Christmas Cookies (which even I can bake)

in #baking7 years ago (edited)

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Due to the fact that I'm invited to not one but two Christmas parties, I decided to bake some Christmas cookies. As @erodedthoughts never fails to remind me, I suck at baking. I'm a great cook but baking ... ugh. Luckily, generations of lazy people had the same problem so there are plenty of recipes for easy cookies. In my case, I chose to bake "Engelsaugen" (translates to "Angel's eyes", if that isn't christmas-y I don't know what is).

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The original recipe calls for 300g flour, 200g margarine (I'm sure you can use butter too, but I have a friend with a milk protein allergy and don't want to kill her), 100g sugar, 2 packages of vanilla sugar (each about 7g), one egg, a pinch of salt and raspberry jam. I decided to make two batches.

Put the margarine, sugar, vanilla sugar and salt in a big (big) bowl and mix.

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Add the flour and eggs

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Not pictured: Me, questioning what life choices brought me to the point where I am preparing 1.3 kg cookie dough

Mix into a nice dough:

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Then take small amounts of dough, roll them into earth-shaped spheres and place them onto a sheet of baking paper. Frighten your kids by telling them they can't have any dough because they will literally die of salmonella, wait till they're back in their rooms, crying, then eat some dough yourself.

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Find a kitchen utensil with a flat, round part that is a bit smaller than your proto-cookies and make dents into them. Please don't punch holes through the dough!

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At this stage, they always remind me of red blood cells. Did you know that red blood cells look the way they do because they lose their nucleus during their development? Yes? Alright, let's move on.

If you're anything like me, you don't own most baking utensils. Especially not a pastry bag. But who needs that, anyway? Just take a small freezer bag, put a good amount of the raspberry jam in it, cut off the tip and then fill up those cookies!

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Then put them in the preheated oven at about 180°C (air circulation). For how long? I don't know, 10 minutes I guess. I just keep an eye on them and take them out when they start turning slightly brown. They shouldn't become too dark!

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Repeat those steps until you either hate yourself or the dough is empty.

The result will be a nearly sufficient amount of delicious Christmas cookies that taste so great while they're still warm ...

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Wow, looks really good

why do you have an electronic weight machine in your kitchen?? or are you making cookies in your lab??

It's a regular kitchen scale? Costs like 15€? My mom bought it for me when I moved out from home.

wow, it's a normal thing, in my country we are like "yey much seems good, and Bam! perfect dough. every single time." it's like an art thingy.

Have you ever made cookies? Or does this refer to bread.

I've never made cookies but my mom has, and I'm pretty sure she doesn't have the scale unless it's a secret. :P , and yes I am referring to the bread, Indian kind.
see the round bread thingy below, those are called Roti's.

I have an analog one. When the recipe says "half a kilogram of X", I am not about to start guessing.

Most people who cook have one.

we guess all the time, I mean what could go wrong. :P

The mad scientist approach. :)

That raspberry jam idea is awesome.

Wow! I just completed a baking tutorial though I know I wouldn't try it. It might taste nice, I don't know but I wouldn't like to try it. It looks so much like the bionic eye to me in the last picture...

Well-done anyway...

Now you know why they're called angel's eyes

Hmmm... If I remember my religious lessons/childhood campfire stories right it isn't the Angels that have glowing red eyes! I wouldn't want to confuse anyone young and impressionable as they might start to wonder about other Christmas traditions!

Is Santa Claus really Saint Nicholas? Inquiring minds and all...

Well, the angels always start out with "don't be afraid....". Red glowing eyes might be an explanation why :P

You made me laugh!

So many eyes! The last picture makes me think of a cluster of frog eggs with larval tadpoles writing around the middle!

Baking's not so different from chemistry, right? It's no surprise you'd be good at both!

... Delicious? :P

They look like the Christmas versions of the Jewish Hamentashen just smaller and circular.

Yeah, they kinda do! The look reminded me of Sufganiot more, with the red jam in the center. Also, seasonally appropriate. :)

Have you had any this year. I haven't yet.

Nope. Fried dough and sugar! I am fat enough naturally, I assure you. At most, I have one with the family when lighting candles with the little nephews.

Cool :D guess small sweet cookies are a hit in every culture and religion

That was pretty damn smart using the freezer bag. I will be adding that to my life hacks list!

The freezer bag is great, can be used for semi-liquid chocolate and other stuff too! Or even soft cookie dough.

LOL, last time I tried to compensate and make a bag I used parchment paper and made a glorious mess that I proceeded to blame on my son who was two at the time. He just kept repeating "dad" every time my wife looked at him.

You made so many of them! At least arrange them into the Steemit logo ;-P

Did I ever mention I'm incredibly lazy? :D

Amazingly you're never to lazy to remind us how lazy you are. Fact!

Not pictured: Me, questioning what life choices brought me to the point where I am preparing 1.3 kg cookie dough

LOL. You're awesome and should have a cookie raffle and ship some here, perhaps. :)

But then I would need to make another batch D:

Indeed you will! Especially since these are Ilana-friendly. I am like your friend - milk protein makes me itch, wheeze and upsets my stomach.

Allergies like that really suck.

They totally do. I am also allergic to olives and their flowers which is pretty awful as the olive tree is our national symbol and it planted literally EVERYWHERE in Israel. At least I can eat olive oil.

mmhhhh I miss German Xmas cookies! My mouth is watering and I can "picture" the smell. I might just get off my lazy a$$ and make some too...

I also suck at baking and I don't know why. There was a British reality TV show I used to watch about baking and it seemed a lot easier. Is a curse or maybe just my cheap tools.

Probably a curse, tools aren't that important :P

Wow! I should definetely try this receipe!
It’s so easy and the result looks so... tasty!

It's really tasty!

Oh damn it I´m really looking forward to eating christmas cookies again :) Heading back to Germany in a week and then it´s cookies time for me. I just hope I won´t gain too much weight once again during the christmas time 😂

Christmas cookie weight is good weight. Just let it happen. :D

Agreed. Thing is I just can´t stop anymore, especially whenever I get the ones of my grandma :D

Time to surprise my mom. The only thing I can make is pasta...But now I can make or at least try to make cookies.

Those are comparably easy. Just make sure the oven is properly pre-heated or you'll get cookie sauce!

Good read. But this is still fiction for me. Raw carrots will have to do for today.
Possible twist in the story: Unexpected guests show up at your place and eat all of your cookies. You have to bake a new batch for your Christmas parties.

Did you just invite yourself

Looks like :)

Hey you might think that you aren't the best at baking but I had a friend that made nearly 200 cookies and didn't put any sweetener of any kind into them. Then ate them and wondered why nobody else liked the cookies...

I find gingersnaps really easy to make and as long as you don't over cook them they are delicious (and it is quite difficult to overcook them I find)

Oh no xD I always triple check if I forgot something.

Well your cookies look delicious!

good post

very beautiful recipe! Thank you very much for sharing your wonderful photos. looks delicious :)
:))

*do you want the my blog :)

The saliva is falling from my mouth...!!!
how tasty is it...!!!

Look delicious

It looks very delicious miam miam

wow, very Very gourmet food. Your food item is very nice, want to eat, it looks beautiful.

looks delicious, raspberry jam homemade?

Store bought, I don't have the motivation to do my own

it looks so good i feel like i can eat all of that in a minute.

Those look so yummy!!

Now I want to get the chocolate chip cookies out. Your cookies look pretty good too.

Good post, I am a photographer, it passes for my blog and sees my content, I hope that it should be of your taste, you have my vote :D greetings

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