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

* 2 teaspoons hot water

* 1 egg, beaten

* 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, stir together the honey, molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves until well blended. Mix in the candied orange peel, citron, almonds, brown sugar, orange and lemon zests. Stir the baking soda into the hot water, then beat into the mixture along with the egg. Gradually mix in the flour. The dough should be very stiff, you may need to knead it on the counter to get it thoroughly blended. Cover and chill overnight so the flavors can ripen. (you can leave it for up to a week and the flavor only gets better)

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/2 inch thickness. cut into bars about 2 inches long and 3/4 inch wide. Place cookies 1 inch apart onto un-greased cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until the bottoms are only starting to brown. Remove cookies to cool on wire racks. Ice them with a thin confectioners glaze while they are still warm, if you like. When cool, store in a tightly closed container. If you want soft cookies, put half an apple in the container for several days.

Pfeffernusse

INGREDIENTS

* 3 cups all-purpose flour

* 1 teaspoon baking powder

* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

* 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

* 1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup white sugar

* 3eggs

* 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

* 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

* 1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts

* 1 teaspoon brandy

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine flour, baking powder, spices and salt.

2. In a large bowl, beat the sugar and eggs until thick and light colored. Beat in the lemon juice. Beat in the lemon zest. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Stir in the hazelnuts. cover and chill for 4 hours.

3. On a floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/2 inch. using a 1

1/2 inch round cookie cutter, cut out cookies and place 1 inch apart on lightly greased baking sheets. Cover the baking sheets with clean towels and leave undisturbed for 4 hours.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

5. Turn the cookies over and place a drop of brandy in the center of each cookie. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until lightly colored. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

This is a decent start. I’m hoping to be able to document some more of them so I can share them with my own family for years to come!

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~ by cjandrew on September 17, 2009.