tschuppibaking

it’s time for Christmas… I know, but time is really running fast and a short time ago you still enjoyed autumn and nice colourful trees with falling leaves – and at the same moment you are in the middle of Christmas time. At least for me it feels every year the same and at the beginning of November I am always kind of shocked when every store is selling already Christmas cookies, Christmas chocolate, Christmas decoration and and and… In the first few weeks I am really able to ignore it, but then one day I am gripped by this strategy as well, and really enjoying it. 😉

Besides that, I am also on vacation this week which makes me very happy. And as I decided to stay at home and enjoy the spare time for me myself and I, what else could be better than starting to fill up your Christmas cookie boxes? That’s what I did and even already had the chance to give them away, see evidence at the very bottom I got from a colleague.. 🙂

To get warmed up a little bit (I don’t want to rush myself during my vacation) I thought to go for some ‘Leckerli’ cookies. Actually in Switzerland the ‘Basler Leckerli’ are very famous and I really love them. So I decided to open my good old classic Betty Bossi recipe book for the most famous Christmas cookies and surprise surprise, I found a recipe for ‘Leckerli’. At the same time I did as well my most favourite Christmas cookies, the ‘Chraebeli’. But I will tell you more about that in the next post. 😉

So back to the Leckerli. They are not that difficult to make and if you have them in the oven, you definitely don’t want that Christmas time passes at all. You maybe wish that this smell stays all the day in your appartment and wherever you go… Ok now I got drifted away! But I don’t worry because I am very sure that if you will do them at home as well, you will have the same feelings and remember my words. 🙂

On this note, I wish to all of you a very nice start into Christmas time.

Leckerli (adapted from Betty Bossi, recipe adjusted):

preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and prepare baking sheet with parchment paper

200g sugar,
pinch of salt,
4 eggs,
mix in a bowl

lemon zest,
1 tbsp ‘Birnbrotgewuerz’,
120g Orangeat (candied orange peel),
250g almonds grounded,
60g butter, melt slowly in a pan and cool down,
add to the bowl and mix well

250g spelt flour,
add and mix until combined

spread the mixture onto the baking sheet with approx. 1cm thickness (mine were about 2cm as my baking sheet I used has a smaller size than the common ones), put in the middle of the oven for approx. 20-25 minutes

glazing:
150g icing sugar,
1 tbsp lemon juice,
2 tbsp water,
mix well, immediately after baking glaze the hot pastry and cut into pieces afterwards