Jelly Cookies (Marmeladen- Plätzchen)

These cookies are a German Christmas tradition. We were unsure how hard they would be to make but it turns out not to be bad at all. Other than being a bit time consuming because of needing to put the dough in the fridge, they are as simple as the average rolled cookie - but look quite fancy!

Ingredients:


300 g flour
200 g butter
75 g sugar
1 package (15 g) vanilla sugar (vanilla works too, but use only 1 tsp)
1 pinch baking powder (I would guess this is about 1/2 tsp, but we really did a pinch)
2 eggs
1 Tbs (or EL) whipping cream
150 g (about 1 cup) of jelly, any type
Almonds, chopped

Mix the flour, butter, sugar, vanilla (or vanilla sugar), baking powder, and one egg. Put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or until you are ready to use it.

When you are ready to roll out the cookies, flour the surface you will roll on first and preheat the oven to 200 C (390 F).  Roll out your dough to only about 1 mm thick. Cut out any shape you would like (typically hearts and stars are used in Germany). Half of you cookies should be cut as as usual, the other half should have some type of hole in the middle. Because we did not have a tiny heart cookie cutter, we used a small circle. It is also possible to do one big and one small, just make sure to leave a rather thick border.

Once all you cookies are cut out, beat an egg and mix with the Tbs of whipping cream. Brush the top of the cookies with no holes. Then flip a cookie with a hole onto this and secure. Brush the tops again with egg (to make them turn a nice brown in the oven) and if you wish to add nuts, sprinkle chopped almonds. Again, because of allergies we did half with nuts and half without. 
Cook the cookies for about 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.




After the cookies are out of the oven and cooling,  heat the jelly in a pot on the stove until it becomes thin and boils. Then scoop the jelly into the hole of each cookie.

Let cool and serve plain or with a dusting of powder sugar.