Holiday recap #1 - christmas baking results!

When I disappeared (hey, Stephan was home for 3 solid weeks and I was feeling lazy), I left off with getting ready to bake cookies on the weekend. Just to warn you, this post is a lot of pictures...and you might be hungry and craving cookies by the end.

I made 3 different kind of cookies.

1.) Rumballs
My mom's rumball recipe is not baked, and does not contain cake in it. It is pure chocolatey goodness, and since its not cooked off (and we double the rum) the alcohol is still in it. YUMMY. This recipe needs to be made the night before and refrigerated overnight until its solid. It will look like this when you take it out the next morning:


Next, you pick your toppings...I do the same as my mom: red sprinkles, green sprinkles, rainbow sprinkles, ground walnuts and sweetened shredded coconuts.


Then you take a spoon, scoop out a little of the chocolate mix and roll a small ball in your hands, and then roll it in the topping of your choice. Place on wax paper in a container and continue on until done! Oh, and make sure you eat a few as you go. That's a must. Product control, right? They look like this when they are done:


2.) Nussgipfel
These are little croissant cookies dipped in icing sugar and vanilla sugar, and filled with a sweet walnut filling. They change from region to region in Germany, you can also use hazelnuts for filling. My family has always used walnuts. And we make them smaller than they usually are. I didn't take pictures of rolling out the dough and placing the filling in the center of the squares (I should have, I'm sorry!), so I'll have to start with how they look after you roll them. Mind you, I'm not the greatest at rolling them into pretty little crescents like my mom can, how she does this I have no idea!


You bake them, and then when they are still warm you dip them in the icing/vanilla sugar. They are incredibly delicious, so much so that I had to hide them from Stephan or I would have none left for anyone else.


3.) Pfefferneusse cookies
These are a spicier cookie, and again the recipies vary throughout Germany. Everyone has their own slightly different recipes. My family's is made with nutmeg and Cinnamon, cardamon, annise seeds, pepper and candied orange and citrus peels. They are coated with an icing sugar glaze, and a few rainbow sprinkles on top. I love these cookies, Stephan is not so much a fan. These are a cookie that you either like or don't like. They are not sweet, and they are a very old-fashioned German cookie. No offense is taken if you don't like them, as I know they are quite different than what people are used to.

These cookies take quite a lot more work. You need to make the batter ahead of time and let it sit in the fridge for an hour (by the way, the ingredients are obscure. Have fun trying to find them! haha!). Then you have to roll them into these little balls, and let them sit at room temperature overnight (or in the fridge for 6-8 hours or so) so that they set. This is what they will look like:


Then you bake them, and let cool. Put on the icing sugar glaze and decorate with the sprinkles. It is also best if you let these sit a few days before serving them, so they set more. Lots of setting with these cookies!


The end result of my kitchen after 3 different cookies: