When you live and you cook…

It is not too late! Christmas is not the only time in the year when you should take some time and bake some cookies with your friends and/ or family. So, here are some recipes for the minimalist cookies you can do all year long, in different shapes and sizes, including one typical german vanilla cookie =)

Obs: Of course, I’ve made them for christmas time, so I chose the right shapes for it, but other than that they are just normal cookies.

Sugar Cookies

These are delicious and can be done in various flavours as vanilla, lemon, almond and so on.

Ingredients	Tools
225 gr Butter 1 cup sugar 2 large eggs 3 ⅓ cup flour ½ tsp. salt 2 tsp flavouring (vanilla, lemon, almond extract)	Hand or stand mixer 1 large bowl Plastic wrap Baking sheet Parchment paper Cookie cutters

• Beat the butter and sugar with the mixer until light and fluffy;
• Add the eggs, one at a time and then the flavouring until it becomes a smooth paste;
• Start adding the flour and salt and beat it slowly until a soft dough forms;
• Use your hands to assemble all the dough and place it on a piece of plastic wrap;
• Let it rest for a couple of hours so the butter will regain consistency.
• When ready to use roll the dough out onto a floured surface until about 1 centimeter thickness and cut out the shapes you wish;
• Transfer them to a baking sheet and let it cool on the fridge for another 30 to 40 min;
• Preheat the oven to 180 °C;
• Bake the cookies for about 15 min or until lightly brown. Pay attention that the cookies won’t be completely hard when it comes out of the oven, but will get there once you’ve let it cool for around 20 min.
• You can then start the icing.

Gingerbread cookies

I know this sounds a bit more Christmassy, but believe me, as a gingerbread lover I sure would be happy to eat this all year round!

With this recipe you will be able to do normal cookies or built a giant truck, or box or whatever you want to decorate.

Ingredients	Tools
4 cups flour 1½ tsp. ground cinnamon 1½ tsp. ground nutmeg 1 tsp. ground allspice ½ tsp. ground cloves ¼ tsp. baking soda ¼ tsp. salt 340 gr. unsalted butter 1½ c. packed light brown sugar ½ cup molasses or Honey 1 large Egg	Hand or stand mixer 2 large bowls Plastic wrap Baking sheet Parchment paper Cookie cutters/ Knife

• Whisk all dry ingredients (except sugar) in a large bowl;
• Beat butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy and slowly mix in the molasses and egg;
• Gradually mix in the flour mix until evenly combined;
• Use your hands to knead the dough a bit and place it over a piece of plastic wraping paper;
• Let the dough cool down for around 1 hour in the fridge until it is firm;
• Open the dough on a floured surface and cut the shapes out;
• Place them on a baking sheet and bake the cookies for around 10 to 15 min on a preheated oven at 180 °C;
• Let the cookies cool down for 20 to 30 minutes and start the icing.

Icing

Ingredients	Tools
Icing sugar Water or Lemon juice Food colouring	Small bowls (one for each color) Spoon

This is simple!

• Mix the icing sugar with some water or lemon juice if you want to give it a nice taste and mix it until you reach a paste consistency.
• Divide your icing into many bowls as you would like colors and mix the food coloring into each of them.

Vanillekipferl

This is another good example of a traditional holiday cookie I could eat every month of the year. The cookie itself originated in Austria and it is mostly common to be eaten around christmas in Germany.

They are really simple, but can be messed up if the butter is not cold!

Ingredients	Tools
250 gr Flour 1 tsp Baking powder 125 gr Sugar Beans of 1 Vanilla 2  Egg yolk 200 gr Cold Butter 125 gr Grounded Almonds 50 gr Icing sugar 4 packs Vanilla sugar	Hand or stand mixer 2 large bowls Plastic wrap Baking sheet Parchment paper

• Mix the butter, sugar, vanilla bean, egg yolk and grounded almonds with a mixer until evenly combined;
• In a second bowl mix together the flour and baking powder;
• Slowly mix the flour mixture into the mixer until it forms a firm dough;
• Use your hands to give it the finishing touches and place the dough into a piece of plastic wrap;
• Let the dough rest in the fridge for 30 minutes;
• When ready to use shape the dough into horn shapes (as big or small as you want) and bake it for around 10 minutes on a preheated oven at 180°C;
• Take the cookies out of the oven and immediately cover them a a mixture from icing sugar and vanilla sugar.
• Let the cookies cool down.

In my humble opinion, the cookies taste the best while still a bit warm. What’s your take on it?