Christmas decorations

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 200 g butter, soft
• 150 g sugar
• 1 packet of vanilla sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• 2 m.-sized eggs
• 150 g dark chocolate
• 150 g hazelnuts, grated and sieved
• 500 g flour
• 150 g almond(s) (almond paste)
• 1 egg white
• 1 tbsp Maraschino
• 75 g white chocolate (croquant), finely chopped
• 30 g pistachios, chopped
• e.g. pistachios, chopped
• 1 pack of cake icing, white

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 30 minutes

Christmas cookies made from chocolate shortcrust pastry with a filling of pistachios, marzipan and white chocolate brittle

For the dough, cream the butter in a bowl until smooth. Add the sugar, vanilla sugar, salt, and eggs and beat until the mixture is light in color. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in a microwave and stir into the mixture. Add the flour and hazelnuts and combine everything to form a dough. Chill. For the filling, puree the almond mixture, egg whites, and maraschino in a food processor until smooth and lump-free. Then mix with the chocolate and pistachios. Roll out the dough between two sheets of baking paper to a thickness of about 4 mm and cut out not-too-small stars for the base. Then place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Place a scant espresso spoonful of the filling in the center of each star. For the tops, cut out evenly sized stars with a small hole in the center (I used the bottom end of a funnel). Chill the stars again before baking. Preheat the oven to 200°C (top/bottom heat) and bake the stars for about 10-12 minutes (they’re done once the filling has risen slightly). Let the cookies cool, sprinkle some pistachio crumbs on the filling, and cover everything with a thin layer of melted icing.