Swiss Christmas cookies. Spitzbuben

How to make some Swiss Christmas cookies. Spitzbuben . In much of central and northern Europe, the arrival of Christmas is synonymous with homemade cookies.

This custom is part of the Christmas tradition in countries like Austria, Germany or Switzerland. It seems that when the cold weather is tighter, you want to turn on the oven and, as a family, bake and bake. Today I bring you one of the most traditional Christmas cookie recipes   in Switzerland prepared by mothers and grandmothers, the Swiss cookies, Spitzbuben .

I do not know very well what this name will come for some cookies, the German word means rogues, thieves, but for whatever reason, I can tell you that they are delicious. It is a butter dough enriched with crushed nuts, traditionally walnuts or hazelnuts, which, once baked, gives off a smell that will flood your home, a wonder, although in this case we have prepared it without nuts, but you can add the that you like the most. The combination of flavors between the cookie itself with the jam filling is a perfect match.

On the blog you can find various types of Christmas cookies , they are a small summary of several years preparing cookies to give away this holiday season. I have prepared bags with homemade Christmas cookies   and I assure you that this recipe will become a top of my cookie gifts, because they are incredible in flavor and are very crispy.

Traditionally it is usually given a heart, star or circle shape, and although there are own molds for this type of double-sided cookies, we can perfectly do it at home with a large cookie mold and a small one to make the hole we want. They are crispy cookies , special for the walnut or hazelnut integrated in their dough and for the combination with jam. Surely when preparing them you can not help but feel a little more involved in the Christmas atmosphere, and if you prepare them with your children more.

Preparation of dough for Christmas cookies. Spitzbuben

1. In a bowl, beat the butter with the sugar and the vanilla essence.
2. It is essential that the butter is soft, at room temperature to be able to work it. We work the mixture until we have a smooth cream.
3. Add the egg white, salt and flour. With a fork we begin to mix the ingredients until we have a sand.
4. At this point we begin to shape the dough, finishing the work, until it is homogeneous and smooth.
5. We wrap the dough in transparent paper and keep it in the fridge for no less than 1 hour, until the dough has hardened.
6. I advise you that to make the dough easier to work later and harden before, we keep it flattened, not ball-shaped.
7. On a lightly floured work surface or on baking paper. We stretch the dough with a rolling pin until it is about 3 mm thick. not excessively thick.
8. We will need two shears to make these cookies. One for bigger to shape the cookie and one smaller to make the hole for the upper cookie.

Shaping the Christmas cookies, baking and final presentation

1. If we do not have cutting tools, we can use a glass to shape the cookie and a lid to empty the upper cookie.
2. Once we have the cookies cut we keep them in the fridge until they harden.
3. With the oven previously heated to 180º C we bake the cookies for about 10 minutes. With heat temperature above and below, without fan. We have to be careful that they do not get too brown.
4. Let the cookies cool on a rack before proceeding to the filling and decoration.
5. In the cookies without hole we place a portion of jam. It will be necessary to heat the jam slightly to make it easier to work with and smooth.
6. We place the cookie with a hole that will go on top on a kitchen paper and sprinkle it with icing sugar.
7. We place the lid on the other cookie with jam. Once it is dusted with sugar and we let them dry for a few minutes before handling them. And we already have them ready to enjoy.

It is a very simple recipe whose only complication lies in having to decorate the cookie once baked. Even so it is a very easy and fun job and the result, with the jam, great.

With little effort we can prepare some nice and rich Christmas cookies. Ideal for decorating an enjoy on a great Christmas table.

Be sure to enjoy all these homemade Christmas cookies that we have in our dessert recipes   and in the special Christmas recipes .

You can see all the photos of this cookie recipe step by step in the next album.