Spitzbuben Recipes

SPITZBUBEN (SWISS JAM COOKIES)

Steps:

• Beat the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.
• Beat in the almond meal and vanilla flavouring and the white of 1 egg.
• Add the flour and knead until smooth.
• Chill dough in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.
• Preheat over to 325 degrees.
• Roll out the dough on a lightly floured cutting board to the thickness of 1/8"-1/4" (the thinner the dough, the better the cookie).
• Cut with small round, star, or diamond-shaped cookie cutters.
• Use a smaller cookie cutter to cut a "window" in half the cookies (these will be the top of the cookie sandwiches).
• Place all the cookies on lightly buttered and floured cookie sheets.
• Bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden.
• Remove cookies from the baking sheet and let cool.
• Spread the cookies without a "window" with fruit jam.
• Coat the cookies with "windows" in confectioners' sugar, and then place on top of the cookies with fruit jam.

SWISS SANDWICH COOKIES (SPITZBUBEN)

Steps:

• Make cookies:
• Sift together flour, confectioners sugar, vanilla powder, and salt.
• Heat butter with an electric mixer until creamy. Mix in flour mixture at low speed just until blended. Form dough into a disk and chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, about 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 300°F.
• Roll out dough slightly less than 1/4 inch thick on a lightly floured surface and cut out 1 1/2-inch rounds.
• Arrange 1 inch apart on greased baking sheets. Reroll scraps once (cookies become tough if dough is worked too much). Whisk together powdered egg whites and water. Brush cookies with egg whites and sprinkle with sanding sugar.
• Bake cookies in batches in middle of oven until pale golden, 10 to 15 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool.
• Fill cookies:
• Sandwich jam and preserves between unsugared sides of cookies, filling half with raspberry and half with apricot.