Its that time of the year again! Finally!! I am just such a “Christmastime” lover and I celebrate every single second of it. This morning I woke up and we actually had a little bit of snow here in Salzburg. I was even more excited! I also saw that they put up the Christmas lights and trees in the city already! And on Thursday the Christmas market opens his doors and I am really looking forward for some mulled wine and Christmas light. I also actualized my Christmas playlist on Apple Music and added some songs to sing along. Yep, all in all I think it can be stated that I have the “Christmasfever” already and I definitely do not complain. One thing that also cannot be missed on the way to Christmas eve are definitely homemade cookies. Normally I have the tradition to bake them with my little sister (I mean it is more that I bake and she makes a complete mess and the moment she doesn’t want to bake anymore she leaves, so I am left alone in the kitchen!) but unfortunately this year there won´t be the occasion for that, since I am working on the weekends here in Salzburg and don´t go home as often anymore.

So I thought I make the cookies this year for everybody (since I looovveee baking!) and bring my family them when I go home the next time. I think I have to say that my kitchen here in Salzburg is like 3 square meters big in total, so there is not really a space to roll out the dough and cut out cookies. Nevertheless, I was dedicated to do it, so by the end of the day my whole flat was full of cookies to cool down (even on the bed) and it looked really funny. Of course, I forgot to take a picture for you. However, the outcome of the cookies was pretty good and the friend that tried them up to now really liked them (yeah yeah friends have to say that), so I thought I share five recipes with you, in case you are still searching for some cookie baking, or in general Christmas- Spirit.

The fives cookies we will bake:

Lemon cookies
Orange-Rosemary Shortbread
Nutella-Sticks
Linzer Augen
Nussecken

 

LEMON COOKIES 

Ingredients: 150g Butter, 120g sugar, 150g icing sugar, 1 tbsp. vanilla sugar, 220g flour, 1/4 tsp. baking soda, 1/4 tsp. salt, 2 lemons, 1 egg

In a bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, sugar, vanilla sugar and the zest of the two lemons. Then add the butter and crumble it into the dough with your fingers. Lastly add the egg and the juice of one lemon. Knead everything until you have a compact dough. Form the dough into a 4 cm big roll and put it into the freeze for one hour.

Preheat the oven to 170 C° and put some parchment paper on a baking tray. Take the dough and cut it into 5 mm thick pieces and lay them out on the tray. Bake them for 10-12 Minutes and leave them to cool down afterwards. Repeat this until you have no dough left. When the cookies are cold, mix together the icing sugar with a few drops of lemon juice until you have an icing. Generously spread it onto the cold cookies and leave them until the icing has settled completely.

ORANGE-ROSEMARY-CARDAMOM SHORTBREAD

Ingredients: 200g butter, 100g icing sugar, 1 tbsp. vanilla sugar, 350g flour, dried rosemary, grounded cardamom, 1 Orange

In a bowl mix together the flour with the icing sugar. Cut the butter into small pieces and add as well. Also add the vanilla sugar, dried rosemary, cardamom, the zest of the lemon and then the juice of the lemon. Knead until you have smooth dough. Wrap it in cling foil and leave in the fridge for at least on hour.

Preheat your oven to 180 C° and prepare a baking tray with some parchment paper. Then take some flour and roll out the dough onto a smooth surface. Cut out as many cookies as you can and bake them for 8-10 Minutes. I left them as they are, but of course you can make an icing like the one above.

 

NUTELLA-STICKS

Ingredients: 150g soft butter, 80g icing sugar, 30g brown sugar, 1 tbsp. vanilla sugar, 3 egg yolks, 200g flour, 1 tsp. baking soda, 20g cacao powder, 1-2 tbsp. milk, 200g Nutella, 200g dark chocolate.

Preheat your oven to 190 C°. In a bowl cream together the butter and the three sugars until they are creamy and pale. Slowly add the egg yolk. In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking soda and cacao powder and add them to the butter-mixture. If the mixture is to thick add some milk. You should be able to put it into a piping bag and pipe, without having the mixture running away. Place a parchment paper on a baking tray and fill the dough into a piping bag ( I used one with a star nozzle) and pipe 4 cm long “sticks” onto the paper. Bake for 8-10 minutes and leave them to cool down. Repeat until you have no dough left.

When they are cooled down, put some Nutella in a piping bag and put on one Nutella and then another one on top. Leave them in a cool place so that they can settle. Fill all the cookies. Over some boiling water melt the chocolate (I also put in a little knob of butter!) then dip both ends of the cookie into the chocolate and place them on a parchment paper. Leave them until the chocolate is completely hard and you can put it into a cookie jar.

LINZER AUGEN

Ingredients: 250g butter, 200g sugar, 400g flour, 1 Egg, 150 grounded almonds, a pinch of salt, a jar of raspberry or red currant jam, some icing sugar

In a bowl mix together the butter, sugar, flour, grounded almonds and the egg and knead until you have a smooth dough. Place the dough in the fridge for at least an hour. Preheat your oven to 180 C°. With some flour, roll out the dough until it is around 4 mm thick. Cut out flowers, or circles as you want. Make sure that for every circle you have another one with a small hole inside. Bake for 8-10 minutes. After baking, leave them to cool down.

Put some jam in a piping bag with a small nozzle and pipe some marmalade onto the circles without the small hole and then place one with a small hole on top. Sprinkle with icing sugar.

NUSSECKEN

Ingredients: 300g flour, 200g butter, 100g sugar, 1 egg, a pinch of salt, 200g butter, 100g grounded hazelnuts, 100g almonds in small pieces, jam of your choice, 200g dark chocolate,

Preheat your oven to 190C°. In a bowl knead the flour, butter, sugar, egg and the pinch of salt until you have smooth dough. Prepare a baking tray with some parchment paper. Roll out the dough until you have the seize of the parchment paper. Place it onto the baking tray and spread some marmalade onto it. In a bowl melt the butter, then add the nuts. Spread it on the dough and bake for 20-25 minutes. Cut it into small triangles when it is still hot. Then leave them to cool completely. Over some boiling water melt the chocolate, then always dip on corner of the triangle in the chocolate. Leave them until the chocolate is firm again.