Mailanderli
Mailanderli are a traditional Swiss Christmas Cookie that I have known, loved and made my whole life. They are THE most made Christmas cookie in Switzerland. My heritage being Swiss, growing up, making these with my Mom in December was the first sign of the upcoming holidays! My recipe comes from an old (1940’s) little recipe booklet that was my Grandmother’s - see photo!
They are a lemon butter cookie really. The fun is in the rolling out the dough and pressing out the traditional shapes. I become very nostalgic when I see the cookie cutters every year as they are like seeing old friends – and some are original to my mother’s trousseau – again, see photo! The heart shape is the first one I do every time, the star, flower mushroom, and bell shapes come next! A tradition that we have continued is to bake these with my sons when they were younger and we still get together to bake them together, when our schedules allow!
It's best to weight the ingredients – most Swiss ingredients in recipes are listed by weight. I have included the Imperial measurements as I measured each as I was making them but I really recommend that you weight your ingredients!
I’ve introduced many friends to these cookies over the years and a recent acquaintance told me they are “absolutely delicious and I wouldn’t say no if you have more!” What a lovely compliment!
This recipe makes about 60 cookies so it’s worth the effort and they are delicious on their own and perfect with a cup of coffee, tea or a hot chocolate.
As always, when you make this recipe, I would love to see your creation so please post a photo of your Mailanderli goodness and tag my IG account #RenataCollective or leave a comment with your thoughts!
Prep Time: 15 minutes to make the dough / Chill Time: a few hours / Bake Time: 12 minutes / Makes – about 60 cookies depending on how the size of your cookie cutters.
Ingredients
250 g /1 Cup Butter – softened
225 g / 1¼ Cup Sugar
1/8 Teaspoon Sea Salt
3 Eggs
2 Tablespoons Lemon Zest - Lightly Packed
450 g / 3½ Cups Flour
1 Egg Yolk (keep the egg white to add to another baking recipe or make an omelette!)
1 teaspoon Milk – I used Oat Milk and it worked fine
How It’s Made
Beat the butter in a large bowl and stir in the sugar and salt.
Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring until the mixture is lighter in colour.
Add the lemon zest and stir it in.
Gradually sift the flour into the bowl, stirring after each addition, until a smooth dough forms. Cover and put in the fridge and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.
When you are ready to roll and bake your cookies, remove the dough from the fridge to let it warm up while you prepare your oven, baking sheets and work surface.
Preheat your oven to 375°F.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment or a silicon sheet.
Pull 2 pieces of waxed paper out of the roll – about 12” each piece. Lay one piece down and sprinkle with flour so the dough doesn’t stick. Put a quarter of the dough of the floured surface and cover the dough with the other piece of waxed paper. If you have height sticks (see photos – these are from Switzerland but you can get rolling pins with very cool rings that fit onto it to even your rolling to the same thickness) insert these on either side of the dough between the pieces of waxed paper. Roll out the dough to a thickness of ~ 7 mm / ¼ inch either with a steady hand in rolling or with the height sticks. Mailanderli need to be 1/4” in thickness and not thinner than this.
Remove the top piece of waxed paper and cut out different shapes. Carefully remove each from the dough and place on the baking sheet. Gather the remaining dough and start again – rolling and cutting out shapes and putting them on the cookie sheet. Finish this one quarter of dough before you start the next.
Put the cookie pan in the fridge to chill for 15 minutes.
Work with the rest of the dough until you have used it up rolling and cutting our shapes.
Make the egg wash – whisk the egg yolk and the milk together and brush each cookie with the egg wash.
Bake for 12 minutes on the middle rack of the oven. The cookies should be lightly brown on the bottom and very lightly brown at the edges.
Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool. (It doesn’t hurt to taste a cookie when its slightly warm! You have to make sure they are tasty before you offer them to others, after all, and oh boy, they will be!)
Store the cooled cookies on your counter in an airtight container, like a pretty tin lined with waxed paper or parchment paper.
En Guete! Enjoy!
