How do you make Alsatian Christmas biscuits?

How do you make bredeles?

Bredeles are small star-shaped or fir-shaped biscuits (there are all sorts of biscuit cutters to give them a nice shape). To make them, you need :

Star-shaped bredeles. Photo chosen by monsieurdefrance.com: MattLphotography via depositphotos

Ingredients:

• 1 whole egg
• 4 egg yolks
• 125 grams soft butter
• 125 grams caster sugar
• 250 grams of flour

The process:

1. First, preheat the oven to 180°C (gas mark 6).
2. Then separate the yolks from the whites
3. Mix the soft butter with the sugar
4. Add the egg yolks and mix.
5. Add the flour, not all at once, but gradually, and mix again.
6. When you have a ball of dough, place it in a sealed container or in cling film.
7. Leave to stand for at least two hours at room temperature
8. Line an oven tray with baking parchment
9. flour your work surface and roll out the dough to a thickness of around 5 mm (half a centimetre)
10. Break your remaining whole egg and beat well.
11. Cut out the shapes you want, either with a cookie cutter or by hand.
12. Brush your shapes with your whole egg (using a brush)
13. Bake for 8 minutes at 180°C.

They're ready when they're golden

Option :

You can brush your bredeles with a little melted chocolate (melt 100 grams of chocolate with 20 grams of butter) or sprinkle them with icing sugar.

Tips and tricks :

Put your biscuits in a sealed glass or tuperweare tin. Bredeles stay soft in the fridge for a good week. But they are also very tasty when a little dry.

You'll find some great moulds and cutters for your bredeles on this site.

Alsatian Christmas cakes. Photo chosen by monsieurdefrance.com: depositphotos

How do you make Alsatian spritz?

Alsatian spritz (not to be confused with the famous spritz cocktail, which is Venetian) is the easiest of all Alsatian biscuits to make. And it's delicious! To make your spritz, you'll need :

Ingredients

For 50 biscuits :

• A few tastes of vanilla flavouring
• 1 kg sifted flour
• 4 eggs
• 200 grams of chocolate
• 240 grams almond powder
• 500 grams caster sugar
• 700 grams soft butter
• 40 extra grams of butter

A spritz. Photo chosen by monsieurdefrance.com: depositphotos.

The process

First, take the butter out of the fridge at least half an hour before you start.

1. Put the butter in a bowl and work it with a spatula until it becomes smooth and soft. This is called kneading the butter because its texture should resemble that of ointment.
2. Add a few drops of vanilla flavouring
3. Add the sugar and continue mixing
4. Add the eggs to your mixture
5. Gradually add half the flour (500 grams) and continue mixing.
6. Put the other half of the flour on your work surface (500 grams)
7. Add the almond powder and mix the two ingredients together.
8. Slide the mixture from your bowl onto the flour and almond powder mixture.
9. Work the dough into the flour and almond powder mixture.
10. Shape into a ball and place in a sealed container (or cling film) and leave to rest in the fridge for 1 hour.

Then

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C (gas mark 6)
2. Take a baking tray (or 2) and line it with baking parchment.
3. You can either use a piping bag with a fluted tip and press down, cutting what comes out every 4 or 5 centimetres.
4. You can either make sausages about 1 centimetre thick and cut them every 4 or 5 centimetres.
5. Arrange your pieces on the baking tray
6. Place in the oven at 180 °C (gas mark 6) for 15 minutes.

Finally

1. Meanwhile, melt the remaining 40 grams of butter with the chocolate.
2. When the spritz are cooked, take them out and dip one end in your liquid chocolate.
3. When the chocolate is dry, place your spritz in a sealed tin, either in the fridge to keep them soft, or at room temperature.