Baking cookies – Christmas cookie recipe

Preparation time: approx. 60 minutes

Baking time: approx. 1 hour and 5 minutes

Resting time: 1 hour

Preparation: Step by step biscuit recipe

Make a smooth dough from the flour, butter, icing sugar and egg yolk.

Shape the dough into a flat rectangle, wrap in cling film and chill for approx. 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (top/bottom heat). Line the baking tray with baking paper.

Then roll out the dough to a thickness of 3 mm on a lightly floured work surface, cut out 4 cm circles, place on the baking tray and pre-bake in the preheated oven for 5 minutes.

Take the baking tray out of the oven and turn the oven down to 100 degrees.

Beat the egg whites with salt until stiff. As soon as the egg whites start to foam, slowly add the sugar. Whisk for approx. 10 mins. until stiff peaks form. Add the lemon juice.

Pour the beaten egg whites into a piping bag with a French nozzle and pipe circles onto the cooled biscuits. Dry in the oven for about 1 hour. Open the oven at regular intervals to allow the moisture to escape. As soon as the meringue is firm, switch off the oven and leave the meringue biscuits to cool.

Tip: Keep an eye on the temperature of the meringue. If it is too high, the meringue will darken and won't stay nice and white.

For the filling, warm the jam slightly and stir until smooth, pour into a piping bag, cut off a small corner and fill the meringue biscuits with it. Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve.

We hope you enjoy baking them and giving them as gifts!

Our tip: Make the gift something special and add some pretty Christmas flowers.

Frequently asked questions about baking biscuits

Dry biscuits such as butter biscuits, jam biscuits or royal icing biscuits can be baked 3-4 weeks in advance. Cream-filled biscuits about a week in advance.

Normal biscuits can be baked with convection as well as top and bottom heat.

Biscuits can also be baked in a fan oven. Especially if you want to bake several trays at the same time. You should then reduce the temperature in the oven by 20 degrees.

With top and bottom heat, Christmas biscuits are baked on the middle shelf so that they brown evenly on all sides. With a fan oven, the shelf doesn't matter.

Christmas biscuits melt if either the ingredients are not correct or the cooling times are not adhered to.

The baking time for biscuits varies depending on the size and thickness of the biscuits. I take them out of the oven as soon as they start to brown around the edges. The biscuits are usually still soft then, but they become firm after cooling.

I always use type 405 wheat flour for biscuits, which is fine and nice and light in colour.

Shortcrust biscuits are made from a dough that is easy to roll out and usually consists of butter, sugar, flour and 1 egg.

Christmas biscuits are usually decorated after baking. However, you can also brush them with egg yolk or milk and sprinkle them with sprinkles, for example, and then bake them.

To make hard biscuits softer again, place them in a biscuit tin together with a slice of apple. The moisture from the apple will soak into the biscuits after a few days.

In most cases, biscuit dough should be chilled for between 30 and 60 minutes. However, the dough can also be left to rest in the fridge for up to 3 days before being used.

Butter biscuits will keep for at least 4 weeks in a well-sealed biscuit tin.