Spitzbuben

Spitzbuben (German jam cookies)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/8 cups butter
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 egg white
• 3 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup fruit preserves, any flavor
• 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration

Directions:

1.                    [Vanilla sugar can be purchased commercially in packets.  To make your own vanilla sugar, combine 1 1/2 to 2 cups sugar with a rinsed and dried vanilla bean in a pint jar. Cover and shake well. Shake occasionally for 2 -3 days. Use flavored sugar, replenishing with fresh sugar, as needed. ]
2.                    Beat butter until soft and fluffy. Mix in the confectioners' sugar, vanilla sugar, and salt until mass has a lighter color.
3.                    Beat the egg white into the creamed mixture, making sure to incorporate fully. Add in the flour and mix. Cover the dough, and chill in the refrigerator for one hour.
4.                    Take the dough out of the refrigerator, and roll it out until it is about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out 2 or 3 inch circles with fluted cookie cutters. Cut smaller circles into the middle of half of the circles.  Avoid rerolling the trimmings more than once, the cookie gets tough if the dough is overworked.
5.                    Bake in a preheated 400 degrees F oven for 6 to 8 minutes.
6.                    Warm up strawberry, apricot, or raspberry jam. Put some jam on the cookies without the holes in the middle. Then put the cookies with the holes on top of the ones with jam. Sprinkle a bit of confectioners' sugar on top to make them look nice.

 

Notes:  An approximate translation of “Spitzbuben” is “Little Rascals.”  The cookies are also called Swiss sandwich cookies.  Some recipes also call for ground almond in the dough.  Instead of confectioners sugar, you can use fine granulated sugar in the dough.  Another substitution would be vanilla extract instead of the vanilla sugar.  Mom made these cookies at Christmastime.  She usually used strawberry jam.