Vanille Krenzle (Cookies) by Anne Dreer, 13 Dec 2011

• 1 pound butter

• 1 cup regular sugar

• 4 cups all-purpose flour (if you use a US measuring cup you have to use 4¼  cups flour)

• ½ teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• Some grated lemon rind or ½ teaspoon lemon extract

• 2 eggs

Sift the baking powder into the flour; cut the butter into the flour and work it in by hand until there are no more lumps.  Stir in the eggs and flavoring

Work it into smooth dough by hand.  It is easier to roll out if the dough is chilled overnight or for several hours.

Roll it out and cut it into shapes.  Decorate with sprinkles or colored sugar before baking.  There is no need to brush with egg white.

Bake at 350° on greased cookie sheets (I use parchment baking paper to line the cookie sheets—no need to grease).

[Edited by Rose Mary Keller Hughes, Recipe Coordinator. Published at DVHH by Jody McKim Pharr, 13 Dec 2011]

Vanilla Sugar by Lucia Stemper, 31 Aug 2006 Comment:  You need a food processor for this one. Put your vanilla pods in the mixer, blitz, scrape the sides, and blitz again. Add all the sugar and blitz for about 2 minutes. Sieve the mixture into a bowl; return any lumps to the food processor and blitz again. (You may want to repeat this process if you want it really fine.) The result will be a slightly ashy colored mixture—now that's real vanilla sugar! Store it in an airtight container.  It should last you for ages. Don't buy vanilla essence and don't buy ready made vanilla sugar. It's so expensive you don't get much and you can so easily make a much better version yourself. You should use vanilla pods. Although the pods are quite expensive, the recipe works out much cheaper in the long run because of the amount you can make. Don't buy vanilla pods that are dry and hard—buy them fat, sticky and squashy. What we want to do is infuse the natural flavor of the vanilla pods into the sugar. It is perfectly fine, and obviously quicker, just to pop the pods in an airtight container with the sugar; you will achieve a subtler flavor. I really like this recipe though because you get the maximum flavor from the pods. Source: www.recipeslive.com/dish-types/spices/vanilla-sugar-2.html [Edited by Rose Mary Keller Hughes, Recipe Coordinator. Published at DVHH by Jody McKim Pharr, 31 Aug 2006]   Back