German Christmas Cookies: Hussar Crullers
It is finally starting to be Christmas time which means it is time to bake those wonderful Christmas cookies. I especially love the traditional German Christmas cookies and will add several recipes as I make them. Try out the yummy Hussar Crullers with ground hazelnuts. In German they are called Husarenkrapfen (try to say that without stumbling 🙂 ) Everybody loves them in my family.
German Christmas Cookies: Hussar Crullers
The first thing, of course, is making the dough. It is a shortcrust style dough as you can see in the picture. It’s a bit crumbly. But that is great for forming the walnut sized balls you need for the Hussar Crullers.
The ingredients for the dough are flour, hazelnuts, sugar, butter, 2 egg yolks and some cinnamon. Mix the dry ingredients first then add the butter (in flakes), the egg yolks and cinnamon and knead everything well. Then wrap and chill the dough for about an hour. To be honest I don’t always have the time to chill the dough and the Hussar Crullers still turn out fine. But the dough will be a bit softer.
Then prep your baking tray and form walnut sized balls from the dough. Put the dough balls on the baking paper and flatten them a little bit. Then with the dull end of a cooking spoon (or your thumb) make small indentations. These will be filled with heated red jam/jelly. I like red currant the best. And now you bake them for about 15-20min.
This is how the Hussar Crullers look right out of the oven. If you have warm jam left over, you can add it to the crullars. I usually don’t have much left over 🙂
The last step is to dust the cookies with powdered sugar. And you can be generous with the sugar. It always looks like too much at first, but the jam will show through after a while.
Here you can see how they look right after dusting and below after a few minutes.
Now you can enjoy these wonderful Christmas cookies. Or maybe wrap them up nicely and use them as a gift. Everybody will be happy to receive these cookies.
German Christmas Cookies: Hussar Crullers
Hussar Crullers
Equipment
- blender with kneading hook
- Bowl
Ingredients
- 1 + 1/4 cup white flour
- 3/4 cup ground hazelnuts
- 1/3 cup sugar brown or white
- 1/2 + 1/8 cup butter
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 cup red currant jelly/jam
- 2-4 tbsp powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Mix flour, hazelnuts, sugar in a bowl. Add butter in flakes, egg yolks and cinnamon. Use kneading hook on your blender and knead well.
- Wrap with cling film and chill in fridge for about 1h
- Prepare baking tray with baking paper and heat oven to 350°F
- Form walnut sized balls and set on baking paper. With the dull end of a cooking spoon or your thumb make indentations into the cookies.
- Heat jelly and fill the indentations of the cookies. Bake for 15-20min
- After baking fill the centers with the rest of the jelly (if there is any). While the cookies are still warm dust them with powdered sugar.
