German Vanillekipferl

With Christmas being less than 12 days away, I wanted to share this little recipe for German Vanillekipferl / Shortbread with you. It’s a traditional German Christmas recipe also known as Vanille-Walnuss-Kipferl. There are many varieties but I prefer this one with vanilla and walnuts.

Ingredients for 1 portion

• 1 egg yolk (medium sized egg)
• 50g walnuts
• 50g icing sugar
• 100g butter (or alternatively, Stork)
• 125g plain flower
• 2tbsp icing sugar for decorating
• salt
• some flower for the worktops

Preparation

Part 1

1. Crack the walnuts and chop their cores until you get a fine powder.
2. Extract the vanilla essence from the vanilla bean using a sharp knife. It’s best to cut into the bean & divide it into two first.
3. Mix the butter and icing sugar together until creamy; then add the nuts, flower, salt, vanilla essence and egg yolk.
4. Knead the dough until smooth; wrap it into kitchen foil and put it in the fridge for about 60min.

Part 2

1. Once cool, take the dough out of the fridge and cut it into walnut sized portions.
2. Pour some flower on your work surface and roll the bits of dough into 6cm long rolls; then flatten them and shape them into crescents.
3. Preheat your oven (fan: 150°C / electric 175°C)
4. Spread the croissants on your tray. Make sure to leave about 1cm of space between each vanillekipferl.
5. Let them cool down for 5-10min before dusting them with icing sugar.

And that’s it!

Prep time: ca. 60min Rest period: ca. 60min Difficulty level: simple

PS. Woody, the sneaky, is also a big fan of them.