The vanilla kipferl is an Austrian delicacy that is also particularly well-liked in Germany and Switzerland. After two to three days, the kipferl get even tastier—but only for those who can hold up long enough. If preferred, warm chocolate can be used to dip the two ends of the kipferl, which should then be allowed to cool.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 10 mins |
| Additional Time: | 45 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 25 mins |
| Servings: | 30 |
| Yield: | 5 dozen |
Ingredients
- 2 ⅛ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 pinch salt
- 7 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ½ cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 egg
- 3 teaspoons vanilla sugar
- 1 ¼ cups ground almonds
- 6 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla sugar
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in the butter until the size of small peas and mix in with your hands.
- Mix 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, the egg, 3 teaspoons of vanilla sugar, and ground almonds into the flour mixture. Place the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Divide the dough into several parts. Roll each section of dough into logs approximately 1/2 inch thick. Cut the logs into 1-inch pieces, and bend the pieces into a crescent shape (just like a croissant). Place the kipferl on the baking sheet and chill them for 15 minutes.
- Bake in the preheated oven until the edges are golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Let cool slightly.
- Combine 6 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla sugar and toss to mix.
- While still warm, carefully remove kipferl from the baking sheet and dip them in sugar to coat.
- To Make
- : Place 1 1/2 to 2 cups of sugar and place in pint jar. Put a clean vanilla bean in the jar, cover, and shake well. Let stand for a few days, shaking the jar occasionally, before using the sugar. As you use the vanilla sugar, replace what you remove with fresh sugar.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 109 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 12 g |
| Cholesterol | 13 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Sodium | 3 mg |
| Sugars | 4 g |
| Fat | 6 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
if you used bagged ground almond/almond flour add extra butter or milk to the mix! I’ve made this once with bagged almond flour and once by grinding whole blanched almonds. The almond flour is dry and the blanched almonds and natural moister that helped keep the dough together. otherwise these are a grate cookie! I love them dipped in a bit of milk chocolate at the ends.
I adore these cookies. They satisfy my sweet tooth but are not too sweet which I love! They are so good that I make them all the time not just around Christmas. The more you make them, the easier they are to shape. I always forget the “Place the kipferl on the baking sheet and chill them for 15 minutes.” step of the recipe & thankfully hasn’t made a difference. The last time, my dough came out too dry so I added a little bit of almond milk so it would come together better & it didn’t seem to make a difference (again thankfully). Almost forgot, I did use 14 Tbsp. butter like FoodObsessedMom had said in her review.
Great recipe! My only tip would be to add a teaspoon of two more vanilla. Otherwise this is perfect
Converting recipes from Europe to Canadian or American is never easy. First of all, I have found from German recipes, the ingredients are not the same in Canada or the US. There is always some jiggling involved. I did not add the salt. Instead of the confectioner’s sugar, I used white sugar and instead of the vanilla sugar, I used just plain old liquid vanilla. While I was mixing the dough up, I did have to add a little more butter and I used hazelnuts instead of almonds. All in all though, the recipe baked up really well and the flavor was wonderful. Our family has a German heritage and we all loved the cookies.
Not exactly how I know them from Germany (I’m an exchange student right now)! But still really good and my host family liked them! XO Miriam
I wanted to warn anyone using this recipe for the first time – the amount of butter given, 7 tablespoons, is NOT CORRECT! I made it as stated, and the dough was unbelievably crumbly, even more so than a pie crust, let alone a cookie. I went ahead and baked one batch, but the longer I thought about it the more I felt something was wrong. So I searched and found several other versions of vanilleklipfer – all of which had at least twice as much butter. I mixed an extra 4 tbs into the remaining dough I had left, and those cookies turned out perfectly. The first batch, made as written, was dry. If you double the butter, these are delicious cookies, but please do not make as written!
I made this for a book club meeting, to replicate the kipferl made in The Book Thief. It was quite a disappointment. First, I could not get it to form into cookies, it just crumbled apart. I finally added some milk and could barely get them to stay together. Second, they are not sweet. I guess that’s how it is supposed to be, but I was expecting a cookie so it was not sweet enough to me (I ended up drowning them in the sugar to try to get more sweet into them). Third, there is virtually no flavor in these at all. I even added almond extract as others suggested, but it was very bland. Will not be making again.
My German Gammy mixes hazelnuts and almonds.(actually you can use any ground nut you like.) Also it will give the Kipferl an even better taste if you roast the nuts in an ungreased skillet before preparing the dough. I think Vanille Kipferl are THE best German Christmas cookies and as a matter of fact I am just munching a couple of them 🙂
We loved these! I found this recipe because someone gave me a container of vanilla sugar. I wasn’t sure what to use it for. We tried to wait 3 days before eating them, but we failed. They were all gone well before then 🙂 I plan on making them again when I do my holiday baking!
Thanks for the recipe!!!
I started with an original Vanille Kipferl recipe from my husband’s grandmother in Germany. Since the measurements were all metric, I looked for a US version recipe and tried this one, trying to incorporate it with the original recipe. What a success! For the ground almonds, I bought the bag of Almond Flour at Trader Joe’s. It was perfect! In Germany, you can buy little bags of “Vanille Zucker” (vanilla sugar), but since I didn’t have any in my pantry, I used Vanilla extract instead and couldn’t notice a difference. If any, I prefer the extract since it leaves a little vanilla aftertaste, more than the vanilla sugar, in my opinion. This one’s a keeper!
A helpful hint: 7/8 c. butter is 14 TB. (or 1/2 c. + 6 TB). I didn’t have almonds on hand, but put in about 1 tsp imitation almond extract and it was delicious. If your mixture looks more like crumble than dough after combining everything, that’s ok! When you go to squeeze and shape the kipferls, the crumbs do turn into dough. Very delicious. I can’t wait to share these with my mother-in-law who loves kipferls! Thanks!
I first tried making these before christmas, and I tried skipping the step to put them in the freezer. Bad idea. They were burnt on the bottom and not cooked in the middle. So I tried again to make them, after christmas, and did all steps and they turned out wonderful!! I cant wait to make them next christmas and have people try them. My husband is from Germany and said that they were great. If you dont have vanilla sugar, and dont have the time to make it, I found a website that says you can make it by mixing 1 tsp of vanilla extract with 2 cups of sugar, mix it up and try to let it spread out in a large peice of tupperware, or a baking dish. After about an hour or so it will be hard, and you can just break it apart with a fork. Thanks for the recipe!
These were wonderful. My husband was born and raised in Austria and his eyes lit up when I made these. He could not stop eating them. It is true that they taste even better if you can hold off a couple days from eating them. They become very tender with a firm chew and deep flavor!
These are the favorite Christmas cookies of my German boyfriend, who lives in America… but I actually made these as a surprise for Valentines Day! I added red food coloring to the dough, and shaped them into hearts. They turned out really cute, and they were delicious!
I made these cookies for the first time for my daughters school project and although I played with the dough a bit adding and subtracting some things they came out perfectly and soooo very good. I gave the recipe out to 3 of the teachers, and what was funnier they didn’t really want to share them with the kids. Adding vanilla sugar to the powdered suger mixture makes them taste even better and the almond flavor WOOOOOW! Perfect for begginers and I’ll most definitly make them again…maybe next christmas as I will be in Germany YAY.
Awesome … my husband is German and he says these taste just like they do in Germany! Plus all our American friends loved them to. Watch out, they can be addictive! :o)
Brilliant recipe – thanks so much! Made them for the first time this week and everyone loved them! I am not much of a baker but these were so easy and yum! Will have to make another batch soon – these ones wont last till Christmas :o)
These are good, simple cookies. I think about a teaspoon of almond extract added to the batter would be helpful.
Thhese are my fave Xmas cookies!!! They’re so delicious and light. wow!