Traditional German Christmas Cookie Recipe: German Spice Cake Cookies

I worked at a family owned a few years back for several years. The owners of the company were German, and so were several of the employees, and we were like a big happy family for many years. Needless to say during the holidays I learned a bit about German traditions, and over the years learned a thing or two about German dishes. There were a few years that we had a cookie exchange where we would all bake a specific amount of cookies and bring in a set amount to trade with other people in the cookie exchange. One year someone brought in German Spice Cakes. Of course I had to get the recipe and make them for myself.

German Spice Cakes are a hard cookie and very much like a gingerbread cookie. The firmness of these cookies makes them ideal for dunking in milk, coffee, hot chocolate and they are amazingly good with tea. They can be left plain or you can frost them with icing. This is a cookie that is often cut into shapes and can be decorated if you so desire. This is a traditional German Christmas cookie.

Here is the recipe for German Spice Cakes

German Spice Cakes

¾ cup sugar

¾ cup honey

2 eggs

3 ½ sifted cups flour (do not use self rising flour)

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. allspice

¾ cup chopped almonds

¾ cup chopped candied orange peel

Note: Candied oranges can be purchased at food stores that sell a variety of ethnic items, or that sell German or Italian foods. You can also order the online at:

http://markethallfoods.com look under candied fruits.

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix the first three wet ingredients together, make sure they are mixed thoroughly. Make sure when you measure out the flour that you are measuring out a sifted amount. Mix the flour with the baking powder, cinnamon, and allspice. Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, then mix in the almonds and the candied orange peel.

When the mixture is all mixed it should form a dough. Take the dough and place it on a floured surface. You will need a rolling pin to roll out the dough. The dough should be about a ¼ of an inch thick. After you roll out the dough you can use cookie cutter to shape it in to what ever shape you like. Roll up excess dough and roll again, and repeat until the dough is nearly gone.

Spray a cooking sheet with cooking spray, and place cookies on the sheet. Bake cookies between 10 to 12 minutes.

If you intend to ice the cookies you should do it right away while they are still hot. Spoon or brush the icing over the cookies.

You want these cookies to be hard so you should keep them covered in a container for a week before actually serving, this process is called mellowing although I don't know why. If they get to hare you can put a slice of apple in the container and this should correct the problem within 24 hours.

This makes 4 dozen cookies.

You can use your own egg white icing recipe or icing made with confectioners sugar or you can use this recipe.

Egg White Icing

Beat 2 cups confectioners sugar

3 egg whites,

1 1/2 tsp. of lemon juice.

Beat for 5 minutes.

This always makes just a little more than you actually need but I have found that if you pour the remaining icing over Pillsbury Crescent rolls it makes a yummy snack.