Pauley Christmas cookies

I've had this post sitting in the queue for a few weeks and I'd better finish it before it's time for a Valentine's Day post or something.  For the last several years, maybe since we got married (?), I've baked a few different Christmas cookies from recipes that belonged to Glenn's grandma.  I've probably posted about this before and (frankly I'm a little too lazy to go look it up right now) so if that's the case, consider this my annual post about German Christmas cookies.  

 

First up, we have the spritz.  Up until this year, I haven't been able to get my cookie press to work so I've rolled out this cookies and  cut them into shapes.  But this year, I pulled out the cookie press, brought in some muscle (Glenn) and voila!  Spritz the way they are supposed to look, although Glenn tells me that his grandma used to decorate the spritz with a candied cherry in the middle.  Things to remember for next year. 

Spritz artfully arranged on a cookie sheet.  Or spritz pulled out of the oven and the cook thinks, "Oh hey, I should take a picture of this."

Next up, we have the hazelnut macaroons.  In previous years, I had to search high and low to find hazelnut flour. I even had to order it on the internet once or twice.  Now I can find it at health food stores and sometimes even here in town.  These cookies are simple, egg whites, hazelnut flour and powdered sugar.  They are supposed to be decorated with a hazelnut on the top but I don't even know what a whole hazelnut looks like, much less where to find one.  These are delicious and they don't often last the entire holiday season because we gobble them up so fast.   

Food blog, this ain't.  Hi, crinkled parchment paper and randomly arranged cookies. 

I also make lepkugen and I finally know of someone else around my age who also makes lepkugen.  We need to get our recipes together some year to prepare.  A cross between gingerbread and fruitcake, it's full of spice and candied fruit with a light glaze. 

I wasn't paying enough attention to the oven and this year's batch is a little darker than it should be.  Not burned, just a little browned. 

I also made a batch of buttery S's, which are exactly what they sound like.  A butter cookie shaped into a little "s."  It's time consuming to shape each one and decorate the top with chopped nuts but they are also delicious.  Pictures of those next year, maybe? 

I also like to make cornflake wreaths that are a little globs of marshmallows, green food coloring, cornflakes and red hots. Guaranteed to turn your mouth green and crack a filling on a red hot but delicious nonetheless.  They also barely last 24 hours, not because they get stale but because they get grabbed by hands of all ages they minute they are cool enough to eat. 

So there we have it, another year of holiday baking in the books. The diet starts tomorrow.