My mom’s Vanillekipferl recipe (the best German Christmas cookies)

The other week we were hanging out with our friends K. Adam and Emily, and K. Adam shared with us some delicious Italian cookies he had made. Their texture and almond flavor reminded me of my favorite German Christmas cookies, called “Vanillekipferl”. Maybe you’ve seen them or even had them before – they’re half moon-shaped cookies with somewhat crumbly dough, usually topped with powdered sugar (or “snow”).

Vanillekipferl have been a staple in my life for as long as I can remember, and every Christmas I would eat far too many of them. Every Christmas I would love to come home to my parents and eat my mom’s Vanillekipferl. But when I moved to the US and then COVID hit, gone was my ability to go home for Christmas – which is when I made them myself (or rather, with my then-girlfriend, now wife 😊) for the first time and asked my mom for the recipe. They were and still are my favorite Christmas cookies after all.

So as we were talking about the cookies the other week, K. Adam asked me for the recipe for Vanillekipferl, but all the instructions I had were in German, and also were missing some explanations that my mom had just told me in addition. This led me to think that I should write down this recipe, in English, with all the ingredients and amounts and temperatures translated too. To share them with others of course, but even to help myself when I make them here in the US – yay for the imperial system. 😂

So in this post I’m sharing with you my mom’s recipe for my favorite Vanillekipferl.

Necessary ingredients

• 280g / ~10oz flour
• 210g / ~7.5oz butter
• 80g / ~3oz sugar
• 100g / ~3.5oz almond flour
  • Fun fact: In German this is not called “almond flour”, but more like “ground almonds”.
  • If you can actually freshly grind almonds yourself, you may want to do this for an even better result. But almond flour works well enough.
• 2 tbsp powdered sugar
• 1.5 packs of “Vanillezucker” (“vanilla sugar”)
  • This is a special ingredient that is not really a thing in the US I think.
  • But fortunately you can get it on Amazon, and it’s not even expensive. (Make sure it’s from “Dr. Oetker” brand.)

In case you’re wondering: No, this recipe does not use eggs for the dough, and it’s important not to.

How to prepare Vanillekipferl

1. Mix all ingredients, except the powdered sugar and the Vanillezucker, to create the dough.
2. In case you want to pre heat the oven already, set it to 370°F.
3. On a baking sheet, place little pieces of the dough for the cookies and shape them to look like little half moons. Check the above photo for reference.
   • For what it’s worth, I’m not the best at making the cookies look particularly pretty. But I hope you get the gist.
   • At the end it’s the flavor that matters the most. 😋
4. Bake the cookies at 370°F for roughly 12 minutes.
   • It is important that you pay attention to the time and occasionally take a look.
   • Between too soft and burned, it sometimes takes only a minute.
   • You need to take them out of the oven as they turn just slightly brown on the edges.
5. While they’re baking, mix the powdered sugar and the Vanillezucker in a small bowl – basically ending up with vanilla flavored powdered sugar.
6. Take the sheet pan with the cookies out of the oven and let them sit for at least 10 minutes, if not more. Do not touch or move them at this point – they will be very soft and may fall apart. This is going to change as they rest for a while.
7. Once you’ve waited and they’ve cooled down a bit, sieve the vanilla powdered sugar mixture over the cookies.
8. Let them sit again for a couple more minutes, and afterwards you should be able to safely store them or eat them.

And that’s it – I hope you enjoy them!

If you end up preparing Vanillekipferl using this recipe, please let me know whether you have any questions or how it went in the comments. I’d love to see a photo of the cookies you made!

With all that said, I am super excited that this year I will not have to make the Vanillekipferl myself. We are going to Germany over the holidays, for me it will be the first time in 5 years. I can’t wait to spend Christmas in my home country with my family, with all the German Christmas traditions like Christmas markets, and of course with the original Vanillekipferl made by my mom.

Wishing you all happy holidays! 🎄