Mandelspritzgebäck German Christmas Almond Cookies Food

GERMAN SPRITZ COOKIES

Steps:

• Make sure to place butter out of the fridge ahead of time so it will be soft and smooth.Allow the eggs to come to room temperature outside of the fridge.
• Whisk soft butter until soft and creamy.
• Sift powdered sugar and add with vanilla powder or extract to the bowl. Cream together untilwell combined.
• Separate the eggs and whisk the egg whites lightly.
• Add the egg whites and a pinch of salt to the bowl and mix well.
• Sift the flour and add, one spoonful at a time, to the bowl. Mix until everything is wellcombined.
• Fill into a piping bag with a large star tip or every other tip you prefer.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Pipe rosettes, the character "S" or other shapes of your liking.
• Bake in pre-heated oven on 340°F for about 12-15 min.
• Allow to cool for a couple of minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer the cookies to a cooling rack.
• You can enjoy the cookies as is or decorate them with melted chocolate, sprinkles or fillthem with jam.

SPEKULATIUS 1 (CINNAMON, ALMOND & GINGER BUTTER COOKIES)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 Fahrenheit (200 Centigrade / Gas Mark 6).
• Grease a baking sheet.
• Mix the flour and Baking powder together in a bowl.
• Make a well in the middle and put in the egg, sugar and spices and slowly work it all into a thick dough.
• Cut the cold butter into pieces and together with the ground almonds put on top of dough.
• Cover it all with a little more flour and knead it well to form a smooth dough. Note: If the dough is too sticky or gets warm, cool it a little in the refrigerator.
• Some recipes call for the dough to be left to rest for an hour in the refrigerator at this point.
• Roll out the dough nice and thin (they *are supposed* to be about 1/8th inch thick). If using flaked almonds on the top, sprinkle a few over the dough and pat into it very lightly.
• Cut out the cookies with Christmas Cookiecutters.
• Put Cookies onto greased baking sheet.
• Bake at 400F / 200C (Gas Mk 6) on the top slot in the Oven for about 15 minutes.
• Normally cut into Christmas tree, people, partridge and gift parcel shapes.
• Lightly Adapted From recipe posted by : Brigitte Sealing, Cyberealm BBS, Watertown, NY 315-786-1120.
• These are known as Speculaas or Speculoos in Belgium and the Belgians claim to have invented them :) Some German recipes call for ground hazelnuts rather than ground almonds but Belgian recipes don't. I've had them with hazelnuts in and they're very nice, so given the price of ground almonds -- :).

CHRISTMAS ROCKS GERMAN COOKIE

Steps:

• Cream butter, shortening, brown sugar and vanilla all together.
• Add beaten eggs, until fluffy.
• Sift two cups flour with the salt and spices.
• Dissolve the baking soda in hot water.
• Add soda to creamed mixture alternately with the dry ingredients.
• Blend well.
• Toss the fruit with the last 1/2 cup of remaining flour.
• Work this into the dough by hand.
• Drop from a teaspoon 1 inch apart onto greased cookie sheet.
• Bake 325 degrees F.
• for ABOUT 15 minutes.
• Remove to cooling rack.

BETHMAENNCHEN - GERMAN CHRISTMAS COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Finely grind the measured almonds.
• Break the marzipan dough into small pieces and mix with one of the eggs, rosewater, powdered sugar, ground almonds and flour.
• Separate the remaining egg and beat the yolk, set aside.
• Form marzipan mixture into balls the size of walnuts.
• Press three almond halves onto the sides of each ball. The almonds should stand up and down and be evenly spaced around the ball.
• Brush each ball with the beaten yolk and place on a cookie sheet.
• Place cookie sheet on the middle rack and bake 15 minutes until golden brown.

CHRISTMAS (KISSMAS) ALMOND COOKIES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 375°F Grease cookie sheet. Remove wrappers from chocolate pieces.
• Beat butter, shortening, brown sugar and granulated sugar in large bowl until fluffy. Add egg and almond extract; beat until blended. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; add to butter mixture, beating until well blended. Stir in cherries.
• Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Combine egg white and water; beat with fork until foamy. Roll balls in egg white, then in walnuts or almonds. Place on prepared cookie sheet.
• Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and immediately place chocolate piece on top of each cookie, pressing down gently so that cookie cracks around the edge. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Allow cookies to cool until chocolate piece is set, about 3 hours. About 4 dozen cookies.