Christmas cookies - BASLER BRÜNSLI

For the last couple of weeks, I have been baking up a storm. Those who follow me on Instagram and Facebook have seen my photos. Baking cookies has given me some peace in these turbulent times. ​

Because I like to reduce or replace sugar in recipes, some of my cookies were rejected by my tasters. One of them was my German chocolate cookies, the ones that look like paws. I liked them, but nobody else did, so I won’t post that recipe. ​

My husband’s favorite cookies are the biscuits de Noël (French sable cookies), they are sugary and remind him a little bit of his mother’s sugar cookies minus the frosting. The recipe comes from Clotilde, who lives in Paris and has a lovely blog called Chocolate and Zucchini.
Click here for the recipe.

My girlfriend, Marie, likes my hazelnut meringue cookies. Click here for the recipe.

My favorite cookies this year are Basler Brunsli, a specialty of Basel, a city in German-speaking northern Switzerland. These cookies are chocolatey and chewy with the flavors of Christmas. The main ingredients are chocolate and raw almonds (no flour), just some confectioner’s sugar, egg whites, cinnamon, and cloves. Both the hazelnut meringue cookies and the   Basler Brunsli are gluten-free.

I started my blog because my girlfriend, Diane, took me to our local bookstore over three years ago to listen to an author who was promoting her new book, My Berlin Kitchen. “Oh no,” as I thought she was one of those plump German women dressed in a dirndl with braids in her hair promoting sauerkraut and dumplings. I didn't want to disappoint my girlfriend, so I agreed to go. Off we went, and I almost fell from my stool when I saw a beautiful, shy young American woman introduce herself as Luisa Weiss. This was definitely not the person I had expected. She opened my heart and allowed me to be German again. You see, I was never proud to be German, as I was mostly ashamed of Germany’s ghastly past. That evening, when I listened to Luisa read an insert from her book, my heart finally opened, and I allowed myself to be German for the first time ever. It was okay, I would and could never forget what happened in Germany during the Nazi times, but I could be German and learn to love my native country.
In her first book, My Berlin Kitchen, Luisa describes her life in Berlin. Born to an Italian mother and an American father, her childhood takes place in the divided Berlin of the Soviet Times. She describes many situations that are very familiar to me, such as her search to belong somewhere and her experience of different cultures. In food, she finds a common denominator. After living a successful life in New York, she leaves for love in Berlin. You can also follow her on her blog, “The Wednesday Chef.” This year, she has published a beautiful new cookbook called Classic German Baking. This impressive volume opens up the world of Germanic baking to all of us. The Washington Post included it in the round-up of the year’s best cookbooks. According to them, Classic German Baking is “a happy marriage of European craft and American sensibilities.” When I showed it to my 16-year-old friend from Berlin, who has been living with her American father here in Santa Cruz for a year, her eyes lit up, and she was transported back to Berlin through all the recipes she loves.
Click here for her website, The Wednesdaychef

Fruit and Nut Chocolate Chunks. No  cooking required. Click here for the recipe.

These Blueberry Mini Muffins are my son's favorite. Click here for the recipe

Since this is a new recipe for me, I followed Luisa’s recipe and made no changes. The recipe is thrown together in no time, but rolling out the dough was a little bit of a challenge. I used a small wine glass that I dipped in sugar as a cookie cutter. For chocolate, I used Trader Joe’s Pound Plus chocolate. Luisa recommends 60-70% cacao in the chocolate.  According to Luisa, the cookies will last for a month if kept in a tin.

Print Recipe

Ingredients:

(makes about 35 cookies)


1 2/3 cups /250g raw almonds
​9 ounces /250g bittersweet chocolate
1 ½ cup /180g confectioners’ sugar.
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
3 egg whites
2 TBS kirsch or dark rum
granulated sugar, for rolling out the dough

Instructions:

Grind the almonds in a food processor until very fine, but do not let them turn into a paste. Transfer to a bowl. Break or cut the chocolate into pieces and grind them in the food processor until finely ground. Add the ground chocolate to the almonds and mix together.
Add the confectioners’ sugar, salt, cinnamon, and cloves to the bowl and mix until combined. Stir in the egg whites, one at a time, and then add the kirsch or rum. The alcohol will burn off in the oven. Stir until well combined, cover with plastic, and refrigerate for 12-24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 300˚ F.  Prepare two cookie sheets by covering them with parchment paper. I sprinkled some sugar on plastic wrap and rolled out the dough between two pieces of plastic wrap. Be careful, the dough is very sticky. I used a small 1½ -inch wide wineglass for a cookie cutter. I dipped the rim in sugar before I cut the dough. I had to roll out the leftover dough several times. Putting the dough in the freezer for several minutes helps. I baked each cookie sheet for 18 minutes in the center of my oven. The cookies will be dry but soft to the touch when they are done. Cool the cookies completely before putting them into a tin. They will last for a month if they’re not gone by then.


Guten Appetit
recipe by Luisa Weiss from her book Classic German Baking
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