cGingerbread hearts, stollen, spiced biscuits… In Germany, Christmas is celebrated with sweets loved all over the world. The recipes of Advent. German recipes to bake while waiting for Christmas” by Anja Dunk (Guido Tommasi Editore), here a bit reduced for reasons of space, are magnificent. And all beautiful!
Spritzgeback with marzipan
Spritzgeback with marzipan. Recipes and photos taken from “Advent. German recipes to bake while waiting for Christmas” by Anja Dunk (Guido Tommasi Editore).
INGREDIENTS x 80-100 COOKIES:
300g flour
125 g ground almonds or hazelnuts
250 g butter at room temperature in 2cm cubes
100 g grated marzipan
150 g granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon of almond extract
1-2 tablespoons of milk
120 g flaked almonds.
Method
Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan assisted and line two baking trays with parchment paper. Put all the ingredients, except the milk and the flaked almonds, in the bowl of a mixer and work them with the paddle attachment until you obtain a soft and malleable dough, adding milk as needed.
Put the flour and ground nuts in a large bowladd the butter and rub it into the powders with your fingertips until you get a sandy mixture. Add the grated marzipansugar and salt and mix, then stir in the vanilla extract.
Knead for 3 minutes until you get a malleable compound similar to plasticine. If necessary, add a spoonful of milk at a time, incorporating it well.
Put the flaked almonds on a flat plate. By hand, remove portions of dough the size of a walnut and create loaves of about 5 cm. Press them on the flaked almonds. Then, place them in the tray 2 cm apart.
Gently press the tines of a fork on one end of each loaf and slide them along the entire length, flattening and lengthening the biscuit. Bake in the oven for at least 10 minutes. Let cool a minute in the pan, then on a wire rack.
Linzer
Linzer, traditional German biscuits. Recipes and photos taken from “Advent. German recipes to bake while waiting for Christmas” by Anja Dunk (Guido Tommasi Editore).
INGREDIENTS FOR ABOUT 22 COOKIES:
175 g flour
25 g corn starch
100 g ground hazelnuts (or half hazelnuts and half almonds)
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
a pinch of salt
120 g butter at room temperature
the finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon
120 g of granulated white sugar
1 egg.
To assemble and decorate:
icing sugar for dusting
80 g raspberry or blackcurrant jam.
Method
Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Put the flour, ground hazelnuts, corn starch, cocoa powder, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl, add the butter and rub it into the powders with your fingertips until you get a sandy mixture. Add the lemon zest, sugar and egg and mix by hand.
Knead the dough for about 3 minutes to make it soft and malleable. Form a loaf, wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for 1 hour.
“Advent. German recipes to bake while waiting for Christmas” by Anja Dunk (Guido Tommasi Editore).
Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan assisted. Dust the pastry board with icing sugar, roll out the dough into a sheet 5 mm thick and cut out circles using a round cutter.
Transfer the circles to the trays and, using a very small round cutter, make holes in the center of half of the circles. Reuse the scraps of dough to make other circles.
Bake the circles of dough in the oven for about 10 minutestaking them out as soon as they start to brown, then transfer them onto two wire racks, one for the whole circles and one for the perforated ones, and let them cool.
When circles are cool, distribute a generous half teaspoon of jam on each full circle. Dust the perforated circles with icing sugar and place them on top of the circles with the jam.
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