Following on from my previous post, this is another cookie from Germany: Walnusskipferl. I suppose they’re meant to look something like croissants (the kipferl being an ancestor of the croissant and a popular Christmas treat in Austria) but mine definitely looked more like potato wedges than delicious French pastries. In saying that though, I am incredibly pleased with how these turned out; they’re amazingly melt-in-the-mouth and just the right level of sweetness.
The recipe I followed made about 30 cookies.
Ingredients
100g crushed walnuts – the recipe I brought back with me used ground walnuts but I have heaps of whole walnuts at home so I put 100g of that in a plastic bag and crushed them with a potato masher and a rolling pin. I’m sure any heavy/solid implement would do.
275g all purpose flour
70g confectioners’ sugar
A pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
200g unsalted butter, cut into cubes – this is best if it’s been left out of the fridge for a bit so it’s nice and soft
Method
- Mix together flour, sugar, walnuts, salt, egg and butter into a dough. Note that this dough is quite sticky.
- Roll into logs, wrap with cling film and place in fridge for about 2 hours
- Preheat oven to 180°C
- Cut dough into slices and form into a croissant shape (or if you’re like me, any shape that vaguely resembles a croissant)
- Place onto an oven tray lined with baking paper and bake in oven until it turns a light yellow colour. This batch took me about 20 minutes to cook.
- Once the cookies are done, brush some melted unsalted butter over the top and sift over icing sugar. This must be done when the cookies are hot. If you can find it, you can also mix together vanilla sugar with the icing sugar.
If you like, the ends of this can also be dipped in melted chocolate and left to cool.
Learning
I feel these cookies turned out really well and the only thing I would change for next time would be the amount of walnut I put in; I don’t really get the walnut taste coming through so I would definitely add more in.
Of All Tastes 