"When I was a little girl, letter writing and sending packages was the only contact we had with my grandmother in Switzerland," write Barbara Fayeulle of Longmont, Colorado. "Every year, we would receive a cookie tin from her a couple of weeks before Christmas. When we would open it, the fabulous aroma of traditional Swiss Christmas cookies filled the kitchen and brought my grandmother close to me and to her son, my dad. After she passed away, Spitzbuben disappeared from our Christmas celebrations. Later, while on holiday in Switzerland, I plundered my aunt's recipe box and came upon my grandmother's recipe. What a surprise my dad received when he opened up the tin that Christmas. Spitzbuben were his favorite treat when he was growing up in Switzerland. Now I send him a huge tin of the cookies every year—to the chagrin of my mom, who watches his waistline."
Recipe information
Total Time
2 1/2 hr
Yield
Makes about 5 dozen
Ingredients
For cookies
For fillings
Preparation
Make cookies:
Step 1
Sift together flour, confectioners sugar, vanilla powder, and salt.
Step 2
Heat butter with an electric mixer until creamy. Mix in flour mixture at low speed just until blended. Form dough into a disk and chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, about 1 hour.
Step 3
Preheat oven to 300°F.
Step 4
Roll out dough slightly less than 1/4 inch thick on a lightly floured surface and cut out 1 1/2-inch rounds.
Step 5
Arrange 1 inch apart on greased baking sheets. Reroll scraps once (cookies become tough if dough is worked too much). Whisk together powdered egg whites and water. Brush cookies with egg whites and sprinkle with sanding sugar.
Step 6
Bake cookies in batches in middle of oven until pale golden, 10 to 15 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool.
Fill cookies:
Step 7
Sandwich jam and preserves between unsugared sides of cookies, filling half with raspberry and half with apricot.
