Winter holidays is my favorite time of the year (after birthday)! It seems like people smiling more often, and enjoying cold weather and upcoming festival! We putting up the Christmas tree and decorating it with beautiful toys, buying and wrapping gifts. It’s the right time to plan the holiday menu, whether to roast chicken or prepare the fish pie, make cherry strudel or chocolate cake..
The December would be incomplete without baking! Nothing says it’s holidays quite like Xmas cookies! There is something special about a tray filled with delicious vanilla or cinnamon-flavored cookies.
Baking cookies is such a fun and wonderful event! You can even organize a cookie party, call your kids or friends to help you, to share a holiday mood, and of course to enjoy eating all those treats you’ve made.
I bet you’ve seen crescent-shaped cookies somewhere or may be tried it. These biscuits are very popular in Europe, and especially in Germany, where they’re traditionally baked for Christmas, even though they originate from Vienna, Austria.
Vanillekipferl - German Christmas Biscuits
- *First, prepare your own vanilla icing sugar. Split vanilla pod lengthwise into two halves, and put it in a jar with icing sugar, close tightly. After 1-2 days you will get amazing naturally-flavoured vanilla icing sugar!
- For the dough quickly mix butter with sugar, salt and vanilla. Mix in egg yolk. Sift flour and add it to the dough along with almonds. Qucikly knead the smooth dough. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
- Divide the dough and form rolls 1.5-2.5cm in diameter. Cut each roll into 5-6cm length slices, and form the crescent shape biscuits.
- Put biscuits on a baking tray lined with parchment. Bake in preheated 200C oven for 10-15 minutes.
- Put vanilla icing sugar in a plate, and roll still warm biscuits in it.
- Let the biscuits cool on a rack.
Enjoy!
milkandbun 
Love simple cookies like this! ;->
Virtual hugs,
Judie
They were superb, and melted in the mouth! 🙂 Thank you for the commenting, Judie!
very cool! I will have my daughter (the one taking German) make these this holiday season 🙂
Both you and your daughter will love it, they are irresistible! 🙂
Oooo! One of my other blogger friends (Shooting Vienna) from Austria posted photos of these the other day and I was wanting to find a recipe…what luck! I must try these before Christmas! 🙂
Thanks! You may decrease the quantity of the ingredients (but keep one egg yolk) by half and make less for the first time. But they won’t stay long! 😀
I’ve had these cookies before they are so festive and delicious. Thanks for posting the recipe.
Absolutely agree with you, Susanne, they are yummy, and seems like they were created specially for the winter holidays! 🙂
One of my dearest friends growing up was German, and i loved Christmas time at her house, especially the cookies. Thanks for the memories, and the cookies recipe!
Thank you! If you have any other Xmas cookies’ recipes please share a link with me! I will be glad to try out something new! 🙂
My husband, who is German, will get a kick out of these! I’ll let you know how it goes. 🙂
Thanks a lot! Hope both of you will like it! If you want to make not many cookies, you may divide ingredients by half, but keep one egg yolk.
These cookies look divine, Mila 🙂
They are absolutely delicious, very tender and aromatic! Try it, Linda! 🙂
I love Vanillekipferl – Christmas is not Christmas without them!!
Thank you!!! I bet you have a vanillekipferl recipe, Ginger, does it differ from this one? 😉
I had to go and check – I have a copy of my grandmother’s recipe, in her old-fashioned German handwriting. It’s quite similar but has more egg yolks and even a pinch of baking powder! I’ll be making them in time for Christmas, but they vanish far too quickly 😉
Oh these do look perfect for Christmas 🙂
They are! ❤
One of my favorites! I made them with my boys last year for a special school treat. These look wonderful and make me crave Christmas cookies.
I’m craving for Xmas cookies, too! December has just started, so we still have time to bake! 😀
These are some of my favorites. I also used to eat these almond cookies that had cinnamon on them and shaped like crescent moons. I got them at the Russian bakery. I wonder if these were them, but with cinnamon added. Gorgeous photos.
What a surprise that you bought it from Russian bakery! Because I don’t remember such cookies with cardamom in Russia 😀 Anyway, thanks for the warm comment, Amanda! 🙂
These are my favorites in all world!!!! I love them!!!! Though, I never tried to bake them… maybe I will finally do it this year 😀 yours look amazing!
Of course you should try it! They are super-easy-quick to make and bake! 😉
I am certainly planning to bake them… I hope they turn out as good as yours!! 😀
They look just like my mum´s – one of my absolute favorite christmas cookies! Great!
Thanks a lot, Sabine! You should make them yourself, they are so tender, aromatic and even fragile! 🙂
I love your blog! Your posts are all so beautiful and everything looks delicious!! ❤
Hi Arielle! Thanks a lot for stopped by! I’m really glad to hear warm and friendly words! 🙂
Hope to see you again!
Have a lovely weekend!
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Just dropping by to say these are stunning! Keep up at the hard work. 🙂