Best truffles ever? These:

[Deutsche Version: Spekulatiuspralinen und Zimtsterne]

Since I had a big jar of spekulatius butter and wasn’t in the mood to use it as a filling for cupcakes or cookies, I made truffles instead. I took the spread out of the fridge, let it sit at room temperature for an hour and formed it into small balls. I placed them on a sheet of parchment paper and melted 5.3 oz semisweet chocolate. Then I dipped the balls in the chocolate and let them sit on the parchment until the chocolate had dried. As simple and delicious as that. When I brought them to work they were gone after 30 minutes. I think taste explosion in your mouth is the right expression for this kind of candy.

When it comes to Christmas cookies, there are some cookies that are more popular than others. Apart from spekulatius, zimtsterne (cinnamon stars) can be found in every supermarket and on every Christmas cookie plate.

Traditionally these cookies are glutenfree, but not eggfree. They consist of ground almonds, ground cinnamon, powdered sugar, and eggwhites topped with a plain sugarglaze. This version was of course made without eggs. They still can be made glutenfree. With a cinnamon glaze they are the perfect cookies for all you cinnamon lovers out there:

Zimtsterne (makes around 27 cookies)

For the cookies:

1 1/3 cups ground almonds
3/4 cup sifted powdered sugar
1/2 T brown rice syrup
1/2 t cinnamon
1 T ground flax seed mixed with
2 T water
1 T all purpose flour or a glutenfree alternative like rice flour

For the glaze:

1/2 cup unsifted powdered sugar
(you can sift it if you like)
1/2 t cinnamon
2 T + 2 1/2 t water
1/2 t almond extract

To make the cookies, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 320°F.  In a bowl mix almonds, sugar, cinnamon, and flour. Add flax-water mixture and syrup and mix with your hands until everything is well combined. Add some more flour if the batter is too sticky. Roll the dough out between two layers of plastic foil to prevent sticking. Remove the upper foil layer and cut out the cookies. Transfer to the baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool completely.

To make the glaze, combine all ingredients in a small bowl and mix well until smooth. Spread on top of your cookies and wait until the glaze is dry. Transfer cookies to an airtight container.

Last year I worked on some macaroons, which came out pretty good. This year I’ve been trying to find a less complicated recipe, but that seems to be a little bit difficult. These cocnut macaroons came out beautifully and tasty but they are a bit on the tough side:

I used a recipe very similar to the zimtstern-recipe, but it needs some more tweaking. Maybe I will stick to the old recipe instead.