and there it is again – Christmas time. incredible, are you familiar with that: sometimes i feels like time is just not moving on and then you turn around and all of a sudden it’s december. that’s what it was like for me this year. feels totally weird, that it’s already christmas in 3,5 weeks. probably also due to the warm weather we got to enjoy up until recently. at least now it feels like winter outside and my advent wreath (thanks to my mum) is spreading the smell of fir needles in my flat. and: one is never to old for an advent calendar – that’s why i still get a homemade one from my parents :)

since i baked way too many Christmas Cookies in the last years, i tried to reign myself in this year and limited myself to 5. 2 of which are old time favorites – toffee cookies and florentines and 3 new ones – chai cookies, chocolate shortbread and lime shortbread. as a total chai fan i just had to make the chai cookies. although i was a bit sceptical in the beginning, since i wasn’t sure that the spices wouldn’t be too intense and overbearing, i was over the moon with the result!

ingredients (40 – 50 pieces)

• 150 g soft butter
• 50 g icing sugar
• 150 g flour
• 30 g starch
• 100 g grounded almonds
• 70 g very fine sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon grounded ginger
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 5 black pepper corns
• 1/2 teaspoon grounded cloves or 3 whole cloves
• 1/2 teasponn grounded cardamom
• 1 teaspoon finely grated orange peel (best organic)

finely grind the spices, except salt, and the orange peel in a mortar or use an electronic grinder. set 1 Teaspoon of the spice mixture aside.

with the dough hook of a handheld mixer mix the rest of the spice mixture with butter, icing Sugar and a pinch of salt. add flour, starch and almonds and quickly knead in. if you have a food processor you can just put in all the ingredients for the dough and let it do the work.

on a floured work top roll dough into 3 rolls of each 30 cm lenghts (the dough is very crumbly). wrap in cling wrap and put in fridge for 1 hour.

preheat oven to 190°.

cut the rolls in angular, triangular shapes of 3 cm length on the broad side and 1,5 cm on the narrow side. place on baking trays lined with baking paper. bake consecutively in hot oven for about 12 min.

mix the fine sugar with 1/2 teaspoon of the spice mixture (add more if you like or make more of the mixture for some chai tea). roll the hot cookies in the sugar mixture. place on a cooling rack to cool down and store in an airthigh container or tin can.

Filed under: christmas cookies, sweets Tagged: chai cookies, christmas cookies, sweets