Beehive Cookies

Beehive cookies are one of the most traditional Czech Christmas cookies. They are partly baked and bring that delicious walnut scent to the table. In the Czech Republic baking Christmas cookies is a national sport. The ovens are on all the time during the Advent time and there are just so many cookies to taste! If you'd like to learn more about the Czech Christmas traditions, here are some interesting articles.

Also, I have written recipes of more Christmas delicacies such as the Nut Cookies, the Linzer Cookies or the Spanish Churros with Chocolate.

• Beehive mold - if you don't have one, you can just mold the beehives with your hand

For the base:

• 120 g/4.2 oz of powder sugar
• 120 g/4.2 oz of unsalted butter
• 250 g/8.8 oz of all-purpose flour + some for the table
• 2 egg yolks
• 50 ml/1.7 fl oz of milk
• round cookie cutters or stars, large flowers...

For the beehives:

• 200 g/7 oz of ground walnuts
• 200 g/7 oz of powder sugar
• 1 egg

For the filling:

• 200 g/7 oz of unsalted butter
• 125 g/4.4 oz of powder sugar
• 0,5 dl/17 fl oz of dark rum
• 1-2 full tbsp of extra thick vanilla pudding

First you need to make the base. It's the same dough like you'd make for the Linzer cookies. You can make the base even days ahead, it won't go bad.

Let the butter soften at room temperature. Then put it in a bowl with the flour and sugar, add the yolks and the milk and knead properly until you have a smooth dough. I have the best results when I knead with my hand. Give it time, you really need a smooth dough with no lumps. Wrap the dough in a plastic foil or a kitchen towel and let it rest in the fridge for two hours.

Sprinkle some flour on the table. Roll the dough out to about 0,5 cm/0.3 in thick. Cut out the shapes with the cookie cutters and place them on the tray. Preheat the oven on 170°C/338°F and bake for 10 minutes. Then let is cool down.

1. Combine the ground walnuts, sugar and egg in a bowl, wrap in a foil and let it rest in a fridge for one hour. Then take a piece, roll it out long and divide into several equal pieces. It's hard to say the size as it depends on the size of your mold so you'll just have to try and see.
2. Fill the mold with some flour and then empty the mold. We do this to prevent the nut mixture to prevent from sticking to the inside of the mold.
3. Place one piece of the walnut mixture inside the mold.
4. Poke a hole with your finger and press the mixture to the sides and top.
5. You should have the mold full just with a hole in the middle.
6. Tap the mold on the table to make the beehive come out.
7. Place the beehives on a desk and let them dry for 1 hour. Don't wait longer because they would start to crack.

1. Let the butter soften at the room temperature and them mix all the ingredients for the filling. You can make alterations - add other alcohol or even caramel, skip the pudding...just make sure your filling isn't too liquid, you want it to be dense.
2. Fill the beehives with the filling so that there's some filling over the edge.
3. Place the filled beehive on the base cookie.
4. Let the cookies stand for at least one day. You can even sprinkle them with some powder sugar but you don't need to, they are sweet enough.

Usually the Christmas cookies are kept in dark and cold cellars where they can be for weeks without spoiling. However, if you don't have such a space, just keep the cookies in your fridge.

I hope you liked this recipe and enjoy!