The very first recipe in Luisa Weiss' Classic German Baking cookbook is "Butterkekse (Simplest Butter Cookies)." Weiss describes them as the German equivalent of what animal crackers are to American children -- "simple, wholesome cookies that have been a part of the treat landscape forever." I am familiar with the Leibniz Butterkekse by Bahlsen that you can buy at the supermarket and I'm a huge fan, which was one reason I decided to try this recipe. The other is that recipe calls for baker's ammonia and I recently replenished my supply. (I didn't actually finish my previous jar of ammonia -- you would have to bake a lot of cookies to use up an entire jar. Instead, the remaining ammonia in the jar evaporated despite the fact that I had stored it tightly capped and wrapped in cling film to prevent that very thing from happening.)
You make this dough by hand. I put the dry ingredients (flour, cornstarch, powdered sugar, salt, and baking soda) into a bowl; added the liquid ingredients (baker's ammonia dissolved in heavy cream, and vanilla) and softened high-fat butter (I used Président); mixed everything by hand; and kneaded the dough until smooth. I chilled the dough for an hour before rolling and cutting.
The dough was a joy to work with -- it didn't stick and I rolled it out on parchment without using any flour at all. I also re-rolled and cut all of the scraps without any problems. I used two different cookie cutters: a rectangular fluted cutter that is 2.5 by 1.75 inches, and a rabbit cutter that is about 2.75-inches tall and wide. I decided to use the bunny cutter both because of Weiss' reference to American animal crackers, and because my mother recently gave me a set of six cookie cutters that are all different bunny shapes (they even come in a yellow tin shaped like an egg -- I think it was an Easter seasonal item from Williams-Sonoma). And, after all, bunny cookies seem appropriate for a Littlebakerbunny. I made a double batch of dough and got 42 rectangular biscuits and 46 bunnies.
I docked the cookies before baking which is why the cookies in the photo above are perforated. Weiss calls these a "plain and simple cookie," but they are some of my favorite cookies ever. Thanks to the baker's ammonia, they were delightfully crisp and I wanted to eat them by the handful. Although they don't actually contain much butter (each batch only requires four tablespoons of butter), they tasted quite buttery. To me, they had the flavor of a Dutch butter cookie from the blue tin but the texture of an animal cracker. The recipe says you can keep the cookies for four weeks, but we finished up all of ours within a week. I loved them and definitely plan to make these cookies again.
Recipe: "Butterkekse (Simplest Butter Cookies)" from Classic German Baking by Luisa Weiss.
You make this dough by hand. I put the dry ingredients (flour, cornstarch, powdered sugar, salt, and baking soda) into a bowl; added the liquid ingredients (baker's ammonia dissolved in heavy cream, and vanilla) and softened high-fat butter (I used Président); mixed everything by hand; and kneaded the dough until smooth. I chilled the dough for an hour before rolling and cutting.
The dough was a joy to work with -- it didn't stick and I rolled it out on parchment without using any flour at all. I also re-rolled and cut all of the scraps without any problems. I used two different cookie cutters: a rectangular fluted cutter that is 2.5 by 1.75 inches, and a rabbit cutter that is about 2.75-inches tall and wide. I decided to use the bunny cutter both because of Weiss' reference to American animal crackers, and because my mother recently gave me a set of six cookie cutters that are all different bunny shapes (they even come in a yellow tin shaped like an egg -- I think it was an Easter seasonal item from Williams-Sonoma). And, after all, bunny cookies seem appropriate for a Littlebakerbunny. I made a double batch of dough and got 42 rectangular biscuits and 46 bunnies.
Recipe: "Butterkekse (Simplest Butter Cookies)" from Classic German Baking by Luisa Weiss.
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