Easy Vanillekipferl- German Vanilla Christmas Cookies

These delicious German vanilla cookies are such a sweet and delicious treat to have this time of year. I make these vanillekipferl with my grandma’s recipe, and they turn out amazing every time, even when I’ve had to swap out the ingredients to make them low FODMAP! The recipe only uses a few super simple ingredients, most of which you most likely already have in your cupboard. With minimal mess, stress and time, these cookies are an awesome option to make with your family and friends to help get you into the Christmas spirit!

Creaming the butter and sugars together at the start is the best way to kick off your vanillekipferl baking journey. All of the ingredients come into the same bowl. Yes, you heard that right! Minimal mess and effort- these cookies are perfectly fine to mix in one bowl as the ingredients are so simple. Since we are only using one bowl, it is essential that we mix the wet ingredients first and then deal with the dry ingredients further down the line. This is because the butter would be difficult to incorporate into the dry ingredients as we are not using melted butter.

I find it easiest to use a mini whisk to mix the wet ingredients together initially. A normal whisk I find is too big for this small amount of dough, and it avoids getting all of the mix stuck inside the whisk. In addition, the mini whisk is really good at getting out the small lumps of butter that I get whilst creaming together the ingredients. I also wanted to note, that I used ground walnuts in this recipe rather than ground almonds. This is because almonds are high FODMAP and are prone to upsetting those on a low FODMAP diet. But if almonds do not trigger your IBS, or you are not on this elimination diet, feel free to use ground almonds, as the original vanillekipferl recipe calls for.

If you like this these vanillekipferl, here are some other sweet recipes to try:

If your vanillekipferl dough sticks to your hands when you handle it, it’s too wet. I suggest adding a tbsp of flour at a time and incorporating it. You want to keep adding flour until the dough no longer sticks to your hands and is easy to handle. Whilst the dough will firm up in the fridge, when you begin handling it, the butter will start to melt. Therefore, the dough becomes softer again which makes rolling it into moons quite challenging. Do not worry about affecting the flavour of the cookies by adding more flour. The dough itself does not taste very sweet. This is good because we will role it in vanilla sugar and powdered sugar when they come out the oven. This is where they will get the majority of their sweetness from.

The reason we refrigerate our vanillekipferl cookie dough is because we want the butter to be cooled before we bake. This way, the cookies will not run and spread whilst they’re baking. By having refrigerated them, the cookies are more likely to keep their shape whilst they are in the oven. In addition, the cooling process helps to just make the dough easier to handle and roll into the moon shapes as seen in the image below.

I find that the best technique to make the half-moon shape for the vanillekipferl is to first take a small ball of dough. Then I roll it out into a small, slightly thinner cocktail sausage length, then I bend the edges round and slightly pinch them. It is an absolute task to try and get them all the same shape, but it is important that you make them similar sizes so that they bake evenly.

If you’re looking for some more festive/Winter recipes, check these out:

This is a mix of vanilla sugar and powdered sugar. If you do not have vanilla sugar, feel free to just use powdered sugar here. Whilst you will not get the same kick of vanilla in the cookies, it is still important that you coat your cookies. This is because the cookies base is actually not very sweet, as there is not very much sugar in the cookie dough itself. The main sweetness comes from the coating. It is essential that you roll the vanillakipferl in the mix as soon as they come out of the oven, otherwise the powdered sugar will not stick to the cookies. I recommend using a fork to help toss them in the mixture to keep your hands clean, to avoid you burning yourself, and to also ensure you don’t get fingerprints and sticky marks on the cookies.

Now that your vanillekipferl are out of the oven, coat them immediately with the icing sugar and vanilla sugar mix. Once done, set the cookies onto a non-stick surface, for example a chopping board or some parchment paper. This is to help keep the cookies neat and prevent them from touching and ruining the lovely, neat coating. Once the cookies have fully cooled, place them into a cookie tin, or an airtight container to help preserve them. I recommend placing some kitchen towel or napkins in-between layers of the cookies to keep them organised and protected. The vanillekipferl will keep for a minimum of 3 weeks.

Ingredients: (Makes approx 35)

100g dairy free butter
30g white sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar
170g gluten free flour
50g ground walnuts (original recipe with almonds but these are high FODMAP)

For Coating:

1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup vanilla sugar

Method:

Step 1: in a bowl, mix the butter, sugar and vanilla sugar.

Step 2: next add in your ground walnuts and mix.

Step 3: finally sieve in your flour and mix. You want the dough to not stick to your fingers when you handle it. If it does stick, add a tbsp of flour at a time until it no longer sticks.

Step 4: set your dough into the fridge for 30 mins.

Step 5: preheat your oven to 180°C and shape your dough into little moons.

Step 6: bake in the oven for 10-15 mins or until they start to show browning on the edges. In the meantime, mix your icing sugar and vanilla sugar in a bowl.

Step 7: remove from oven and immediately roll in the vanilla sugar and icing sugar mix.

These cookies will keep for a long time- store in a sealed container and they will last for 3 weeks!

Make sure to send me your vanillakipferl images. My Instagram is TheLazyLowFODMAP. I would love to see your pictures, so tag me in them or DM them to me!