Hello everybody. Meet the walnut balls. These cookies are important.
For quite some years already, if you asked anyone in my family which was their favourite cookie on the Christmas platter, they would tell you this one I think.

These cookies are big, they have a walnut AND chocolate on top, and they're stuffed too. Pretty decadent, right? They're exactly the kind of cookie my mother would let you eat just one a day, to make them last longer. Because they're quite a bit of work.
That's why they don't manage to make an appearance every year. When everyone is busy, no one bakes them. Obviously, that makes them even more special and popular.

If you have some time to bake these days and want to impress your dear ones, put these on your list.
They have a marzipan centre mixed with walnuts and quince paste, covered by a buttery shortcrust, and topped with walnut halves that toast beautifully in the oven. And to crown it all, you decorate them with some dark chocolate. Which is always a good idea, isn't it?

Recipe (adapted from this one, makes 35-40 cookies)

for the dough:
300 grams flour
150 grams cold butter
80 grams golden cane sugar
a pinch of salt
1 egg

for the filling:
80 grams almond paste (Marzipan)
50 grams dulce de membrillo (quince paste) or quince/currant jelly
80 grams chopped walnuts

for decorating:
50 grams dark chocolate
35-40 walnut halves


For the dough, cut the butter into small cubes and mix it with the dry ingredients until the texture resembles wet sand. Add the egg and mix to obtain a smooth dough. Add some drops of cold water if necessary. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge for at least an hour.

For the filling, cut the marzipan into little pieces, then mash it with a fork. With your hands, knead marzipan, quince paste (cut into small cubes) or jelly and chopped nuts together.

Preheat your oven to 180º C fan.
Take the dough out of the fridge and divide it into little pieces you then shape into balls of about 2 cm diameter.
Flatten them with your hands (use a little bit of flour if the dough is sticky) and fill them with half a teaspoon of filling each, close the dough around the filling and roll between your hands to make them round again.
Place them on two lined baking sheets and top each cookie with a walnut halve.

Bake for about 20 minutes, rotating the baking sheets once. The bottom of the cookies should be golden and the walnuts a bit darker.

Let them cool on a rack while you prepare the chocolate: melt it in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Spoon it into a little freezer bag and cut off one corner of the bag to pipe some chocolate over the cookies.

Once the chocolate has dried, store in an airtight container. They keep for a week or more.

Christmas is approaching quickly, and although it's pretty warm here these days, I was craving for another spiced cookie for this blog, one with ginger, and cinnamon, and more ginger.
One you could dunk in a cup of hot tea.
And then I stumbled upon these beautiful dark and crinkly cookies. I had never made ginger snaps before I think, but I liked their aspect and description immediately.

They are made with wholegrain rye flour which I love in cookies. And they use ginger in two ways; dry and candied. They carry lots of spices but none of them is overwhelming, and their subtle sweetness comes from molasses and dark brown sugar. Believe me, they're a keeper.
I think they're perfect for the dark winter months after Christmas, too.

Recipe (adapted from this one, which is adapted from the Violet Bakery Cookbook)

200 grams wholegrain rye flour
1,5 tsp ground ginger
1,5 tsp ground cinnamon
0,25 tsp ground cardamom
0,25 tsp ground coriander
a small pinch of ground nutmeg
a small pinch of ground cloves
a pinch of salt
1 tsp baking soda
125 grams butter, at room temperature
65 grams dark brown sugar (I used panela)
100 grams molasses
1,5 tsp boiling water
50 grams candied ginger, chopped


Preheat your oven to 170º C fan.

Combine the flour, spices, candied ginger, salt and baking soda.
Mix the butter and sugar until very fluffy and light, for about 5 minutes.
Add the molasses and combine, then add the water, followed by the flour mix. You'll end up with a soft sticky dough.

Divide the dough in 12-24 pieces (see note) and quickly shape them into balls, then place them on two baking trays lined with parchment paper. They have to be separated as they will spread during baking.
Flatten the balls with the back of a spoon or your hands.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, rotating the trays once. The cookies will still be soft in the centre.
Leave them to cool on the trays and then on a cookie rack and store in an airtight container.

Note: The size of your cookies is up to you. The original recipe yields 12 cookies, I made about 20 , adjust your baking time accordingly.

Nussecken (nut wedges as you probably could imagine) don't really fall into the Christmas cookie category. I remember buying one at a little bakery near my school once in a while. They were huge and heavy and rich. And I loved them.

And then a few years ago, living far away from that German bakery already, we started to make them at home, a cute miniature version of them, for the Christmas cookie platter. And I think we should keep that tradition up.

They are a bit of work but not complicated at all to make. And they are so good (do I say that about every cookie I post here? But they are!); buttery shortcrust, caramelly topping with the crunch of toasted nuts...can it get better than this? Oh, yeah, I almost forgot; they're dipped in chocolate too. And so cute to look at!

Recipe (adapted from this one)

for the shortcrust:
100 grams butter at room temperature
30 grams confectioner's sugar
180 grams flour (I used wholegrain Kamut)
30 grams ground hazelnuts or almonds
a pinch of salt
1 egg

for the topping:
50 grams butter
95 grams dark brown sugar
40 grams brown rice syrup or golden syrup
100 grams cream
100 grams ground hazelnuts or almonds
300 grams chopped nuts (all hazelnuts or a mix of hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts...)
a pinch of salt

150 grams dark chocolate for decoration


For the shortcrust pastry, mix the dry ingredients with the butter, then add the egg and knead until you have a smooth dough. Form a ball, wrap it in clingfilm and leave it to rest in the fridge for at least an hour.

Preheat your oven to 180 ºC. Take the dough out of the fridge and press it into a rectangular baking dish, greased and lined with parchment paper (mine is 23x27 cm).

For the topping, put butter, sugar, syrup and cream into a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Let boil during 4 minutes, or until it changes colour. It shouldn't get to dark, otherwise it will taste bitter. Take the saucepan off the heat and add the ground and chopped nuts and pinch of salt.
Spread the mix onto the base and bake for about 20 minutes in the lower part of the oven.

Let cool completely on a rack. Then cut into little triangles.
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water.
Dip the Nussecken into it or decorate them with the help of a spoon.

They'll keep for two weeks in an airtight container.

Lebkuchen is one of THE traditional German Christmas treats. I don't know if there is a translation for it, but I'd define it as a soft gingerbread which comes in many forms and shapes; they all have in common that they're spiced in a way that reminds me so much of Christmas, and that they have some kind of ground nuts in them which makes their dough soft and not too dry. Some of them are decorated with almonds, others topped with a simple sugar glaze or with chocolate. I don't know much more about their history but they have to be on every decent cookie platter.

This version is more dense and cakey than most of the traditional Lebkuchen I've eaten.
It's not really a cookie (perfect for the days you the texture of a good old cake) but you can cut it into small pieces and pretend it was one.
It's cozy and soft and rich, and the lemony glaze makes a beautiful topping, a bit crunchy and sour and somehow fresh in midst of all the butter, if I may say so.

Recipe (inspired by these recipes)

130 grams butter, at room temperature
150 grams sugar
3 eggs, separated
350 grams flour (a mix of white and wholegrain spelt)
150 grams ground almonds (or hazelnuts)
4 tablespoons cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons mixed Lebkuchen spices (cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, aniseed, cloves, coriander)
200 ml milk
a pinch of salt
lemon juice and zest (optional) and confectioner's sugar for the glaze


Preheat the oven to 180º C.

Mix sugar, butter and egg yolks together until light and fluffy.
Combine flour, ground nuts, cocoa (sifted), baking powder and spices.
Alternately add flour mix and milk, a bit at a time.
Whisk the egg whites with the salt until stiff. Fold them carefully into the dough.

Spread out the dough evenly on a greased baking tray (mine measures 40x32 cm) lined with parchment paper and bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of your baking tray, i.e. the thickness of your Lebkuchen. It should be baked through but not too dry.
Leave to cool on the tray.
Make the glaze combining a few tablespoons of confectioner's sugar with a bit of lemon juice. It should be quite liquid but not watery, otherwise it won't dry. Brush it on the surface of the cake and sprinkle with a bit of lemon zest.
Let the glaze dry, then cut the cake in little bars or cubes.

Keeps for a week or more in an airtight container.

Today is the third Sunday of Advent. But it's also Santa Lucia, and this year, with the perfect excuse of this blog, I finally wanted to give Lussekatter a try, the saffron buns traditionally made in Sweden on this day of the year.

As I'm not really an expert with yeasted doughs, I asked Nando for help, whose hands you see on the second photo. It's him who usually bakes the bread (and pizza) at home, while I make all the sweet stuff.
Anyway, we've never eaten the original Lucia buns in Sweden, so we read a bit about them and then improvised.
We used a sweet dough without eggs, which Peter Reinhart calls "all-purpose sweet dough", adding some saffron for colour.
It was nice to work with, and I loved shaping the buns. And eating them for breakfast even more.

Recipe (adapted from Peter Reinhart's "Artisan Breads every day")

794 grams bread flour (we used 10% white spelt flour)
14 grams salt
50 grams golden cane
4 grams dry yeast
480 ml lukewarm oat milk (or any other milk)
113 grams butter, melted
a bit of lemon zest
some saffron threads
raisins for decoration


Leave the saffron to infuse in the milk or crush it with a bit of the sugar.

Combine the flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl. Add the milk, the butter (not too hot), the oil and lemon zest. Mix in your stand mixer with the paddle attachment on low speed for about a minute, or with a spoon. The dough should form a soft ball.

Switch to the dough hook and mix on medium-low speed for another 4 minutes, or by hand. Add flour or milk as needed to create a smooth sticky ball of dough. Increase the speed to medium and mix for another 2 minutes. The dough should be supple and soft, tacky but not sticky.

Transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead for a minute, form it into a ball and place it in a big, lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or for up to 4 days.

Remove the dough from the fridge 3 hours before you want to bake. Leave it until it has come to room temperature and doubled in size. Cut pieces off the dough, of max. 100 grams each.
Form each piece into a smooth ball; place a piece of dough on the work surface, cup your hand around it, and rapidly rotate the dough in a circular motion. Then roll each ball out into a long strand (make them thinner than you think...most of mine turned out too chubby in the oven!) and form your S-shaped lussekatter, or any other shape you like. Decorate them with raisins.
Place them on 2 lined baking sheets and leave them to rest for 20 more minutes. Brush them with milk or an egg wash.

Preheat your oven to 200º C and bake the Lussekatter for about 25 minutes or until golden and baked through. Baking time depends on the size of your buns.

Leave to cool on a rack and enjoy. They're best the day they're made.

Hey! It's December 12th, which means I'm halfway through this Advent calendar!
I'm really so happy I'm doing this thing, even if it's a real challenge to find the time for all the baking, photographing, editing and writing. Phew, it really takes some time!

And that's why today, I'm running late...the morning post turned into an evening post! Please bear with me, I hope you didn't want to bake your Zimtsterne for breakfast today.

And that leads us to the next topic: I have to confess that today's recipe was kind of a fail challenge, even if I thought it would be really easy!
Zimtsterne were the second candidates on my list of the most important cookies I had to include here, after Vanillekipferl;  they're such a classic. It's true though that I don't know many people who make them at home. Why? I had never thought about that. Now I think I know! Because the dough, or at least the one I tried, is one sticky mess!

The good news is that in the end, they turned out perfectly fine; it only took some adjustments and tweaks. And I also remember having them made before and without any problems. So maybe the eggs were too big, or there was too much humidity, or who knows.

I'll give you the recipe as I made it, with the necessary corrections (in my case).

Recipe (inspired by this one, yields 50 little stars)

3 egg whites (of medium sized eggs!)
375 grams almonds with their skins on
150 grams confectioner's sugar (+some more)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pinch of ground coffee beans, optional
a bit of orange zest
a pinch of salt
some flour or cornstarch on hand to adjust the consistency of the dough

Grind the almonds to a fine powder.
Beat the egg whites to firm peaks with the salt, then fold in the sugar bit by bit. Set aside 3 tablespoons of this mix, you'll need them to decorate the cookies.

Fold the almonds, cinnamon, coffee and orange zest into the egg whites.
If the dough is still very sticky at this point, add more confectioner's sugar or some flour. I used rice flour because I didn't want them too sweet, but I recommend using cornstarch for example as I think the rice flour is not optimal for the texture of the cookies.
I had to add quite a bit of it to be able to roll out the dough. Roll it out 0,5-1 cm thick, tucked inside a big freezer bag or between two layers of clingfilm or on a silicone baking mat to prevent it from sticking to everything.
Then let it rest in the fridge for at least two hours. If it's still too sticky and soft at this point, you can put it in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Take it out and open the bag/clingfilm. Preheat your oven to 120º C/100º C fan. Cut out little stars of the dough, using some more confectioner's sugar or flour to coat the cookie cutter and maybe sprinkle on the dough to prevent them to stick to each other.

Put your stars on two lined baking sheets. Use the remaining egg white mix to brush the cookies with it.

Bake for about 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 100º C/80º C fan and bake for 10-15 minutes more. The tops of the cookies should stay white. They're still soft when you take them out of the oven but they'll firm up once they've cooled down.

Leave them to cool on a rack....and DON'T store them in an airtight container. They'll keep better if you leave your container a bit open, otherwise they'll get too hard! This way, they keep for up to a month.

This post's name is "two kinds of shortbread" instead of just "shortbread", because I couldn't decide.
It's a thing I have when I want to bake something that suddenly dozens of possibilities start to show up before my eyes and I start to browse and read and think and the list of things I could or should bake right now gets longer and longer, and I end up confused and exhausted before I've even started.
Ok ok, it's not as dramatic as it sounds, and this time, I've found a pretty good solution: one dough, two versions. At least with shortbread, this method works a treat and gives you two cookies in one!
You just have to prepare the dough without the additions, i.e. nuts, spices, seeds etc. Then you divide it and add whatever you like to each part. Easy!

The first of the flavour additions I wanted to try was mainly for visual reasons. It's a combination of pistachios and rose petals. The trilogy of these two plus dark chocolate is just too pretty I thought. And I love pistachios.
As for the second one it was more a flavour I was after; months ago I made a batch of little cakes for a dear friend's birthday party. The recipe was from the Violet Bakery Cookbook (which I love so much without having it even bought yet. But all the recipes from it I've stumbled upon and tried are perfect) and they were just sublime. They had walnuts in them, cardamom and cinnamon and pink pepper. I never would have thought of this combination. It's magical and I wanted to try and replicate it in shortbread form.

Both versions were really good, buttery and crumbly and a pleasure to look at. Flavourwise, I liked them both, the chopped nuts were perfect in both, but I would have liked more intensity in the ones with walnuts...next time I'll up the spices a bit. If you try that, let me know!

Recipe (adapted from this one)

260 grams flour (half wholegrain, half all-purpose)
80 grams golden cane sugar
225 grams butter, softened
0,5 teaspoons salt

· dried rose petals, 40 grams chopped pistachios, plus more for decoration
· 0,5 teaspoons cardamom, 0,5 teaspoons rose pepper, 0,25 teaspoons cinnamon, a pinch of clove, 40 grams chopped walnuts, plus more for decoration
· chocolate for decoration


In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment (or with a hand mixer) beat the butter with the sugar and salt until creamy and light. Add the flour and mix until just combined. Knead the dough a bit with your hands until it comes together properly.

If you want to make two versions as I did, divide the dough in two equal parts, and add the remaining ingredients to each one. Incorporate them with your hands, kneading carefully. Then shape two disks, wrap them in clingfilm and leave them to rest in the fridge for a couple of hours. For only one version, do the same with just one disk of dough (in that case you can add the nuts etc after the flour in the stand mixer).

Remove the dough from the fridge (one portion of dough at a time) and preheat your oven to 170 ºC fan (or 180º C regular).
Roll it out on a floured surface (0,5 cm thick) and start to cut out shapes of your choice. Put the cookies on a parchment paper and return them to the fridge, or even better, to the freezer, for about 10 minutes. Afterwards bake them, after putting the parchment papers on baking sheets, for 13-15 minutes. If you use two baking sheets at a time, rotate them once during baking time.

Let cool on a wire rack. Melt chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Dip the cookies into it or work with a pastry brush. To finish, sprinkle some nuts, petals or seeds over the chocolate-covered parts of the cookies.