Wish you merry Christmas- Spicy linzer Christmas tree

Dear Friends, 

I wanted to make you something special for Christmas and life helped me to get my wish come true through coincidences and a little bit of luck. To create this recipe, I used my mother’s linzer cookie as a starting point, the idea of its seasoning came from an antique cookbook by Ágnes Zilahy from 1891 and the Christmas tree shape itself was an inspiration of the Australian Donna Hay Magazine, the Christmas issue from 2015. 

I dedicate this blogpost to all of you with love. 

To all the woman, mothers and girls who are untiringly baking or wrapping Christmas gifts at the moment. 

To grandmothers, whose nut cake, lamington or gingerbread makes Christmas special, and who created tradition and memories for us. 

To the men, fathers and grandfathers, who fit the Christmas tree to the stand, are hovering snow and clean windscreen of their wife’s car so she can drive to the shop quickly because she used up all the butter. 

To all, who – after so many stressed and tense holidays- still believe that Christmas is about peace and love. 

To all dogs and cats, who neither bake nor go shopping, but lie on the couch and listen to their owner’s favourite Christmas songs. 

I wish merry Christmas to all of you, 

With lots of love, 

Judit

Spicy Linzer cookie Christmas tree

Ingredients: 

300 g flour

250 g butter or margarine

1 egg, separated

100 g confectioner’s sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground clove

1 pinch ground nutmeg

1 pinch of salt

blanched, sliced almonds (optional)

Icing (for 1 Christmas tree, in case you want 2, take double amount of ingredients)

40 g confectioner’s sugar

1 teaspoon boiling water

Mix flour, salt and spices in a big bowl and make a well in the centre. Grate butter or cut it into small pieces and mix with the flour properly until it forms small crumbles. Add egg yolk, confectioner’s sugar, preserve the egg white for brushing. Knead the dough into a smooth roll then refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 180 °C. Roll it out to 3 mm thin and using a 9, 7, 5,5, 3,5, 2,5 star cookie cutter, cut out three stars of each size, re-rolling the dough, if necessary. The dough will be enough for 2 Christmas trees, and you may have any leftovers for single cookies as well. Brush the top with egg white, and if use have single cookies as well, you can sprinkle the top with blanched, sliced almonds. Put the cookies on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and bake them for about 8-10 minutes. (I suggest you to check the first bunch of cookies, because baking time can depend on your oven. Let them cool down completely on a wire rack. 

To make the icing, mix to combine ingredients. Stick stars to each other starting from the largest to the smallest with the icing, slightly turning the stars of the same size, so your Christmas tree’s foliage looks even richer.