It’s time for another festive recipe! This time, I’d like to introduce you to one of my favourite German Christmas cookies: the Vanillekipferl. It’s basically a crescent-shaped vanilla almond biscuit, dusted with lots and lots of cinnamon icing sugar. I remember that every year come Christmas time, my mum would make the most lovely Vanillekipferl, and let me help her shape the biscuits. I wasn’t the most talented crescent-moulder – often the dough rolls would break in half or look more like a potatoe stump than bearing any remote resemblance to a half-moon. But still, mum would let me go on and praise my attempts. And so I grew more and more confident over the years, and, here I am today, making pretty decent Vanillekipferl. Thanks mum!

Making these Vanillekipferl couldn’t be easier. They are in fact made the same way you’d make a shortbread or shortcrust pastry. All the ingredients are mixed together, the dough formed into logs, wrapped in clingfilm and chilled in the fridge for an hour or so. Once the dough has firmed up, you cut slices off, and mould them into crescents. Once they’re baked, dust them with a generous helping of cinnamon icing sugar so that they get their snow-dusted look. Easy, peasy, beautiful and yummy! ★