On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me seven Basler Christmas Cookies, six Pumpkin and Pineapple Cookies, five Chestnut Rings, four Poppyseed cookies, three peppermint macaroons, two orange date cookies and a freshly baked ginger snap
Days 7 and 8 are cookies which are traditional in Switzerland and I have grown up with them but never made them before. They are ubiquitous at this time of year and taste like Christmas to me as much as the ones I grew up making. I therefore thought it only appropriate that they should make it into the 12 days of Christmas cookies. These were surprisingly easy to make and bake very quickly.
Ingredients:
2 c ground almonds
3/4 c sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
150 g dark chocolate
3-4 tsp kirsch
1) Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl then stir in the egg whites.
2) Melt the chocolate in a bain Marie and stir in the kirsch. heat it and mix until they form a smooth mass.
3) Stir the chocolate into the almond mixture, then roll out on a sugared surface to 1 cm thickness. cut into different shapes using a cookie cutter .
4) (Optional - as in called for by the original recipe but I didn't do it and the cookies didn't suffer - allow to dry out for 5 hours or over night).
5) Bake for 4 minutes at 240°C. Cool on a wire rack.
The initial assessment was that they were better hot and straight out of the oven than an hour later once they had cooled. Having one a day later though. I had to reconsider. They were even better a day old. The flavours had had a chance to meld as it were.
I smelled these first, then took a bite. The smell was so good that my first thought was that they smell better than they taste. But the secondary taste is mouth watering. I had not had these in years and may well have been my favorite cookies so far this Christmas. Thank you for sharing!