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. Â 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!
