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3 varieties of the coolest Vanillekipferl*
Everyone in Austria and Germany is familiar with these biscuits, and they are loved by all. They evoke childhood memories and are a joy to offer as gifts during the Christmas season: homemade Vanillekipferl! If you want to surprise your loved ones or colleagues in the office with unique biscuits this year, just try out something new. See the 3 coolest Vanillekipferl recipes here.
At the beginning of December, I read the book "The Art of Making Memories" by Meik Wiking. In a nutshell: this book is about recalling fond memories from the past and transforming them into the present. What does this have to do with Vanillekipferl? Well, what springs to mind when you think of Christmas as a child? In my mind, I instantly have an image of my grandmother moving a stool to the kitchen table for me when I was 7 years old so that I could help her bake. I remember the music playing, the dress my grandma was wearing on that day and the smell of the old food processor before the smell of the biscuits in the oven wafted through the air. And although I haven't baked biscuits for years, I suddenly had the urge to make them. For the right technique, I brought the vanilla biscuit expert Dani on board. And because we were in the flow, we also tried out two untypical versions of the classic: A vegan option and one with a chocolate coating.
Classic Vanillekipferl
For 70 biscuits you will need:
- 250 g flour
- 80g icing sugar
- 200 g butter
- 100 g ground almonds
- 1 packet of vanilla sugar
For visual effect:
- ½ a pack of vanilla sugar
- 3 tablespoons of icing sugar
The recipe is quite simple. All the ingredients are mixed in a bowl. Then cover the dough and refrigerate for an hour before moulding into crescent shapes. After 12-15 minutes in the oven at 175°C, the classic Vanillekipferl are ready, and your home begins to smell just like it did back in the past. If you like them even sweeter, you can sprinkle them with a mixture of vanilla sugar and icing sugar.
Vegan Vanillekipferl
Similar, but different. For the vegan version, we simply replace the butter with plant-based margarine. The icing sugar is changed to cane sugar. Instead of almonds, we use hazelnuts - just so that you can recognise the difference in taste.
Ingredients:
- 250 g flour
- 100 g cane sugar
- 200 g margarine
- 80 g ground hazelnuts
- 1 pack vanilla sugar
Once again, leave the dough in the fridge for an hour. Then form the biscuits into crescent shapes and baking them in the oven at 175°C for 10 minutes.
The experiment: Vanillekipferl wrapped in a coating of chocolate
Chocolate is always a winner! So why not coat the Vanillekipferl in chocolate?
Melt a bar of dark chocolate (100g) in a saucepan and then let it cool a little so that after dipping the classic vanilla biscuits, the chocolate does not run.
Conclusion: tried, tested, and they were tasty!
Merry Christmas!
