Austrian inspired Linzer Cookie Recipe

December 21, 2023 by tina oblak in All year round recipe, Austrian inspired dishes, baking, biscuits, Central European recipes, Christmas bakes, cookies, dessert, Eastern European recipes, easy baking, Easy recipe, festive bakes, festive sweet things, simple recipe, sweet nibbles, Sweet Things

This incredibly delicious and very pretty in appearance biscuits are made with flour, butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Almond flour is very often used to give these irresistible cookies a delicate and light texture. They are jammed together with different types of preserves.

Quick and easy to make, this little works of art can be a perfect holiday gift for your foodie friends and family.

Linzer style cookies are very popular type of biscuits and are traditionally prepared around Christmas holidays in all regions of Slovenia but can be eaten any time of the year.

You can buy them in food stores or bakeries, and they are enjoyed all year round. They are often seen sandwiched together by chocolate spread.

These biscuits are Austrian in origin, and are linked to Linzer Cake, a recipe takes us back to 1653, and so it is often called the oldest recipe in the world. There are speculations, guesses and different legends and stories as to where the Linzer cookies come from. It is believed that Linzer biscuits originated in the Austrian city of Linzer by a pastry chef, who mixed the ingredients for the cake but rather than making a cake cut out the cookies instead.

This recipe, like many others, has variations and adaptations, one of which does not include almond flour as an ingredient.

I am sharing here the family top favourite recipe for the festive baking.

Recipe

Ingredients

125g soft butter (at room temperature)
1 egg, small or medium (at room temperature)
75g caster sugar
1 ½ Tbsp vanilla sugar or ¼ Tsp vanilla extract
finely grated lemon zest of ½ lemon
250g plain white (all purpose) flour, plus more for rolling out
2 Tsp baking powder
a pinch of fine sea salt
icing sugar or vanilla icing sugar, to dust the biscuits
a pinch of ground cinnamon, optional
a pinch of ground nutmeg, optional
smooth apricot jam (can use strawberry, raspberry or red currant jam, or any jam of your preference)

Method

Place softened butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat until pale and fluffy.

Add the egg, finely grated lemon zest, vanilla sugar (or vanilla extract), and mix until all the egg is fully incorporated (if you happen to get a bit of “curdled appearance” at this stage do not worry).

Add sifted flour together with the baking powder and mix with the wooden spoon first until all the ingredients are incorporated and the dough comes together in large clumps.

Transfer to a lightly floured surface (or keep the mixture in the bowl) and with your hands gently knead the dough until it becomes soft and smooth (if the dough is too wet to handle add a bit of flour at the time until you get the dough that does not stick to your hands or to the working surface; the wetness of the dough will depend on the size of the egg you are using).

Shape the dough into a disc and wrap it tightly in cling film.

Put the dough in the fridge and let it rest and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Lay a baking tray with baking parchment.

Take the disc of the dough out of the fridge and place it onto a lightly floured working surface.

Lightly flour the rolling pin and gently roll out the dough to the thickness of about 4mm.

Stamp out rounds (circles) using a smooth or crinkle-edged cookie cutter and place on a baking tray.

(I decided to make quite big biscuits and used 9cm, 3 ½ - inch, fluted round cookie cutter).

If the dough sticks to the cookie cutters, deep them into the flour first.

Lift away the excess dough, form a ball and roll it out again.

Cut out as many more biscuits as you can.

Use a small round or select your favourite mini festive cookie cutters (heart, star, Christmas tree, flower for example) to stamp a circle, or other shapes, from the centre of the biscuits.

Remember you need to end up with an even number.

Place on a baking tray and bake in a preheated oven at 180°C static or equivalent for about 10 minutes or until light golden in colour (the baking time will depend on the size of the cookies).

When baked, leave to cool just for a few minutes on the tray, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

When the biscuits are completely cold, they are ready to be sandwiched together.

Turn the whole biscuits upside down.

Spoon on top a bit of jam and spread it over the biscuits.

Dust with icing sugar or vanilla icing sugar the top part of the cookies you cut the shape out of.

Sandwich the biscuits together, use the other half of the biscuits with icing sugar and gently place them on top of the other bottom half of the biscuits.

When freshly baked this Linzer style biscuits are nice and crunchy but will become softer the following day and just melt in your mouth.

Just a thought

You can keep the biscuits in the airtight container for about six days.

Sweet Dough Yeasted Rings (Busolai) Recipe

Beans and Sardines

May 31, 2023 by tina oblak in All year round recipe, baked dish, baking, biscuits, breakfast, brunch, celebratory desserts, Celebratory dish, cookies, dessert, Easter, Easter recipes, easy baking, Easy recipe, Enriched dough, festive bakes, festive dessert, festive sweet things, home baking, Istrian cuisine, Istrian food, Istrian gastronomy, recipe from Northern Ital, simple recipe, Slovenian cuisine, Slovenian Easter Sweet Br, Slovenian food, Slovenian gastronomy, Snacks, Sweet bread, sweet course, sweet nibbles, Sweet Things

Busolai (also spelled Bussolai or Buzolai) are sweet treats that originate in the region of Veneto in north-east Italy. They are characteristic of Venice, and in particular on the fishermen island of Burano, hence these baked delights are also called Buranei (Burano buiscuits).

They are known as biscuits as they have the consistency of a biscuit, the dough does not contain the yeast, and it can be shaped into a ring or like the letter “S” (not a coincidence, since the S-shaped form of the biscuits makes it easier to dunk into milk or sweet wines).

They used to be only prepared and enjoyed during Easter festivities but nowadays almost every bakery on the island of Burano and in Venice sells them all year round.

Apparently, the letter from the Government of Venice, which still exists, has been found in the national archives of Italy, warning the nuns of the convent of St. Matthew on an island in the Venetian Lagoon that they should cut the number of Bussolai enjoyed during Easter festivities or otherwise they would encounter financial troubles.

The recipe for these biscuits, however, travelled further east, through the region of Friuli, and reached the city of Trieste (in Italy), and the land of Slovenian Istria across the “border”, where the recipe took a slightly different turn

The yeast was added to the dough making these baked goodies resemble more like soft doughnuts than the cookies, in fact, in the area they are described by the locals as sweet bread rings (obročki iz sladkega kruha).

As soon as they were freshly baked, it was a custom of some locals to spoon a bit of rum or grappa over them and sprinkle them with extra sugar.

Being like biscuits or doughnuts, they have one unmistakable characteristic in common, they have a hole in the centre, called “busa” in Venetian dialect”, hence their name, Busolai.

To make things more confusing in terms of naming this sweet treat, busolai are sometimes known as “kolach”, name originated from Old Slavonic word kolo meaning “wheel” or “circle”.

Once again, they were baked during festivities, especially during Easter since a great percentage of eggs are used in the recipe (egg representing the symbol of rebirth and resurrection).

These sweet baked rings were traditionally very popular during Confirmation (a rite in the Christian Church, at which baptized persons affirm their Christian belief, and are admitted as a full member of the Church).

Busolai were made into a garland with the use of a simple string and the godfather would gift these to his god child. This is described by a very well know and famous proverb in local dialect “Chi ga santoli ga buzzolai” (only the one who has a godfather will get busolai).

This tradition would be furthermore highlighted by another proverb in the local dialect “Bezi, basi e bussolai no i xe boni se no I xe assai,” which translates in standard Italian as (Soldi, baci e bussolai non sono buoni se non sono assai), and in English means that money, kisses and bussolai are no good if not given in abundance.

My husband’s uncle (known as zio Livio) with a garland of bussolai received on his Confirmation day by his godfather

This custom used to be very popular in Slovenian Istra, and almost each village would have a slightly different recipe for it. I am sharing with you my nona's recipe from the village of Marezige, a few kilometres from a coastal town of Koper where there used to be only one baker in town, at the time when my nona was a little girl, selling busolai, run by a family of Venetian origin.

Very sadly, there are no bakers selling busolai anymore, moreover, the custom of godfathers gifting the children with busolai has completely died out, and younger generations have never seen or heard of busolai.

Only a bunch of elderly people still alive today will tell you, with nostalgic voices and tearful eyes, with touching and emotional stories about their Confirmation Day, and they very much anticipated sugar coated busola, the only gift they received, if they were lucky enough.

Recipe

Ingredients

500g regular plain flour
1 cube of fresh (brewer's) yeast 42g or 14g of dry yeast
100g unsalted butter, melted
150g sugar
2 medium eggs, lightly beaten
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
100ml tepid lukewarm milk (semi skimmed or full fat)
2 Tbsp dark rum or grappa (alcoholic, fragrant grape-based pomace brandy of Italian origin)
finely grated lemon zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
pinch of sea salt
1 small egg, lightly beaten, for glazing (can use lightly beaten egg whites, the busolai will result lighter in colour after baking)

Method

In a small bowl place dry or fresh yeast (if using fresh yeast slightly brake it down into smaller pieces with your fingers).

Add 100ml of lukewarm milk and ¼ tsp of caster sugar.

Gently stir and leave for about 20 minutes or until gentle bubbles form on the surface.

In a separate mixing bowl put the eggs, egg yolks and beat them gently.

Add melted butter, sugar, rum or grappa, grated lemon zest and a pinch of sea salt, and with the fork mix well all the ingredients.

In a large mixing bowl put the flour, add egg mixture and the yeast mixture.

Combine well all the ingredients with the wooden spoon or spatula to start with. When all the ingredients are well combined transfer the mixture onto a clean, floured surface.

Work with your hands and knead the dough for about 10-15 minutes, stretching it and folding it, adding a little flour at the time if the dough is too sticky.

Knead the dough until it becomes smooth, soft, shiny and elastic (the dough should not stick to the surface or your hands).

Shape the dough in a ball, place it back into a previously oiled mixing bowl.

Cover tightly with cling film, leave to rest and prove in a draft free space at a room temperature for 3 hours.

After this time your dough should be at least double in size.

Line 2 large flat baking trays with baking parchment.

Take the dough out of the mixing bowl, place it on a working surface, knock the air out of the dough and shape it into a log.

Divide the dough into more or less equal parts (10-12 parts each weighting roughly 100g).

Shape each piece of the dough into a sausage and form a ring, pinching the ends together (make sure you are generous with the size of the ring, during the baking the busalai rise and stretch quite a bit, if the whole is too small, after the baking you will end up with busolai that have almost a non-existing hole, not that this is really a problem).

Place your ring-shaped sweet dough onto a tray.

Cover with clean tea towel and leave to prove for the second time for about 30 minutes.

Gently brush the sweet dough rings with lightly beaten egg or egg whites and sprinkle the top of the rings with sugar.

Preheat the oven to 180°C and bake for 20 to25 minutes or until well risen and deep golden brown (they will be slightly lighter in colour if you brush them with egg whites).

Remove from the oven and transfer the busolai to a wire rack to cool completely.

Busolai are best eaten within a few hours.

You can easily freeze them, just make sure you freeze them as soon as they are completely cool.

Wine suggestion

Vin Santo di Torgiano DOC 2010 - Lungarotti

Vanillekipferl – Austrian Vanilla Crescent Biscuits Recipe

Beans and Sardines

December 13, 2022 by tina oblak in Adriatic Recipe, All year round recipe, Austrian inspired dishes, Autumnal recipe, baking, biscuits, bite-sized nibbles, Central European recipes, Christmas bakes, cookies, dessert, easy baking, Easy recipe, festive bakes, festive dessert, fancy biscuits, festive sweet things, Finger food, home baking, Istrian cuisine, Istrian food, Istrian gastronomy, Mitteleuropean cuisine, Mitteleuropean food, Mitteleuropean recipes, simple recipe, Slovenian cuisine, Slovenian food, Slovenian gastronomy, sweet finger food, sweet nibbles, Sweet Things

Vanillekipferl are one of the favourite, and by far the most famous Christmas shortbread biscuits that just melt in your mouth. They are delicately crumbly, buttery, generously and luxuriously coated in vanilla flavoured icing sugar which makes them seriously delicious and are a fantastic addition to any biscuit platter during the holiday season.

There is a reason why some recipes come into fashion and then go out of fashion, and why other ones get passed on through the generations. The recipe for Vannilkipfel most defiantly falls into a latter category, and that is why they have been baked in my family for generations, and this is also the reason I make them every Christmas, and not only then!

This biscuits have been popular in most of central and Eastern European countries, where they are also easily found in bigger supermarkets, but nothing can compare to when they are homemade. They originated in Vienna, Austria, and it is believed that they were created about 400 years ago, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire celebrated its victory over the Ottoman Turks. Apparently, the locals created this pastry in the shape of crescent moon (kipferl) as seen on the Turkish banner. Austrians have created quite a variety of crescent shaped goodies, being sweet or savoury, like potato gnocchi crescents.

For me, they bring back wonderful memories during the festive period. My maternal grandmother would make a seriously big amount of them. I very vividly remember her making them ahead for the Christmas season and storing them on the small kitchen table in a long hallway, that was not heated (which led to the toilet). Somehow, we children increased the frequency of needing the toilet, and the pile of the biscuits would slowly go down. My grandmother never said anything, in fact, she got great pleasure knowing that we loved her baking, and this is what baking and cooking for others can do. It can create pleasure and memories that sometimes stay with you forever. Well, this type of festive biscuits certainly did just this for me.

These days, in order to make these biscuits, you just go to the food store and buy already milled walnuts and almonds (the most frequently used nuts for this recipe) but this was not quite the case when I was little.

Making Vanillekipferl was a huge deal, my paternal grandparents had a very big walnut and almond tree in the front garden, they had to harvest the nuts in the Autumn, dry them, clean them, crack the shells and remove the kernels, then mill them with mouli grater - quite a job I would say, no wonder they were so special and appreciated!

I am sharing here my maternal grandmother Iva's recipe for these heavenly delicious festive biscuits. If you try to make them this festive season, I will not be surprised if you will continue to pull the recipe out every holiday or Christmas season from now on. I am baking them every year and making sure the traditions stays alive...

Recipe

Ingredients

250g plain white flour, sifted
200g unsalted butter, very cold or frozen
80g caster sugar
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
120g ground walnuts (hazelnut or almonds or any combination you like)
pinch of sea salt
1 ½ Tsp vanilla extract
vanilla flavoured icing sugar

Method

Put the walnuts into a small food processor or mini food chopper and pulse until finely ground. (the texture is really up to your liking, you can pulse and mix the nuts to a finely ground consistency, or leave them to be more coarsely grounded, I prefer the latter). You can also use store bought already ground almond flour.

Put the sifted flour into a food processor or a mixing bowl. Add cold butter cut into small pieces or coarsely grate it, if using frozen butter.

If using a food processor, pulse and mix, until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Alternatively, if not using a food processor, rub in the butter together with four fingertips.

Add caster sugar, lightly beaten egg yolks, vanilla extract, ground walnuts and a pinch of sea salt. Stir with the fork first to combine all the ingredients and allow them to bind together.

Knead lightly until the mixture forms a smooth dough. You can do this in a bowl or transfer onto a working surface.

Wrap the dough in a cling film, put it in a fridge and let it chill and rest for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C static or equivalent.

Cut the chilled dough into quarters. Take one quarter and wrap the rest of the dough in cling film and put it back in the fridge, so the dough stays nice and cold.

Pinch a small piece of the dough, roughly the size of a small walnut (if you want to weight, 14g will give you biscuits that are not too small nor too big)

Roll each piece of pastry into a small strip (sausage) and twist it into a crescent or horse shoe shape. Do not use any flour on the working surface when rolling and shaping the crescents (if the dough is quite wet and sticky use tiny amounts of flour).

Arrange crescents on a baking sheet or tray previously lined with baking parchment (do not grease or flour the baking sheet) leaving some space apart, as they will rise a bit during the baking.

Bake until lightly golden in colour, about 15 minutes.

Leave them on the tray for about a minute or so, and let them cool ever so slightly, but you want the biscuits to be still fairly warm for coating them with sugar (the sugar will stick best, when the biscuits are still warm at the moment of rolling them into vanilla flavoured icing sugar).

Put the vanilla floured icing sugar in shallow dish or bowl.

Put warm walnut crescents, one by one, into the icing sugar and coat them completely. Handle the biscuits very gently, they are fragile and break easily.

Place the coated crescents onto a plate or a tray.

Leave to cool and store in an airtight container or a cookie box.

Homemade Vanilla Icing Sugar Recipe

Beans and Srdines

December 01, 2022 by tina oblak in Adriatic Recipe, All year round recipe, baking, Central European recipes, condiment, cookies, dessert, Eastern Europe cakes, easy baking, Easy recipe, festive bakes, festive dessert, Pantry, Sweet Things

Vanilla icing sugar is widely used in a lot of European baking recipes. It is a very common and a staple baking ingredient. It is added to batters and dough, to whipped cream, sprinkled on top of fresh strawberries, used to dust the cakes, biscuits and other sweets treats. Could not be simpler to make at home, regular icing sugar gets infused with vanilla seeds from a vanilla bean.

On the continent, it is easily available in just about every supermarket, and is so popular that supermarkets sell their own brand of vanilla sugar. This commercially produced vanilla sugar uses vanillin, (primary substance of natural vanilla extract or bean, which is cheaper) rather than vanilla beans (vanilla bean seeds). However, here in the UK, where I currently live, this type of sugar is a bit of a struggle to find, you can almost exclusively buy it in continental food stores or speciality stores.

Vanilla extract, paste, and vanilla beans, in most cases, easily replace vanilla sugar when making custard or when baking cakes or biscuits, but there is one recipe that vanilla icing sugar simply cannot be replaced, and that is for the Austrian Vanilla Crescent Biscuits.

When making these biscuits you can easily add vanilla extract or vanilla paste or seeds from vanilla pod to the biscuit dough, but once the biscuits are baked, they need to be coated in vanilla icing sugar that simply cannot be replaced or substituted by anything else.

Preparing your own vanilla icing sugar offers a very practical solution if you cannot get hold of vanilla sugar, but also makes a lovely homemade gift for your foodie friends and family. It is very quick and easy to make, and you know exactly what goes in it.

Ingredients

400g icing sugar
2 vanilla pods

Method

Put icing sugar in a food processor (small food chopper or blender, coffee bean or spice grinder will work too). If you do not have any of the above, a bowl and a whisk will do just fine. Food processor helps to break up vanilla seeds that can stick together and clump up a bit.

Cut the vanilla pod in half lengthwise but try not to cut all the way through. Scrape the seeds out of the pod with a knife, keep and reserve the empty pods for later use.

Add the seeds to the sugar .

Pulse and mix, (or whisk if using a bowl and a whisk).

Put the sugar into an airtight container or divide between the glass jars with airtight lids (size and shape of your choice).

Cut the rest of the vanilla pod in pieces and add them to the sugar, this will add more flavour.

You can use the sugar immediately or leave overnight. For optimal flavour leave about two weeks for the sugar to fully absorb the vanilla flour.

Store the vanilla sugar at room temperature in a dry and cool place and give a jar a little shake now and again as the sugar can possibly clump together a bit.

Use for anything you want to add vanilla flavour and particularly indicated for coating Vanilla Crescents Biscuits.

Huzarski krapi (my auntie Irma best celebratory biscuits) recipe

Beans and Sardines

March 23, 2021 by tina oblak in Sweet Things, biscuits, cookies, baking, fancy biscuits

My auntie Irma truly made the best biscuits ever, and this recipe is really special to me, as I have very fond memories of her. She had no children of her own and she simply adored me and my brother.

She would bake this biscuits in huge quantities and deliver them, especially for birthdays or other special occasions that were celebrated in the family and were very popular around festivities like Christmas and Easter. She is no longer around but through this recipe her legacy lives on in our family.

These biscuits are so pretty to look at and absolutely delicious, they just melt in your mouth and the walnut coating around them give you that luxurious crunch.

You can play around a bit with this recipe to suit your taste and make them a bit different every single time you bake them. You can change the type of fruit jam to fill the biscuits with, and for the coating, you can replace walnuts for hazelnuts, almonds or any other type of nuts on their own or any combination you like.

When beautifully arranged and wrapped, these biscuits make a wonderful present for special celebrations or simple and thoughtful pick me up little gift. They will put a smile back on anyone's face. I made them for my husband's birthday, needles to say, it did bring a big smile on his face and he was very happy indeed!

This recipe will make about 12 bigger biscuits.

Ingredients

140g butter (melted)
2 eggs (separated in egg yolks and whites both lightly beaten)
200g all purpose flour
70g caster sugar
150g walnuts (chopped or roughly ground) you can use hazelnuts or almonds (or mix any combination you like)
finely grated lemon zest of ½ lemon (preferably unwaxed)
smooth apricot jam (or other flavour of your preference)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C static and lay the baking tin with baking parchment.

In a large mixing bowl put the flour, sugar, egg yolks, butter and lemon zest. With the spatula or wooden spoon mix well to combine all the ingredients. Then use your hands to gather all the ingredients to get a dough. Shape it into a ball, wrap it in cling film and put in a fridge to chill for about 30min.

After the dough has chilled, start making the biscuits by pinching a bit of a dough (the size of golf ball roughly) and shape it into a small ball. Repeat the process until you use all the dough.

Take a smaller bowl with slightly beaten egg whites and a deeper dish where you put your chopped or roughly ground walnuts.

Dip one dough ball first into egg whites and then into the ground walnuts. Roll it round making sure the whole ball is coated. Repeat the process until all the dough balls are being coated.

Place the coated biscuits into a baking tray and press them down slightly with your hands to get a more disc shape but do not flatten them too much.

With the back of the handle of the wooden spoon make a hole in each biscuit almost reaching the bottom. Make the holes slightly bigger with gentle circular movement.