In Alsace, Christmas is a religion, an experience and an exciting event for most of its people. I adore Christmas and I really think I was made to live in the ‘Capital of Christmas’ 🙂
In december at Christmas markets you’ll find some delicious goodies like foie gras, mulled wine, cheese, gingerbread men, hot chestnuts and of course delicious Bredele, the famous Alsatian Christmas cookies. There are more than 100 recipes for these bite-sized biscuits of different shapes and tastes.
The first recipe I want to share is the mini version of the Lintzer Torte, made of a nutty and gingerbread style crust with strawberry jam filling.
Ingredients
- 120 gr Almond powder
- 125 gr Soft butter
- 200 gr All purpose flour
- 2-3 Cloves
- 1 Cinnamon stick
- 80 gr Brown sugar
- 1 Tb baking powder
- 2 Eggs
- Strawberry jam
- 1 Tb milk
Let's start cooking
- Pound the cinnamon stick the cloves and the brown sugar in a blender.
- Mix the almond powder, the flour, the sugar mix and the baking powder in a large bowl. Add a pinch of salt.
- Add the eggs and the soft butter and make a dough. You can adjust the texture by adding milk or flour, you shall be able to form a nice ball of dough. Cover it with plastic wrap.
- Let it rest in the fridge for 3 hours, or even a night.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (th6).
- Roll out the pastry on your kitchen table (no flour is needed, as the pastry is very buttery. It shall be 1 cm thick.
- Use a cookie star-form cutter to cut the biscuits. Make a little hollow in the middle of the biscuit with the bottom of a coffee spoon.
- Brush them with a mixture of an egg yolk and warm milk.
- Put a pinch of strawberry jam in every little hollow.
- Transfer the cookies on the baking tray covered with baking paper.
- Bake for 10-12 mins.
- Let them cool down on a cooling grid.
You can eat them warm or cold and they can be kept for two-three weeks at room temperature.
Bon appétit!
