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    Home » Christmas

    Basler Brunsli Cookies

    Dec 3, 2010 · Modified: Dec 26, 2021 by Andrea · This post may contain affiliate links · This blog generates income via ads · 10 Comments

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    Basler Brunsli Cookies - Andrea Meyers

    As soon as Thanksgiving is over we start decorating for Christmas and baking cookies. For us Black Friday is more about decorating and baking than shopping as we’ve often finished our Christmas shopping by then. This year we had family visiting so the decorating and baking was put off, but we are catching up.

    Two years ago a few baking bloggers got together to celebrate Christmas cookies by baking our way through a selection of Gourmet magazine’s favorite cookies from the last 40 years, and we repeated the event last year though my schedule didn’t permit me to participate. We’re back again and this time baking some of Saveur’s favorite international cookies. We have each chosen four cookies to bake, one for each week between now and Christmas and we hope you enjoy the cookies along with us.

    For my first cookie, I was immediately drawn to the Basler Brunsli, a chocolate and almond cookie from Switzerland. These are made with finely ground almonds rather than wheat flour and are gluten free. I opted to use almond meal from Trader Joe’s rather than grinding the almonds, and it worked very well, I just weighed out 8 ounces of almond meal. The cookies are spiced with cinnamon and cloves, which I ground just before adding to the dough, and the baking aroma is fantastic. The cloves really stand out in the cookies, so if cloves aren’t your thing you may want to reduce the amount slightly. I found that dividing the dough in half and rolling half at a time made it much easier to work with.

    The boys helped cut the shapes, and we used practically every cutter in the kitchen. Monkey Boy even grabbed the pumpkin cutter and made a rather large cookie that he kept all to himself, but he had competition for the snowmen.

    Make sure you check out the other bakers to see what’s in their ovens for Christmas.

    Cookies We Love logo

    The Rest of the Cookie Baking Clan

    • Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen (Thanks for making the logo!)
    • Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook
    • Judy of No Fear Entertaining
    • Kelly of Sass & Veracity
    • Michelle of Big Black Dogs
    • RJ of Flamingo Musings
    • Sandy of At the Baker’s Bench
    • Tiffany of The Nesting Project
    • Courtney of Coco Cooks
    Basler Brunsli Cookies Recipe - Andrea Meyers
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    Basler Brunsli Cookies

    Adapted from Saveur.
    Prep Time10 mins
    Cook Time15 mins
    Resting Time3 hrs
    Total Time3 hrs 25 mins
    Course: Dessert
    Cuisine: Switzerland
    Diet: Gluten Free, Vegan, Vegetarian
    Keyword: almond meal, chocolate, cookies, dairy-free, gluten free
    Servings: 48 cookies
    Calories: 72kcal

    Equipment

    • food processor with a large bowl, at least 5 cups
    • 5 to 6 pieces parchment paper
    • 4 baking sheets
    • rolling pin
    • star shape cutter (and other cutters as desired)

    Ingredients

    • 8 ounces almond meal (or whole blanched almonds, finely ground)
    • 1 ½ cups granulated sugar (plus more for rolling)
    • 6 ounces semisweet chocolate (finely chopped, or dairy-free chocolate)
    • 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
    • ½ teaspoon ground cloves
    • 2 egg whites (lightly beaten)
    US Customary - Metric

    Preparation

    • In the bowl of the food processor, mix together the almond meal and sugar. Add the chopped chocolate and process until finely ground. Add the cinnamon, cloves, and egg whites, and pulse to make a dough.
    • Sprinkle the extra sugar over a sheet of parchment. Divide the dough in half and lay one half on top of the parchment. Lay another piece of parchment over the dough and roll it out to ⅛ inch thickness. Cut the cookies with the cutter and lay on parchment-lined baking sheets, arranging them 1 inch apart. Reroll the remaining dough and continue it’s all used. Allow the cookies to stand and dry for about 3 hours.
    • Preheat the oven to 300° F/150° C.
    • Bake the cookies until they are slightly puffed, about 12 to 15 minutes. Allow to cool completely and store in a tin.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 72kcal | Carbohydrates: 9g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 3mg | Potassium: 22mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 2IU | Calcium: 12mg | Iron: 1mg
    Tried this recipe?Share in the comments!

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    « Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Moroccan Spices
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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Sandy says

      December 03, 2010 at 7:25 pm

      These are lovely, Andrea!

      Reply
    2. Kelly says

      December 04, 2010 at 7:46 pm

      I can't get past the fact that you're done with your shopping by black Friday. Impressive! With no kids at home any longer, it's become harder and harder to buy anything. Easy on the pocketbook, but sort of boring, too. We love going out and about in the thick of things. Go figure. Lovely cookies! I think I made these a couple of years ago and we really liked them. Quite the unusual recipe, isn't it?

      Reply
    3. coco cooks says

      December 05, 2010 at 7:29 pm

      I'm loving everything about this cookie. I welcome the cloves and spice.

      Reply
    4. RJ Flamingo says

      December 05, 2010 at 8:55 pm

      These are on my list for later, Andrea - so curious about that chocolate/clove combination! Yours are so pretty!

      Reply
    5. Claire says

      December 06, 2010 at 10:06 am

      These look so pretty! It's actually proving problematic to do just four - I may need to slip in a few extra to get through all the tasty ones.

      Reply
    6. Judy says

      December 06, 2010 at 6:53 pm

      Love these one Andrea! Glad to have you back with us this year!

      Reply
    7. Di says

      December 06, 2010 at 11:31 pm

      I love making star-shaped cookies. My kids love to "help" me bake. Sometimes it goes better than others. I'm glad you all had fun with these.

      Reply
    8. Michelle says

      December 07, 2010 at 12:03 am

      I was going to make these too and thanks for the heads up on the Clove. Clove is always such a strong flavor and I usually do cut it down in most recipes.

      Glad to see you participating this year!

      Reply
    9. Nate @ House of Anie says

      December 08, 2010 at 1:41 am

      They sound great! Too bad we can't find almond flour here in Kuching...

      Reply

    Trackbacks

    1. Tweets that mention Basler Brunsli Cookies | Andrea Meyers -- Topsy.com says:
      December 3, 2010 at 7:14 pm

      [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Elemental Deals and Elemental Deals, Andrea Meyers. Andrea Meyers said: {new post} Basler Brunsli Cookies http://goo.gl/fb/mcqlF [...]

      Reply

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