Little Rascals: Jam-Filled German Christmas Cookies

These sweet and jammy sandwich cookies are some of my all-time favourite Christmas cookies — and not just because of their delightful name. Spitzbuben or little rascals, as they’re called in some parts of Germany, are traditional German Christmas cookies that come in a range of shapes and sizes and with a variety of names. In my family, we call them Hildabredle, which translates to little Hilda biscuits, and I have no idea why. What I do know is that this particular recipe is the best, I promise! It’s been passed down from my grandmother to my mother and down to me who, of course, had to put her dirty vegan fingers all over it.

But all jokes aside, this vegan version of the traditional Christmas cookie tastes exactly like the cookies I grew up with and makes me feel like I’m home for Christmas even when I’m not — that’s gold for an expat girlie like me!

It’s a simple recipe with no crazy ingredients, and the cookies come together in three easy steps: baking, sandwiching, dusting. It’s got all the tradition of a proper little rascal cookie but features none of the traditional animal exploitation. Phew!

There’s no good reason not to try them, so please do. Christmas is always just around the corner!

Ingredients

For about 35 cookies

250g plain white or pastry flour

100g granulated or caster sugar

150g vegan block butter

50g ground almonds

1 tsp baking powder

About 200g redcurrant jelly for the filling

Kitchen utensils

Electric hand mixer or stand mixer

Round cookie cutter (5cm/2”)

Rolling pin

Cling film

Method

Step 1 In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and sugar with a wire whisk. You can do this by hand, no need for an electric mixer.

Step 2 Measure the vegan butter, cut it into small pieces or ‘flakes’ and add them to the bowl.

Step 3 Mix all ingredients (apart from the ground almonds) until the mixture turns into a crumbly dough. This will take around 5 minutes. I recommend using an electric hand mixer or stand mixer for this step.

Step 4 To your crumbly mixture, add the ground almonds and mix a little more until all ingredients are well combined.

Step 5 Time to get your hands involved! Start kneading the dough with your hands in the bowl first, then transfer it to a clean surface (kitchen worktop) and continue kneading the dough by hand until it comes together. This will take another 5 minutes.

Step 6 Shape the dough into a ball or log, wrap it with cling film, and place it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. The dough will seem a little dry and won’t hold together well — don’t worry, that’s exactly how it’s supposed to be!

Step 7 After at least an hour, preheat your oven to 160°C on the fan setting or 180°C on conventional top and bottom heat. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Step 8 Take your dough out of the fridge and cut off approximately a third of the log to use straight away. Put the rest back into the fridge. Carefully shape the piece of dough into a flat, disc-like shape. If the dough has been in the fridge for several hours, you will have to knead it again with your hands to warm it up and make it workable. Place the pre-shaped dough between two sheets of cling film and roll it out evenly. As the dough is quite crumbly, the cling film will help keep it together during the rolling-out process. If you don’t have cling film, roll out smaller portions of dough at a time and use flour to keep it from sticking to the surface and rolling pin.

Step 9 When the dough is rolled out evenly, cut out your cookies with a cookie cutter and carefully transfer them to the baking sheet. Bake one baking tray at a time for 10 minutes. I like to turn the tray halfway through to ensure an even bake. Make sure the cookies don’t brown too much — a slight golden tint is perfect (see photos above for reference).

Step 10 Transfer your cookies to a cooling rack and let them cool completely.

Step 11 In a small pot on medium heat, warm up the redcurrant jelly. All you want to do is liquefy the jelly so it spreads more easily. Spoon the liquid jelly onto the base of your first cookie — one dollop of jelly in the centre is enough. I use about 1 teaspoon but you can adjust to your liking. Take another cookie and gently press it onto the jelly to sandwich them together. Continue like this with the remaining cookies. I like to work with one cookie at a time but you could spoon the jelly onto half of the cookies first and then add the tops.

Step 12 You should now have around 35 sandwich cookies waiting to be generously dusted with powdered sugar. I like to use a metal strainer or tea strainer for dusting. Make sure to dust from both sides, then store in an airtight container. You could eat them straight away, but they become tastier over time as the cookies soften and soak up the sugar. They will keep in a cookie tin or airtight container for several weeks…but will they?

Notes on Ingredients

Cookie Cutter

You could use any cookie cutter size or shape but I would stay away from overly complicated shapes because it will make it harder to fill them evenly. I like to use a round cookie cutter with a diameter of about 5cm (2”) to stay within my family’s tradition. A bite-sized cookie also helps avoid powdered sugar all over your favourite Christmas jumper.

Ground Almonds

Do not confuse with almond flour! Ground almonds can be found in the baking aisle of most supermarkets and have a coarser grind than almond flour. You could replace them with ground hazelnuts but this will give the cookies a distinctly different flavour.

Redcurrant Jelly

Redcurrant jelly is what makes my family recipe for these jam-filled Christmas cookies so special. Like I said, little rascal cookies come in many variations, and loads of recipes call for raspberry jam as filling. While this is absolutely fine, I much prefer the tanginess the redcurrant jelly adds to these already very sweet cookies. In my opinion, redcurrant jelly is non-negotiable in this recipe, it really makes all the difference! If you absolutely must use raspberry jam, I recommend adding a little lemon juice to cut through the sweetness. But please just don’t!

Vegan Butter

For this recipe, it’s important to use firm vegan butter rather than vegan spread. Both Naturli Vegan Block and Flora Plant Butter block (unsalted) work well in this recipe.