Cookie Week Archives - Jenny is baking

Springerle Cookies from Germany

Have you heard of Springerle cookies from Germany? Traditionally they are made with anise seed. However, I don’t really like that flavor and instead made them with orange zest and vanilla extract. If you want to do the traditional flavor, I have you covered as well. Springerle cookies are a cookie that needs to be made in advance. It takes three days until they are baked and will intesify in flavor over the course of weeks. For that reason I recommend making them already now if you want to try them for Christmas. If you believe Wikipedia, Springerle cookies were already made in the Middle Ages and served for a lot of festivities, including weddings. The cookie molds were made from pear trees and passed down from generation to generation. I found my cookie mold here in Munich at the store Holzstandl, you may also try Etsy.

07/11/2024

Spritz Cookies with no Cookies Press

Spritz cookies without any cookie press, this is what I am presenting to you today. All you will need is a piping bag with a star tip and you should be good to go. In order for it to work, there are two secrets: first the consistency of the dough can be altered by adding milk by the spoonful, and second, in order for the piping bag not to explode, we will fasten it with some scotch tape. Kindly note that you need to find the happy middle between very dense dough, which is hard to pipe and dough that is too loose so the cookies won’t hold their shape. It does require a bit of experimenting until you have the right consistency. I hope that below instructions are helpful.
Continue Reading…

07/11/2024

Sandwich-Cookies: Alfajores with Almonds

Have you every heard of “alfajores”? These are sandwich cookies that are usually filled with the caramel cream called dulce de leche. They originally stem from Andalucia in Spain, but have become extremely popular in Uruguay and Argentina. Supposedly about 10 million (!) alfajores are sold each day in Argentina in 2023. The “original” is usually made with flour and cornstarch and creates this nice crunchy texture, however, my version below contains flour and almonds instead. The classic alfajor is usually rolled in coconut flakes, however, I will used chopped almonds for this version.

06/11/2024

Vegan Gingerbread Houses for the Mug

Aren’t these tiny gingerbread houses cute? Bonus point, they are even vegan, I tried for the first time vegan royal icing and the secret is chickpea brine! That is the only “funny” ingredient you need, but other than that, all pretty normal. Of course I already have these cute little gingerbread houses here on the blog. Those are made with normal royal icing, which has egg whites. However, this time I decided to make them fully vegan. I already knew that making the dough vegan was super easy as it does not contain any egg (or potassium carbonate, which for some strange reason is used in seasonal baking in Germany). So I knew the only obstacle to tackle was the vegan icing. Royal icing contains egg whites, however, we are going to use the brine of chickpeas, also known as aquafaba. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was. So are you in? Do you want to gift these to somebody?

05/11/2024

Taiwanese Pineapple Cookies: Fengli Su

Guys, I will do a cookie week starting as of today. I decided to do this early so that you can research recipes and plan ahead. You may even ship cookies and for that it is always better to start in advance, I at least freeze mine before I send them out. You can read about how to ship cookies in this blog post. However, let’s get back to these Taiwanese pineapple cookies. I found the recipe on the German blog Life is full of goodies, Mara self-published a cookie cookbook, it is called “Internationales Plätzchenbuch“. She glazed hers, I decided to leave mine plain and just dust them with some icing sugar. Continue Reading…

04/11/2024

Coffee Alfajores from Uruguay and Cookie Day

It is time for alfajores. Alfa what you ask? Alfajores are sandwich cookies that first were popular in Spain and later on brought to the colonies in Latin America. Traditionally alfajores are filled with the caramel cream called dulce de leche. Today I brought along some with strong coffee flavor and caramel as the filling. If you want to go extra crazy, you may also use some flaky sea salt as a nice contrast. We are in the middle of my cookie week and since I am posting seven cookie recipes from my birth country Uruguay on seven consecutive days, you get coffee alfajores today.

04/12/2019

Uruguayan Yo-Yo Cookies

These cookies from Uruguay are called yo-yo as they actually look exactly like the toy yo-yo. When I took them to my colleagues as my first batch of test eaters, they got raving reviews. According to a few colleagues, I should bring more often treats from Uruguay if they were as tasty as these cookies. What I like about them is the fact that you can easily mix together the batter fairly quickly. It does contain a small part of cornstarch that makes them extra soft. Obviously it does contain the caramel cream names dulce de leche and is covered in chocolate. This is my sixth recipe in my cookie week.

03/12/2019

Ricarditos from Uruguay

Ricarditos are Uruguay’s version of chocolate-coated marshmallow treats. The base is a shortbread cookie, which then receives a meringue as topping. This meringue is then dipped in chocolate. Obviously, as always the Uruguayan caramel cream called dulce de leche also has to play a role here. Otherwise it would not be Uruguayan duh. This is my fifth recipe during my Uruguayan cookie week.

02/12/2019

Espejitos from Uruguay

Espejitos or small mirrors is the literal translation of these cookies from Uruguay. They are made as a shortbread cookie, filled with jam and the caramel cream dulce de leche and have a chocolate covering. Sounds good? I just love these cookies, jam PLUS, caramel, PLUS chocolate, who can say no to that? Unfortunately it never takes long and they disappear so quickly whenever I make them, I simply can’t say no. These are my fourth recipe of my Uruguayan cookie week, check out the other recipes here.

01/12/2019

Bizcochitos de grasa or Uruguayan Crackers

Bizcochitos de grasa oder uruguayische Cracker

Guys, I believe this is going to be a long post as I need to explain quite a bit. For recipe number 3 of my cookie week, I brought along Uruguayan crackers or bizcochitos de grasa, which are sometimes simply called bizcochitos. These savory crackers are usually served for breakfast or even prior to breakfast. Just as we are used to drinking coffee, Uruguayans drink mate tea. Not the old-fashioned way with tea bags, no, you will serve the loose tea in a curved container, which is called “bombilla”. The brown container you see on the pictures is what I am talking about. Usually the loose tea is placed in the bombilla, the filled with hot water and then you drink it with a type of straw. Mate tea is so common in Uruguay, you will always be offered a cup of it, regardless at which time of the day. You will see people on the streets happily walking around with thermos flasks, hot water is served at every single kiosk. Obviously, when we went on a holiday in Uruguay a few years ago, we naturally drank a lot of it. By the way, everybody will drink from the same straw and water is going to be refilled constantly. I don’t think I have ever heard of anybody being worried about hygiene.

30/11/2019

Older Posts