What makes Christmas so special are the days leading up to Christmas Eve, when the anticipation of Christmas grows ever greater and it is cold, dark and beautifully lit outside. Everyone enjoys this magical Advent season of cosy socks and fragrant biscuits.
Our biscuit dreams
Everyone has their own favourite biscuits. The ones that are baked every year with mum and dad or grandma and granddad at Christmas, while in the background Frank Sinatra singing one cheesy Christmas carol after another. The ones you get at the bakery round the corner. Or the ones without which Christmas simply wouldn't be Christmas.
The smell of freshly baked biscuits reminds us of our childhood - how we nibbled the dough from the bowl and snacked on our first biscuits straight from the hot tray. Christmas as it lives, breathes and, above all, tastes. There are endless varieties of biscuits and recipes are often passed down from generation to generation like a well-kept secret - today we're revealing our favourite biscuit dreams.
The classic - vanilla crescents
This Christmas biscuit classic is only really perfect when it has to be picked up with kid gloves, otherwise it threatens to break. When you put the biscuits in your mouth, they fall apart immediately and melt in your mouth, while the sweet flavour of vanilla, icing sugar and almonds spreads throughout your mouth.
Ingredients
- 250g wheat flour
- 200g cold butter
- 160g grated almonds
- 70g icing sugar
- Vanilla sugar and icing sugar to taste
Preparation
- Knead all the ingredients together - leave to rest briefly at room temperature.
- Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film and chill for about an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 160°C hot air.
- Cut off a piece of the dough ball and shape into sausages about 1 cm thick on a surface.
- Cut the sausages into pieces about 1 cm thick, roll out and shape into croissants.
- Place the croissants on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
- Bake the biscuits for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Sprinkle with the vanilla and icing sugar mixture through a sieve while still hot on the baking tray.
- Leave to cool.
Fruity sweet - Linzer eyes
These biscuits take a little more effort to cut out - but it's worth it! Deliciously sweet jam slumbers between two crispy layers of shortcrust pastry. The top can be glazed or traditionally dusted with icing sugar. No Christmas biscuit tin should be without these Christmas treats!
Ingredients
- 250g wheat flour
- 200g butter
- 100g grated almonds
- 100g icing sugar
- Juice of half a lemon
- Icing sugar for sprinkling
For the filling
- A jar of raspberry jam (or another jar)
- 1 tbsp rum
Preparation
- Knead all the ingredients together and shape into a ball - leave to rest briefly at room temperature.
- Heat the jam and rum in a pan, stir until smooth and pour into a piping bag.
- Sprinkle the base and rolling pin with a little flour.
- Preheat the oven to 170°C hot air.
- Cut off a piece of the dough ball and roll out to 0.5 cm.
- Cut out one half of the dough with a hole and the other half without a hole.
- Bake the biscuits for about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Dust the biscuits with the hole with icing sugar and leave to cool.
- Turn over the biscuits without a hole, pipe a dab of jam filling on each and place a biscuit with a hole on top.
Wonderfully spicy - cinnamon stars
Cinnamon stars are as much a part of Christmas as a decorated Christmas tree and candlelight. Whether in the shape of a star, a heart or a Christmas tree - cinnamon stars simply belong on every Christmas plate with a cup of hot chocolate.
Ingredients
- 4 egg whites
- 500g icing sugar
- 30g ground cinnamon
- 550g ground almonds
- 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
Preparation
- Beat the egg whites until stiff, sift in the icing sugar and continue beating until the mixture is glossy.
- Chill 5 tbsp of the mixture for the glaze.
- Fold the remaining ingredients into the mixture and shape into a ball.
- Wrap the dough ball in cling film and chill for an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 140°C fan oven.
- Sprinkle a base with ground almonds.
- Roll out the dough to 1 cm.
- Cut out stars (or other shapes) and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
- Coat the biscuits with the cold mixture and bake for about 20 minutes.
