German Christmas Cookies (Weihnachtsplätzchen)
Fun and simple, and essential to every Christmas baking schedule
By Jen Curcio
German Christmas Cookies are a wonderful addition to your baking plans over the festive season. They are like a cookie canvas with countless variations. You can glaze them, sandwich them together with a little bit of melted jam, dust them with powdered sugar, dip them in chocolate – it’s really a choose your own adventure.
The recipe to make German Christmas Cookies is incredibly simple and makes a reasonably sized batch (about 35 biscuits) that’s perfect for homemade Christmas gifting or to offer visitors during the festive period.
These cookies are a fantastic choice all year round, especially when using cookie cutters. You can cut the dough into any cookie shape you like, and it’s a fun little project with kids, or even friends if you want to turn it into a bit of a crafternoon for Easter, birthdays or any occasion.
Enjoy making German Christmas Cookies (Weihnachtsplätzchen).
German Christmas Cookies (Weihnachtsplätzchen)
Makes roughly 35 cookies (depending on the size of your cookie cutters)
100g butter, softened to room temperature
100g powdered sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tbsp finely grated lemon peel
250g plain flour, plus extra for kneading
Topping ideas (optional)
Powdered sugar
Lemon flavoured icing/glaze with sugar pearls and lemon peel
Coated/dipped even drizzled in melted chocolate
Sandwiching two of the same shaped cookies with some melted jam and dusting with powdered sugar
Specialty Equipment
Christmas cookie cutters of your preference
Method
In a large bowl, combine the butter, sugar and egg, and mix together with an electric hand blender/mixer.
Add the baking powder, lemon peel and flour to the butter, sugar and egg mixture, combining well
After all the ingredients have been mixed thoroughly together to form a dough, roll the dough into a ball.
Place the dough in a clean bowl and refrigerate it (covered with a plate or cling film, even a tea towel) for 15 minutes
At this point, preheat your oven to 180°
Prepare an oven tray by lining it with baking paper and set aside
After 15 minutes have passed, remove the dough from the fridge and on a lightly floured counter space, roll out the dough to a height of about half a centimeter
Once the dough has been rolled out smoothly and evenly, you can start pressing and cutting out your festive themed shapes using your cookie cutters. Delicately place the cut out shapes onto the lined oven tray leaving a few centimeters between each cookie to allow them to expand slightly
Combine the leftover cut out pieces of dough, reshape and roll out and repeat, pressing and cutting out your cookie cutter shapes until you’ve used all the dough
Place the tray in the oven (bake in batches or use a second tray if your cookies fill more than one tray), and bake for about 15 minutes until the German Christmas Cookies become golden
Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool down
Once the cookies have completely cooled down you can start topping them to your liking with melted cooking chocolate, glaze/icing or simply a dusting of icing sugar. In the images taken here I’ve glazed my German Christmas cookies with a lemon icing, some silver sugar pearls and some lemon peel.
Stored in an air-tight container (unglazed), the German Christmas cookies will keep for at least three weeks.
