I am going to make more Christmas cookies today. The 7 kinds I baked earlier this month have been largely given away, and I still need some to take to Christmas dinner at my Dad's.
One of the cookies I will be baking today is a family tradition that comes down through my mother's family, and is called "mondel snitzen." It is an almond cookie that is built in layers, then cut and baked.
I've never seen it anywhere else, and I've spent years looking. Just did a search for "German Christmas cookies" again, and I came up with something called
"Mandel Schnitt" whic is the closest I have ever come to finding a duplicate recipe.
I don't speak German, so I don't know whether my family's "mondel" is the same as this recipe's "mandel" but I am guessing that somewhere along the line someone in my mother's family couldn't spell...since I just checked and "mandel" means "almond" in German!
Anyway, those cookies are cut with a cookie cutter into (star) shapes, and my cookies are not cut with a cookie cutter, but instead the dough is rolled out and cut into diamond shapes...which saves on having to re-roll the dough to use it all up!
Here's the recipe:
“Mondel Schnitzen”
(Recipe handed down from Anne’s Great Great Grandma, whose last name was “Fauerbach.”)
4 eggs separated
4 C. unbleached flour
1 pound unsalted butter
2-1/3 C. sugar
1 t. salt
1 pound almonds, blanched and chopped or ground fine
Nutmeg to sprinkle on top of the cookies before baking
Set the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease several cookie sheets.
Separate the eggs. (I like to put each egg white into a separate container, as they will be used later in the recipe, one at a time.)
Cream the butter and sugar until well blended. Add the flour and mix until you have crumbs, or streusel.
Divide the crumb mixture in half, and save half for the crumb topping. (Depending on the heat of the kitchen, you may want to refrigerator it.) To the other half, mix in the egg yolks and the salt, to create a dough.
Divide the dough into quarters.
Roll out the first of the dough quarters until thin, and put the rest of the dough into the refrigerator until you are ready to use it. (If you have a sock for your rolling pin and a cloth to roll on, this works well. I use the sock but not the cloth. Instead, I roll out the dough on a lightly floured granite counter top. )
Lightly whip one of the egg whites and brush it onto the dough. Be sure to coat the dough all the way to the edges. Top the egg white with one quarter of the streusel. Again, applying it all the way to the edges of the dough. Top the streusel with one quarter of the almonds, again being sure to cover all of the dough. Sprinkle nutmeg on top of the sheet of dough, and lightly press down on it, to help the toppings to adhere to the crust.
Using a sharp knife, cut the dough vertically into strips about 1-1/4 inch wide. Then cut it horizontally, at an angle, so that you create diamond shapes in the dough, about 3 inches long.
Carefully use a spatula to life the cookies onto the cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 12 minutes until lightly browned on the edges. Then remove them from the oven and let the cookies sit or a minute or two before removing them from the cookie sheet onto a cooling rack which has been covered with paper towel.
Repeat with the other dough quarters, until all the cookies are baked. Makes roughly 100 cookies.
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