TABELIAAUTHENTIC RECIPE
ButterbredeleAlsatian Butter Christmas Cookies
- Total
- 3 hr 20 min
- Difficulty
- ★★☆☆☆
- Serves
- 50 servings
- Prep 40 min
- Cook 40 min
- Rest 2 hr
Alsatian Christmas butter cookies made by rubbing butter and sugar together with your fingers, rolling the dough thin, cutting out shapes, brushing with egg yolk and baking until golden.
AUTHENTICITY SCORE
Authenticity Score
This is the standard recipe, exactly as it’s made where it comes from — the highest Authenticity Score possible. Substituting ingredients changes this score; the app shows exactly how, ingredient by ingredient.
Ingredients (50 servings)
100Authenticity- Cake flour270 g250g, sifted, for the dough; 20g for dusting.
- Unsalted butter125 gCut into 1cm cubes and leave at room temperature until a finger makes a slight indentation.
- Granulated sugar125 g
- Vanilla extract3 mlUsed in place of vanilla sugar.
- Baking powder4 g1 teaspoon.
- Egg yolks4 yolks3 for the dough; 1 for glazing.
- Water5 mlFor the glaze.
Method
Rub butter and sugar together, then add yolks and flour and knead briefly
- 1 Put 125g unsalted butter, 125g granulated sugar and 3ml vanilla extract in a bowl. Rub together with your fingertips until crumbly and sandy.
- 2 Add 3 egg yolks, 1 at a time, mixing after each addition.
- 3 Sift in 250g cake flour with 4g baking powder. Knead briefly by hand until the dough comes together.
Ready when
Proceed when no dry flour remains and the dough forms a single mass.
Caution
Overkneading makes the baked cookies hard.
Wrap the dough and refrigerate for 2 hours
- 1 Flatten the dough into a disk about 2cm thick, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Ready when
Proceed when the dough is cold and firm but still yields slightly to a finger.
Tips
Chilling makes the dough easier to roll.
Roll to 4mm, cut out the cookies and brush with egg yolk
- 1 MeanwhileWhile rolling, preheat the oven to 180°C (356°F).
- 2 Roll out the dough to 4mm thick on a floured work surface.
- 3 Cut with 4–5cm star or Christmas-tree cutters and arrange with space between them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Gather and reroll the scraps, then cut in the same way.
- 4 Mix 1 egg yolk with 5ml water and brush a thin layer over the cookies.
Ready when
Proceed when about 50 cookies have been cut and lightly glazed.
Caution
If the dough softens, refrigerate for 10 minutes before cutting.
Bake at 180°C for 10–12 minutes, then cool on a rack
- 1 Bake on the middle oven rack at 180°C (356°F) for 10–12 minutes. Bake the cookies in 3 batches if they will not all fit on a baking sheet.
- 2 Leave on the sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Ready when
The cookies are ready when the edges and tops are golden and they no longer bend when held after cooling.
About this dish
Strasbourg's Christmas market, the Christkindelsmärik, began in 1570 under Protestant influence, replacing the earlier Saint Nicholas market. It has been held in Place Broglie since 1871. Small cookies called bredele and mulled wine are specialties of the market.
In Alsatian homes, it is customary to bake several kinds of bredele from late November until Christmas and keep them in old metal tins. Butterbredele, whose name includes butter, are one variety, cut into stars or Christmas trees.
Bredele is an Alsatian word formed from a word for bread and a diminutive ending. It appeared in the 2018 edition of the Petit Larousse dictionary. An Alsatian linguist objected that the spelling entered in the dictionary was a form of baby talk, arguing that bredle was correct.
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