Or shall I say my attempt at German Christmas cookies. I was all geared up to bake my favorite gingerbreadmen and sugar cookies. Milo requested Zimtsterne and Vanillekipferl, so I figured it was a good chance to learn something new.  

Vanillekipferl

 Vanillekipferl can best be described as a russian tea cake shaped like the letter C. Ingredients are flour, sugar, butter, and ground hazelnuts. I am not sure if it was because I halved each recipe, or because the last time I used a metric scale to measure flour was 20 years ago with Leslie from upstairs in Frat 154. For some reason, Milo says they don’t taste “right.” I’m not really sure what they are supposed to taste like, but I admit they aren’t as yummy as I hoped. But maybe that’s a good thing.

Milo helped cut the shapes out. Apparently I was not clear when I mentioned, “space them evenly on the cookie sheet.”

The “cinnamon stars” (Zimtsterne) turned out as “almond fish and airplanes.” That was my fault because we didn’t have almond liquer, so I made my own with some grappa and about 20 drops of almond essence. Turns out 2 drops would have sufficed for the entire recipe. Needless to say, the cinnamon was a bit overpowered. And we don’t have any star-shape cookie cutters, but that’s beside the point. They aren’t bad, just different. They are covered with a merengue icing.

Almondy airplanes and fish

We still have a week ’till Christmas. Gingies might make an appearance.

crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside

Happy Baking and Merry Christmas!