Jødekager - Danish Christmas Cookies
Inspired by my recent trips to Copenhagen I made jødekager this weekend. I tried these with hot chocolate while on a canal tour of the city surrounded by fairylights. I read up about their origins online and it seems they were originally made in Jewish bakeries around the city and it became a tradition to make them with children at Christmas.
They are so simple to make and look so pretty. I used the below recipe from Nordic Food & Living.
Ingredients
150g butter
250g plain flour
100g sugar
1 egg
For the topping
50g almonds, chopped
3 tbsp sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
Method
Cut the butter into cubes and rub into the flour in a large mixing bowl until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and stir. Then add one of the eggs and mix with your hands to form a soft dough. It’s quite messy but satisfying when the dough comes together. Pop the dough in the fridge for about 30 minutes while you pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees.
Cover a board or work surface with flour and roll out the dough so that it is about 3 - 4 mm thick. Use cookie cutters to cut out approx. 40 - 50 small cookies. I made circles and stars to be a little extra Christmassy.
Whisk the second egg and brush a little on each cookie. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl and sprinkle a fair amount on each one. Then sprinkle the chopped almonds on too. I put almonds on about half of my biscuits so that there were some for everyone’s taste.
Bake in batches for about 7 - 8 minutes. Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn. Remove from the oven and use a spatula to move them onto a rack to cool.
Enjoy! Or pop a few into pretty paper bags and share them with friends and family.
