Today I would like to present one of my favorite childhood memories: Spitzbuebe! A classic Swiss cookie filled with a berry jam of your choice.
The little treats were given the name “Spitzbuebe” (mischievous boys) because the classic Swiss Christmas cookies were always stolen by the children in the prelude to Christmas – at least that’s the legend that was handed down to me. However, if it’s up to me, those cookies cannot only be eaten on Christmas but throughout the year.
The recipe is a slightly simplified version of a basic recipe by Swissmilk and they are filled with homemade elderberry jam (picture above) and quince jam (picture below). The cookies traditionally require a large, round cookie cutter and a smaller one for the centre. I have the Spitzbub cookie cutter from Ibili, but in principle one large and one small cookie cutter (in whatever shape) are sufficient.
Ingredients:
250 g butter, soft
125 g icing sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar
1 pinch salt
1 egg white
350 g flour
Jam of your choice (preferably in jelly form)
Preparation:
Mix the butter until tips form, add the egg white and continue to mix until the mixture becomes lighter. Add the icing sugar, vanilla sugar, salt and flour, press the dough flat, wrap in foil and leave to cool in the fridge for 1 hour.
Roll out the dough in portions with a little flour to a thickness of 3 mm. For this there are baking utensils that help to keep the thickness of the dough even – or, a tip I got from a good friend – you can also put knitting needles on the left and right side of the dough and roll the dough out on them.
From the rolled out dough, cut out the same number of bottoms (without a hole) and lids (with a hole) and chill for another 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (circulating air). Bake the cookies in the middle of the oven for 6-8 minutes, remove and allow to cool completely.
Filling:
You can fill the cookies with a jam of your choice, preferably a jelly or a thick jam.
I used homemade elderberries jam (I really love the jam – my recipe for it will follow soon – just pay attention, elderberries need to be cooked, otherwise they are poisonous!) and quince jelly.
Dust the cookie lids (biscuits with a hole) with icing sugar, then turn the baked and cooled biscuit bases (without a hole) over and spread approx. 1 teaspoon of jelly in the middle. Carefully put on a lid, press together lightly and let dry.
