Oma's Cookies

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 Kaiser-Plätzchen German Cookies

Oma's Cookies




My children are blessed to have both Italian and German Christmas traditions play a large part in their upbringing. Christmas Eve is spent with my husband's side of the family. Oma would make her amazing Christmas cookies and we couldn't wait to dig in. She would then send us home with a large cookie tin filled with all these amazing treats. When the children got older and went off to University she would give each one of them their own tin. We would come home and they would immediately hide them so that their siblings (or us 😉) wouldn't dig in. Christmas Eve is when we opened our presents. For several years I had the privilege of being present when my husband's family would open up the large box that arrived from their Oma in Germany. The box was filled with German chocolates, cookies, stollen, pfeffernusse, ornaments and so much more. The boxes stopped after she was not able to anymore but the tradition did not. We continue to enjoy these treats every year and have become part of our Christmas. Beginning in December we have stollen every Sunday and then Italian panettone on Christmas morning.
These cookies are one of the delicious treats she bakes. This year we gave it a go ourselves and they turned out pretty great. I would recommend rolling out the dough a bit thinner, but my family disagrees. They like them just like that! This year we will not be celebrating with either side of our family but we will be keeping the traditions going and raise a toast.

Ingredients
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 pkg of vanila sugar (find in international aisle)
  • dash of salt
  • 7 tbsps butter
  • 4 egg yolks
  • powdered icing sugar
  • raspberry or strawberry jam
Directions
  1. Sift flour onto a work surface and make a well in center
  2. Add powdered sugar, salt, egg yolks and vanilla sugar inside the well
  3. Place butter on top and knead ingredients to form smooth dough. Work quickly
  4. Cover with a dish towel and let chill in fridge for 1 hour
  5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  6. Roll out dough as thinly as you can onto a floured surface
  7. Cut out cookies with cookie cutters
  8. If you are using different shapes ensure you have even numbers for each shape
  9. Use a small round cookie cutter to make a hole in center of half of the cookies
  10. Bake for 15 minutes on a greased cookie sheet
  11. Cool on a wire rack
  12. Spread jam on cookies without hole and place the other half on top
  13. Sprinkle with vanilla sugar or icing sugar

Schmekt Gut!

Elena 💜


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Please leave a comment! Let me know if you have any questions and if you have tried it! Thanks for the feedback!!

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