german coconut macraroons (glutenfree) recipe

This is a quick, easy dessert and also very tasty. You only need 3 egg whites, 200 g grated coconut (unsweetened) and 150 g sugar. You can dress it up with white chocolate or some lemon peel from an organic lemon.

First you beat the egg whites until it is a stiff mass, add the sugar and the coconut. Mix well.
Spoon it on a baking sheets, making little balls. Bake them for ca 10 minutes at 300 Fahrenheit.

Guten Appetit!!

German Christmas Cookies "Vanille Sternchen" Recipe

Can you believe it is Christmas next week??

I just started to bake this week-end and have a lot more I want to do and share like Zimtsterne, Marzipankartoffeln and Vanillekipferle. I am getting excited just writing about it!

Anyhow, I was at least able to make a batch of Vanille Sterne.  Well, it is a very easy recipe. That always helps :)

I pinned this recipe 12 years ago from Brigitte and the original is excellent, no questions asked. However I swapped the flour to whole wheat and changed the sugar to honey, making this treat a little healthier. It works, but it is done faster (mean the baking oven part) and it is also more fragile, meaning the cookies tend to break more easy. Generally I also use Omega 3 eggs and butter from grass fed cows to make it healthier all around (Kerrygold is one of the more affordable options).

Ingredients :

200 g cold butter
400 g flour (whole wheat if you like)
150 g sugar
1 pinch salt
1 egg (omega 3)

• cut the butter in small pieces and mix with the other ingredients until you have a smooth dough.
• wrap the dough tight in a plastic foil and cool it for at least an hour in the refrigerator.

Ingredients for the topping:

50 g butter

2 tsp vanilla

80 g confection sugar

100 g raspberry confituere

• preheat the oven to 200 Grad or 392 Fahrenheit.
• melt the butter, add the vanilla.
• cut out cookies, about 3 mm thick. I do this directly on parchment paper, but first I dust the work area with flour to prevent sticking.
• bake the cookies about 10 minutes (the whole wheat version is about 6-8 minutes)
• put the butter vanilla mixture on the cookies when they are still warm from the oven.
• heat the raspberry jam and and stir it until it is smooth, than top half of the stars with it.
• Than add the other stars on top, using a different angle finishing with dusting the confection sugar.

You are all done!!! These cookies need a couple of days to develop the full vanilla aroma. Question is can you wait?

Froehliche Weihnachten!!

Note: 

This cookie dough works great with kids. They can cut out their favorite shapes. Just omit the extra topping since that can get very messy, at least in our household.