Spice Cookies

I have been looking for old fashioned cookie molds this winter and I didn't find any. I was all the more happy when I found out that my grandma still has these kind of molds. She lent them to me and yesterday, I finally turned on the oven again after almost a month. Feels good :-) I'm really fond of these cookies. They taste delicious and don't they look cute?! Stay tuned next week for some more pictures and of course, for the cake I made this morning for our family christmas dinner tomorrow evening.

Spekulatius
(from: Betty Bossi - Backen in der Weihnachtszeit)

120g butter, soft
120g brown sugar
1 pinch of salt
1 egg
60g ground almonds
grated zest of one lemon
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pinch of ground cardamom
1 pinch of ground cloves
250g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

In a large bowl, beat the butter until smooth. Add the sugar, salt and the egg and beat until the batter is pale and smooth. Add almonds, lemon zest, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves and mix well. Add the flour and the baking powder and bring together to a dough. Form a large ball and flatten it a little with your hand. Wrap in clingfilm and cool for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Roll out portions of the dough on a floured surface or between two layers of cling film (about 7cm thick). If you have molds, press them into the dough and cut it around the edges with a knife or, if they are round, with a glass or a round cookie cutter a bit larger than the mold. If you don't have these old fashioned molds, just use the usual cookie cutters. Put the cookies on a tray lined with parchment paper. Cool for another 10 minutes.

Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes in the middle of the oven. Take them out of the oven. Let cool on a wire rack.

They keep, in an airtight container, for about 2 weeks.