Elisenlebkuchen (german Christmas Cookies)

Total Time: 1 hr Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 50
• 300 g powdered sugar
• 3 egg whites
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 lemon, grated zest of
• 75 g candied lemon peel, finely chopped
• 300 g very finely ground almonds
• 50 german baking wafers, 4 cm diameter (oblaten)
• 100 g sweetened milk chocolate, chopped

Recipe

• 1 preheat oven to 150°c (or 300°f).
• 2 place powdered sugar and egg whites in a mixing bowl and beat, using a whisk attachment on an electric mixer on high speed, until stiff (but not dry) peaks form- this may take while (up to 8 minutes- but may take less depending upon your mixer).
• 3 combine the lemon zest, the candied lemon peel, and the nuts, then gently fold in the egg whites mixture- do not overmix.
• 4 line a baking sheet with parchment paper, then set out the oblaten wafers.
• 5 place a 1 rounded tbsp of cookie dough onto each oblaten in a mound.
• 6 bake about 20 minutes until light brown, in the center of the oven.
• 7 if necessary, set a second (empty) cookie sheet in the rack directly above the cookies to help keep the tops from overbrowning.
• 8 remove from oven and let cool on wire racks.
• 9 melt chocolate in either a double boiler or in the microwave briefly until you can stir down the chocolate into a melted glaze (be careful not to burn if you use the microwave- chocolate tends to hold its shape even if it is melted inside when melted this way).
• 10 drizzle the tops of each cookie with the melted chocolate.
• 11 if you prefer, you may melt even more chocolate and carefuly dip the cookies halfway.
• 12 let dipped cookies dry on a cooling rack.
• 13 pack into airtight containers.
• 14 if using american measurements: use about 2 cups ground almonds, 2 1/3 cups powdered sugar, 1 cup candied lemon peel, and a couple of hershey's milk chocolate bars (regular size)- or more.