Every year at Christmas Herb's mom, Maria Christmann would send us a box of her Christmas cookies. The first ones to disappear were the "Krensall" or vanilla rings. These are Herb's favorites, he'd talk about them all year. I had her tell me the recipe ages ago but never needed to make them because she sent some every year. She passed this spring and when we were talking about making Christmas cookies this year and I asked Herb what
cookie of hers he'd like me to try to make, these were it.
After making these cookies I looked up some recipes to see how other people made them and there are a lot of versions for basically the same cookie. What I think is key is that they soften and the flavors blend after they've been in a cookie tin for a few days or a week, if that is you still have any cookies left after a week...
These cookies are a bit of work but Mom Christmann’s recipe was very simple. Mix these four ingredients and then let them sit.
2 1/2 Cup flour
1 Cup butter
1/2 Cup sugar
4 Egg yolks
Flour the surface your working on before you roll out some of the dough, if it crumbles too much put it back in the mixing bowl and add 2-3 tablespoons of water or left over egg white.
Once the dough is rolled out cut circles (we used a stemless wine glass) and then cut out the center of 1/2 the circles to make the cookie tops. We started with a shot glass to cut out the centers because that's what my mom in law used but we ended up using a vodka bottle cap :) because it was thinner and smaller which caused less cracking than the shot glass we had.
Bake for 12 mins at 350 until light brown.
Spread apricot and/or raspberry jam on the bottoms and place the rings on top, sprinkle with vanilla flavored powder sugar and store in a tin as mentioned above.
*Vanilla sugar can be bought at the store and added to the powdered sugar or you can make your own by putting a vanilla bean and some sugar in an airtight container for at least month.
Comments