Kipferl are one of my favourite biscuits – well almost anything with finely ground nuts is a winner for me. Traditionally this is the right time of year to eat them and like many of the best Christmas sweetmeats they have a Viennese origin. I used to buy  these delicious treats in packets with a German brand name which I can now no longer remember but I haven’t seen them for years.* So, I thought I’d better try to master making them myself and there could be no better guinea pigs than fellow churchgoers after the 9.30 service this morning. 

Kipferl biscuits

Ingredients

125 g ground almonds

60 g icing sugar (plus extra for dusting)

115 g unsalted butter (chilled and diced)

2-3 drops pure almond extract

100 g plain flour

Have ready a couple of good-sized baking trays.

Put the almonds and icing sugar in a bowl. Add the diced butter, almond extract and  flour and mix until the crumbly mixture starts to clump and form a ball. (I think the recipe I used intended me to use a food processor and as I don’t have one it took rather a long time for me to get to this stage with my electric hand whisk – but I did get there.) Gather the ball of dough up, wrap it in cling film and chill for 20 minutes or more.

Remove the ball of dough from the fridge and open up the cling film. Now break off little pieces. Roll into about 30 sausages about 5 cms long which you then curve into crescent shapes and put on a greased baking sheet. 

Place tray in an oven pre-heated to 160 degrees C (325 degrees F) for about 10 minutes (keeping a careful eye on them as they can burn very quickly),

Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Shake icing sugar over.

Half way through Morning Prayer we had a power cut. We continued the service singing the hymns unaccompanied and with human candle bearers to help those reading the lesson. Most bewailed was the lack of hot coffee after the service and in this mood everyone fell upon the kipferl with delight and a complete lack of criticism. A couple of us went so far as to find them a bit ‘short’ and I wondered about adding an egg, or at least an egg white next time. Since this morning I’ve looked at various other recipes on the internet and have discovered others use an egg yolk. I shall try that and I think I might go for ground hazelnuts next time.

* I’ve just discovered them on Amazon, produced by Bahlsen. But it really doesn’t feel right to buy biscuits, however delicious, on Amazon, so I’ll carry on experimenting for the time being.