Vanilla Kipferl ~ Traditional Christmas Cookie

These are very traditional Christmas Cookies in Germany and Switzerland. Usually you have to roll and form them by hand, this is quite some work. That's why I always dreaded to bake them, but I fond these silicone baking forms at a Christmas Bazaar and now all that work is so much easier. To make it even more easy I created a soft dough, so I could just brush it into the forms. If you find these silicone forms then go for them! They make baking cookies so much easier.

But if not, just do them by hand.

For approx 60 Cookies:
250 g soft Butter
260 g Flour
70 g Sugar
1 Pinch of Salt
1 Egg
1 Vanilla Pod, Seeds scratched out
1 tsp Baking Powder

For topping:
100 g Icing Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla Sugar

Whip up the butter with sugar and salt. Then add flour, baking powder, egg and the seeds of the vanilla pod, mix well.

Use a silicone scraper to push the soft dough into the forms.

If you do them by hand you need to add 30-50 g flour to the recipe, then you take 1 tbsp of dough, roll it to approx finger thick and bend it to form the Kipferl.

Bake in the oven at 170 C for 18-20 minutes. Then let them cool in the form for 5 minutes before you turn them over to let the cookies spill out.

Turn the cookies over in the mixed sugars and store in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks.

Try to add instant coffee to the dough.
Try to add cocoa powder to the dough.
Try to add cinnamon to the dough.

You can play around with the flavors.