Mum never wrote down the recipe for her cookies. Luckily my niece knew the recipe by heart because she and Mum had made them so often together (hence the name 'Oma's cookies').
You can enjoy these cookies anytime (Mum always made sure the cookie jar was full!) but for me they are the perfect Christmas Eve treat.
Ingredients:
60g icing sugar
105g brown sugar
250g butter, softened
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
200-250g plain flour (approx.)
175g hazelnut meal
Juice of half a lemon
Icing sugar (enough to form icing consistency)
Walnut pieces
To make the cookies:
1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.
2. Cream butter, icing sugar and brown sugar until light and creamy.
3. Beat in egg yolk and vanilla.
4. Sift half the flour into the mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon.
5. Gradually mix in the hazelnut meal.
6. Continue to add flour until the mixture forms a cookie dough.
7. Roll teaspoons of dough into balls and place on trays lined with baking paper.
8. Using a folk, gently press down on each ball until slightly flattened.
9. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until tops of cookies are only just starting to turn light golden brown at the edges (it is important not to over bake).
10. Cool cookies on wire racks.
To decorate:
1. Mix together lemon juice and icing sugar until desired consistency is achieved (just enough so that the icing doesn't run too much when placed on the cookies).
2. Using a knife or teaspoon, spread a small amount of icing over each cookie.
3. Place a couple of walnut pieces immediately on top of the icing.
4. Allow to set completely.
Variation:
To make plain chocolate chip cookies, omit the hazelnut meal, change the quantity of flour to 315g and add chocolate chips to the mixture after Step 6. Leave un-iced or ice with melted chocolate instead of lemon icing. You can also keep the hazelnut meal and just add chocolate chips to the mixture.
