Because I think it’s only fair to share my successes as well as my failures in the kitchen, I thought I would share these German Streusel Cookies that I recently made for Thanksgiving. Not that they were terrible – they were just plain and bland. I’m used to people fighting to grab more of my cookies of the tray. Sadly, these just kind of sat there.
I thought I would still share the recipe, in case someone likes a more bland cookie. They do go well with hot tea or coffee. But if you’re looking for a really sweet treat, these are not the cookies you should try out. While they were okay, I don’t have the desire to ever make them again.
Recipe: German Streusel Cookies
Yields about 4 dozen cookies.
Ingredients for Cookies:
- 2 cups of all-purpose flour, sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup ground almonds (I had trouble finding ground almonds in the store, so I bought whole almonds, put them in a plastic zipper bag, and used a hammer to crush them. It was a little noisy, but it did the trick!)
Ingredients for Streusel Topping:
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold, unsalted butter cut into smaller pieces
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Jar of maraschino cherries
Directions:
- Whisk together the flour and baking powder and set aside.
- In a mixer, beat together the butter and sugar on medium speed for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the egg, vanilla, and almonds.
- Next, slowly add in the flour/baking powder mixture and mix.
- Scoop all of your dough onto a piece of wax paper and pat it into a thick flat disk shape.
- Wrap it up in the was paper and refrigerate at least an hour until it is firm (I actually made my dough the night before and then rolled out my cookies the next day)
- Next, prepare your cookie topping.
- In a food processor, combine your flour, sugar, and cinnamon and pulse briefly to mix.
- Toss in your small pieces of butter, add the vanilla, and then pulse until the mixture is moist and crumbly.
- Prepare cookie sheets by greasing them with butter.
- Place your dough on a lightly floured cutting board and roll your dough out until it is about 1/4 inch thick.
- Use a 2-inch round cookie cutter to cut out your cookies.
- Transfer your cookies to the cookie sheets.
- Scoop your streusel topping on top of each of the cookies and press gently on them to keep the topping in place.
- Drain your cherries and cut them in half.
- Top each cookie with a cherry.
- Bake in 350° oven for about 15 minutes.
- Remove cookies from the oven, let them cool on the cookies sheets for about 2 minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack until cooled completely.
Recipe Adapted From: Very Merry Cookie Party book by Barbara Grunes & Virginia Van Vynckt
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