Christmas Cookies from Switzerland - Spitzbuben
Since the 16th centuries grifters in German speaking countries were called «Spitzbuben». The cookie with the same name is usually a circular cookie consisting of a base and a lid, filled with jam and a funny face formed by the holes pierced in the top cookie. Outside Switzerland, this cute Christmas cookie is also known as “Linzer Augen” or “Hildabrötchen”. There are countless different Spitzbuben recipes: with and without ground almonds, with whole eggs or just egg whites, filled with jelly or jam. I make my Spitzbuben according to the following recipe: Take
250 g soft butter
125 g sugar or powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla sugar
1 pinch of salt
1 beaten egg white (or 1-2 tbsp milk)
and mix everything in a bowl. Add
350 g flour
and knead everything into a dough. Cover the dough and leave to rest in a cool place for at least 2 hours.
These tasty cookies get wonderfully mellow with powdered sugar, but the dough is stickier, which is problematic when rolling it out and cutting the cookies. The baked cookies are more brittle when done with powdered sugar. They can easily break when sticking them together. That's why I normally use crystal sugar. If the dough is still too sticky, just knead some flour in.
Roll out the dough in portions on a little flour and cut out the same number of lids and bases. Chill the unbaked biscuits for another 15 minutes. Bake at 200° C in the middle of the preheated oven for approx. 6 minutes.
When filling the biscuits with jelly or jam, spread the warm biscuits with it. If they cool too quickly, you can also heat the jelly or jam so that the top and bottom stick better together. However, as I am a lazy bum, I sometimes use cold jam or cold jelly, which has always worked well so far. Dust the Spitzbuben with powdered sugar and enjoy!
Spitzbuben are not only an incredibly tasty Christmas cookie, they are also very easy to modify: Most recipes suggest redcurrant or raspberry jelly or apricot jam without chunks, but you can actually use any jam or jelly that you like. As I love chocolate and nougat, I use Nutella or nougat cream instead of jelly or jam. You may also use peanut butter or pistachio cream. There are no limits to your imagination! Just make sure that the filling doesn't go bad without refrigeration.
Instead of dusting with powdered sugar, you can melt white or dark chocolate coating and dip half of the Spitzbuben in the liquid chocolate coating, which you can then decorate with chopped almonds, pistachios, nonpareils or Christmas sprinkles.
Fancy some more Christmas cookies?
Did you already try my vanilla crescent cookie recipe?
Did you already try my cinnamon star recipe?
Did you already try my Mailänderli recipe?
Did you try my Chocolate Cookie Balls yet?