Christmas cookie recipe

Today, I will share two recipes for the Christmas cookies I made last week since I was asked for the recipe :). The first one, you can use when you are in a hurry and need the cookies *quickly* - but if you have some time, try the second recipe. Those cookies are even better although they need much more time and have a quite higher content in butter - and we all know, what that means ;). All in all, both recipes are really simple and easy to make.

Basic recipe number one, the quick one:
250 g flour

1/2 package of baking powder (approx. 7g)

50 g butter

100 g sugar

1 egg

a pinch of salt

milk (if needed)

flavors: vanilla, cinnamon, lemon juice or finely ground almonds, ... choose one of them or use whatever you like

Take the warm and soft butter, stir it well with sugar, egg and salt using a hand mixer until you have an even pulp. Add flour, baking powder and the flavoring ingredient of your choice and knead the dough until it is even and smooth. If it is still sticky, add a little bit more flour, if it is too crumbly, add some drops of milk. If you add ground almonds, just use some more drops of milk. Now you can use the dough right away (see below).

Basic recipe number two (simple recipe for shortpastry) - the longer you wait, the better they are:

Note at the beginning: All ingredients should be cold, you should work rather fast to prevent dough from getting too warm, i.e. too sticky.

100 g sugar

200 g butter

300 g flour

1 egg

flavors: vanilla, cinnamon, lemon juice or finely ground almonds, ... choose one of them or use whatever you like

Put the flour into a bowl, add sugar and mix both. Crack the egg and add it, but do not knead yet. Slice the cold butter into small pieces and add them to the flour/sugar/egg in the bowl. Add a flavor of your liking (or laeve it as it is). Knead all ingredients fast with cold hands until the dough is even and smooth. Wrap the dough into plastic cling wrap and put it into fridge for at least for an hour. If it is too sticky when taking it out of the frigde, just add a little bit flour. Now you can use the dough (see below).

Dredge your working surface evenly with flour and roll out the dough really thin - about two to maximal three millimeters for the first recipe, three to five millimeters for the second one. Cut out the cookies with cookie cutters and put them on a baking tray which you have lined with baking parchment. Be careful not to put the cookies too close to each other because they will increase in size (depending on the amount of baking powder you added and their thickness)! Put them in the pre-heated oven on the middle rack for eight to ten minutes at 175°C (first recipe) or 220°C (secone recipe) until the edges start to turn golden brown. Let them cool down on a wire grid.

After they have cooled down, you can decorate them with powdered sugar, molten chocolate and sprinkles or coarsly ground nuts, sugar icing or whatever you like ... :)

Just for your information, I used sugar icing on my cookies with a lime flavor ;). For this, simply take some powdered sugar and add lime juice drop by drop - always stiring the mixture. Add as much drops as you need to achive a thick, highly viscous liquid. If the liquid becomes too thin, go back and add more powdered sugar. Now, you can put the liquid into a piping bag with a really thin tube or just go ahead and make your own from scrap:

As shown in the sketch, I simply take some leftover baking parchment, fold the parchment square diagonally in half, cut along the fold so that I have a triangle. Roll this triangle so that the center of the former square becomes the tip of the newly formed tulle, pull tight to form a small opening (where the grey arrows is), fill it and use it like a normal tulle.

Happy baking :)