Not many things in life are truly constant—except my mother calling every Sunday and sending me a box of Christmas cookies every December for the past 30 years.

There’s only so much she can send in the mail, so over the years I started baking more myself. Before long, these cookies felt just as at home in California as they have always been in Bavaria.

This collection brings together a few classic German holiday cookie recipes—simple, traditional, and made to be shared. Each one carries a bit of family history, a lot of butter, and the belief that the best holiday traditions are the ones you pass along.

Happy Baking,
Holger

Ingredients

For the batter

• 5 eggs
• 5 tablespoons orange juice
• 175g sugar (3/4 cup)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• Zest of 1 orange
• 50g flour (⅓ cup)
• 50g corn starch (⅓ cup)
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
• 300g ground almonds

For the frosting

• 500ml butter (2 sticks) 
• 1 pack vanilla pudding powder
• 250g room temperature butter
• 2 tablespoons orange or apricot jam
• 100g Almonds halves

Instructions:

For the sponge:

1. Separate yolks from egg white and add into separate bowl. 
2. Beat the egg yolks together with vanilla, orange juice and zest and ⅔ of the sugar until creamy. 
3. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and add the remainder of the sugar. 
4. Add the egg whites to the egg yolk cream. Mix flour, cornstarch, baking soda and cream of tartar and sieve on top. Add the almond flower and fold everything carefully into the yolk cream. 
5. Lay a parchment paper into a 10” diameter spring form, fill in the dough mixture and bake at 375F for about 40min

For the butter cream:

*German buttercream is different from American buttercream in using vanilla pudding together with the butter. That results in a much lighter version of butter cream that is still rich and delicious. I recommend Dr. Oetker vanilla pudding powder which is readily available online and a staple in German baking. 

1. Cook the pudding according to the instructions and let cool to room temperature. 
2. Add one teaspoon of vanilla extract (if you want a more intense vanilla flavor). 
3. Mix frequently so it doesn’t develop a skin. 
4. Beat the butter foamy and then add the pudding one tablespoon at a time. 

Assembly:

1. Let sponge cool completely and cut horizontally in half. 
2. Spread the jam on the first layer and about ½ of the buttercream on top. 
3. Add the 2nd sponge layer and frost the whole cake with the remaining butter cream
4. Toast the almonds halves in a pan, let cool and decorate the top in a star shape. 

We're in the home stretch to Christmas and over the next couple days I would like to share some of my mother's favorite German Christmas cookie recipes. 

We are starting off with the most classic: Gingerbread. My mother judges the quality of a cookie by the amount of flour it has. The less flour the better the cookie.

And if she was making a recipe without any flour she would get really excited and almost whisper “there's no flour in them.” It was always so funny to me since it felt like she was being naughty and I loved how much she enjoyed making cookies for her family.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 180g powdered sugar
• Large pinch of Ground Mace and Cloves
• 1 tbsp Cinnamon
• Pinch of Salt
• Zest of 1 washed Lemon
• 175g Ground Almonds (skin on)
• 175g Ground Hazelnuts
• 175g Candied Lemon Peel
• 85g Candied Orange Peel
• Cookie Wafers
• 200g Powdered Sugar
• 4 tbsp Cocoa
• 30g Coconut Oil
• 5 tbsp Hot Water

Instructions

1. Beat the eggs together with the powdered sugar
2. Fold in spices, lemon zest and the ground nuts
3. Finely chop lemon and orange peel and add to mixture
4. Arrange the wafers on a cookie sheet and use two teaspoons to put a dollop of dough on each. 
5. Bake at 200C for about 20min
6. Divide powdered sugar for the glazes
7. Add water to one half of the powdered sugar until desired consistency (classic is a more liquid glaze which results in a thinner coat but can be adjusted to taste) and glaze half the cookies. 
8. Mix powdered sugar with cocoa, melt the coconut oil and add to mixture, add the water. Cover the remaining cookies with the chocolate glaze.

It’s almost Christmas, and time is running out to bake—so I’m sharing a cookie recipe that’s as simple as it is delicious. We’re making Vanillekipferl, which translates to “vanilla crescents.”

These are a staple in my family. There has never been a Christmas where my mother didn’t make them, and for good reason—they’re tender, buttery, and dusted in vanilla sugar. They use no traditional Christmas spices, which makes them perfect not just for the holidays, but for any time of year.

Ingredients:

For the dough

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 15 Tbsp (1 cup minus 1 Tbsp) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup ground almonds (almond meal)
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar or powdered sugar
• 2 packets vanilla sugar (or 4 tsp vanilla sugar total)
  Seeds from 1 vanilla bean (optional)
• Pinch of salt

For coating

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 vanilla bean (or 4 tsp vanilla sugar total)

Instructions:

1. Prepare the dough
Knead all dough ingredients together until smooth. Shape the dough into logs about 4 cm (1½ in) in diameter. Wrap each log in baking paper or foil and refrigerate for 30–60 minutes, until firm.

2. Make the vanilla sugar coating
While the dough chills, sift the powdered sugar into a large, sealable bowl. Mix in the vanilla sugar and, if using, the seeds from one vanilla bean. Any extra sugar mixture can be saved for another batch.

3. Shape the crescents
Slice the chilled dough into pieces about 1–2 cm thick. Gently roll each piece into a crescent shape and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving space between the cookies.

4. Bake
Bake in a preheated oven at 175°C (350°F), convection, for 10–15 minutes, until the tips just begin to turn golden.

5. Coat and cool
Let the cookies cool for about 3 minutes. While still warm, gently roll them in the vanilla sugar mixture until evenly coated. Timing matters — too warm and they’ll break, too cool and the sugar won’t adhere.
Allow the cookies to cool completely before storing.

Serving

Serve the vanilla crescents plated on top of a felt trivet, creating an inviting centerpiece for sharing.

Storage & Tips

Store in a tin layered with parchment paper; the cookies will keep well for 3–4 weeks. For best results, bake trays one at a time so the cookies stay warm enough to coat properly in sugar.

Today we’re making Stollen Bites.

Stollen is the classic German Christmas bread—Italy has Panettone, and Germany has Stollen. Traditionally, it’s a yeasted dough filled with dried fruits and often a ribbon of marzipan. A full stollen can be quite time-consuming to make and usually needs to rest for two weeks (or more!) before it’s ready to eat.

Stollen Bites are the faster, friendlier version—all the flavor and festive nostalgia of traditional stollen, baked into a simple cookie that comes together quickly and tastes incredible right away.

Ingredients:

For the dough

• 500g flour (4 cups)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 pack dry yeast
• 2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 120ml milk (½ cup)
• Pinch of salt
• 200g soft butter (2 sticks)
• 100g powdered sugar (1 cup)
• 70g marzipan (5 tablespoons), ideally marzipan with at least 50% almond content
• 100g raisins (½ cup)
• 50g candied lemon peel (¼ cup)
• 50g candied oranges peel (¼ cup)
• 100g slivered or chopped almonds (1 cup)
• 3 tablespoons rum

For the coating

• 200g butter (2 sticks) 
• 150g powdered sugar  (1 cup)

Instructions:

1. Mix the raisins, candied fruit peel and the slivered almonds with rum and set aside. Ideally do this the day before to give more soaking time. You can substitute the fruit peel for raisins as well if you prefer. 
2. Beat the soft butter together with the powdered sugar for a couple of minutes. Tear the marzipan in small pieces, add to the butter mixture and keep beating until it is well combined. 
3. Mix the flour, the tablespoon of sugar, dry yeast and cinnamon in a big bowl. Add the hand warm milk, salt and the butter mixture and knead into a dough. Drain the raisin mixture, add to the dough and combine. 
4. Cover dough and proof for 1-2hrs in a warm location. Don’t worry if it doesn't rise as much as other yeasted dough. 
5. Roll dough into logs, cut into small pieces and lay in a parchment covered baking sheet. Bake for 12-15min at 350F. It should get about 50-70 pieces total. 
6. For the coating melt the butter in one bowl and put powdered sugar into a 2nd bowl. While the Stollen Bites are still somewhat hot - cover them with the butter first and then roll them in the powdered sugar.  Let cool completely.