(more) holiday nibbles

i have a weakness for sweet things… and recently, i've discovered my affinity for baking holiday cookies, too! mailänderli, even - a swiss holiday butter cookie. so this is a potpourri post, dedicated to a variety of (last minute) holiday nibbles: mailänderli, christmas tree sugar cookies and sugared cranberries (which, by the way, you can use with cheese as an appetizer, on their own, as cake tops or even for cocktails.

christmas tree forest cookies makes about 20 large cookies recipe adapted from elisabeth fülscher's (a swiss legend) cookbook
ingredients: 125 g butter, room temperature 1 pinch salt 80 g sugar 2 yolks 1 organic orange, zest 1 tbsp. orange juice 250 g flour
confectioners' sugar and a little milk for the glaze green food coloring, colored sugar, sprinkles, edible pearls etc.
ingredients: cream the butter with a mixer. add sugar and yolks and mix for 10 minutes, until the mixture is fluffy. sieve in the flour, add the orange zest and juice and combine everything until a dough forms. this might be a little hard, as the dough is awfully crumbly. but don't despair! simply press it together again and again. cover with cling film and let cool for at least 1 hour or overnight. roll out on a lightly floured surface to about 1 cm thickness and cut out cookies. bake at 160 degrees c / 320 f for about 20 minutes. let cool on a wire rack.
make differently colored glazes, then decorate to your heart's content.



mailänderli - milanese cookies
makes about 20 large cookies recipe adapted from elisabeth fülscher's (a swiss legend) cookbook

ingredients: 125 g butter, room temperature 125 g sugar 1 egg 1 organic lemon, zest 250 g flour
2 yolks, for brushing coarse sugar, for decorating
directions: prepare the dough for the mailänderli the same way as for the christmas tree cookies (above). cream butter, sugar and egg together for a while (a long while), add lemon zest and flour. refrigerate. roll out. cut out. brush with egg yolks and sprinkle with coarse sugar. bake at 160 c / 320 f for about 20 minutes. let cool.


recipe for sugared cranberries can be found here.