On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me eight cinnamon stars, seven Basler Christmas Cookies, six Pumpkin and Pineapple Cookies, five Chestnut Rings, four Poppyseed cookies, three peppermint macaroons, two orange date cookies and a freshly baked ginger snap
As with the Basler Christmas Cookies on Day 7, these are a Christmas cookie that are traditional locally so I grew up with them, but we never made them at home. This was the first time I made them, and am glad I did so. They are a different type of cookie to many of the others included in this list, but I think, a fitting inclusion none-the-less. The batter was easy to make, but the icing is a bit of a pain to spread on each cookie individually (Thanks to my sister who had the patience to do so!), and as with the Basler cookies, these are supposed to be left to dry for at least 6 hours, if not over night. Unlike with the Basler ones, I actually did this with these (I am not sure what difference it makes), so the wait time can be a bit of a pain.
Ingredients:
3 egg whites
1 pinch of salt
1 1/2 c icing sugar
2 tbsp of cinnamon
3 c ground almonds
2 tsp of Kirsch
1) Beat the egg whites with the salt to form stiff peaks. Fold in the icing sugar and set aside about 2 tbsp for the icing.
2) Add the cinnamon and the ground almonds, and the kirsch if using. Mix until you get a stiff dough.
3) Roll out the cookie dough on a sugared surface to about 1 cm thick and then cut out stars using a small star cookie cutter (or a toy from your Little One's shape sorter, as I did...)
4) Ice the stars, placing a dollop of icing in the middle of the star and using the blade of a knife or a toothpick to draw it out towards the tips.
(Optional: 5) Allow the stars to dry for at least 6 hours or overnight. I did for these but not for the Basler cookies. Neither seems to have suffered for the different treatment.
6) Bake at 250°C for 5 minutes (take them out while the icing is still white as I clearly didn't do...)
These are very tasty! I did miss our the kirsch by mistake ( trying to make a very belated Thanksgiving dinner at the same time and put Little Bit down for bed was maybe not very conducive to following a recipe), and I do think they suffered for the lack of Kirsch. The allowing them to dry for hours is also a bit irritating, but the cookies in the end are well worth it, and very cute. And no one need ever know that I used a toy instead of a cookie cutter ;)
