9 recipes for Christmas Bredele (Alsatian cakes)

by | Updated on 24/10/2023 | Alsatian recipes | 0 comments

bredele-alsace

Christmas in Alsace rhymes with bredele (or bredala)! Do you know these small cookies typically Alsatian? No family in Alsace would miss the opportunity to make (or at least eat!) them at Christmas and New Year’s Eve. With mannele and gingerbread, they are part of the essential recipes of a Christmas in Alsace.

As it is important to have good recipes, I asked some friends from Alsace who are particularly gifted in the kitchen to share with you some of their secrets and to give you some ideas for traditional recipes.

This way, you too can make bredele at home and immerse yourself in the Alsatian Christmas spirit for the holidays. And if you are looking for a bredele recipe book, we have written one for you (in French only). To your ovens and your cookie cutters, let’s go!

Josephine’s Butterbredele

bredele-noel-alsace

Josephine is the daughter of a couple of friends. A few weeks ago I tried this 12 year old girl from Alsace’s butterbredele and found them so good that I asked her if I could come and make some with her!

So we did a bredele workshop during an afternoon in December. Three batches of butterbredele later, we were satisfied with the result. Hum, how good are these little cakes! Simple but effective.

Easy recipe for Josephine’s Butterbredele

Ingredients:

  • 500g of flour T45
  • 300g of butter
  • 250g of caster sugar
  • 2 whole eggs
  • 1 sachet of vanilla sugar
  • 1/2 sachet of baking powder
  • 2 egg yolks (to brown the cookies)
  • Add cinnamon to the batter if you like it, it’s even better!


Preparation
:

1. Break the eggs into a bowl and add the sugar. Stir in vanilla sugar and mix immediately with a whisk.

2. In a second bowl, mix the flour and butter, softened with your hands, to obtain a sandy dough.

3. Mix in the sugar and egg mixture and the baking powder and work the dough until it is homogeneous. Film it and let it rest for 1 hour in a cool place.

4. Knead the dough and roll it out to a thickness of about 4 mm. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters and place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.

5. Brush them with egg yolk to brown them and put them in the oven at 180°C for 10 to 15 minutes.

Buy our bredele recipe book!

livre-recettes-bredele

Sandra’s Zimtsterne (cinnamon stars)

zimsterne

Sandra, author of the cooking blog Cuisine Addict, gives us her recipe for cinnamon stars.

These “Zimtsterne” or “Cinnamon Stars” are certainly among my favorite bredele… For me, Alsace, Cinnamon and Christmas are inseparable and I can’t imagine spending the end of the year without biting into one of these bredele, crispy outside and soft inside ^^.

Sandra’s Traditional Cinnamon Stars Recipe

Preparation time : 10 min – Resting time : 2 h – Cooking time : 8 min

Ingredients:
For the cinnamon stars:

  • 200 g of blanched almonds
  • 60 g powdered sugar
  • 100 g of powdered sugar
  • 3 c. teaspoon cinnamon powder
  • 160 g of flour
  • 2 egg whites

For the glaze:

  • 150 g of powdered sugar
  • 1 egg white


Preparation
:

1. Blend the blanched almonds in your food processor with the knife or in a blender, they should be ground but not too finely. Put the powdered almonds in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the sheet and add the sugars, cinnamon and flour.

2. Mix quickly then add the egg whites and continue mixing until the dough forms a ball. Place the dough in cling film and chill for 2 hours.

3. Preheat your oven to 150°C. Roll out the dough to a thickness of about 1 cm and cut out stars (or other shapes ^^) with a cookie cutter. Place the shortbread on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and bake for 8 minutes. When removed from the oven, let cool completely.

4. For the icing, beat the egg white until stiff and then gently fold in the powdered sugar. Brush on the completely cooled stars and let dry for a few hours.


Storage
Once the glaze is dry, you can store the cinnamon stars for several weeks in an airtight metal box.

Celine’s Jam Mini-linzers

mini-linzer

Celine, blogger of L’Heure du Cream

If there is one tradition that is hard to miss in Alsace, it is the bredelés. Among the countless varieties, everyone has their favorites. I have a big thing for mini-linzers.

The spice, the hint of citrus, and the raspberry jam that makes the shortbread a little softer, jam bredeles rarely come out unscathed. I plead guilty to addiction!

Celine’s Mini-Linzers Recipe


Ingredients
(for about 40 to 50 pieces):

  • 200g of wheat flour
  • 50g of powdered sugar
  • 150g of butter
  • 100g of powdered almonds (not hulled)
  • 1 c. teaspoon of cinnamon
  • 1 c. coffee of cocoa
  • grated zest of 1/2 lemon
  • 1 egg
  • Raspberry jam

Preparation:

1. In a bowl, mix the flour, powdered sugar, cinnamon, cocoa, almonds and lemon zest. Stir in the butter in pieces and sand the dough between your hands. Add the egg and work until you have a smooth and homogeneous paste.
Wrap in film and chill for at least 1 hour.

2. Preheat oven to 180°C (electric oven). Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface (or a sheet of baking paper) and cut out shapes with a cookie cutter (remember to cut out as many solid shortbread as patterned ones). Collect the scraps and cut out the dough until you run out.

3. Bake each batch for about 8-9 min. Let cool.

4. Assemble the full and hollow shortbread with jam. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

You can also brush them, before cooking, with egg yolk mixed with a little milk to brown them

Adeline’s Spritz

spritz bredele

Adeline, author of the blog La Cuisine d’Adeline:

In Alsace, for the holidays, it is traditional to make bredeles (Christmas cookies). I’ve been a fan since I was a little girl and every year it’s the same ritual! We often do this as a family on Sundays when it’s cold outside and so nice inside.

Today I’m sharing with you the recipe for the famous spritz, a recipe that is always a hit with my friends.

Adeline’s Spritz Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 250 g of flour
  • 125 g of sugar
  • 1 sachet of vanilla sugar
  • 150 g of butter
  • 1 egg
  • 100 g almond powder
  • 6 g of baking powder

Materials:

To form the spritz, you can use:

  • A manual chopper or a food processor with a special star-shaped cake nozzle
  • A piping bag with a star-shaped tip

Preparation:

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C (th.6). In a bowl, combine butter and sugar/vanilla sugar. Then add the egg. Mix flour and yeast. Add it to the mixture and then add the almond powder.

2. Form your spritz into a stick, S or ring shape. Place them on a baking sheet and bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

Are you a gourmet? Dip them in melted chocolate! It’s even better!

Buy our bredele recipe book!

livre-recettes-bredele

Marine’s hazelnut croquettes

hazelnut croquettes

Marine, food blogger on Miss Crumble:

Bredele is THE Christmas tradition! Every Sunday before the 25th, we still get together with my dear mom to get into the kitchen. We elaborate our production schedule and let’s go! In general, classic and easy-to-make recipes are the first to go in the oven. The one I’m proposing is one of the more elaborate recipes, that we wanted to try one day and that is now one of our favorites.

Recipe of the Croquettes with hazelnuts of Marine


Ingredients
:


For the dough
:

  • 300 gr of flour
  • 150 gr of powdered sugar
  • 100 gr butter (softened)
  • 1 packet of vanilla sugar
  • 1 pinch of fine salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon of baking powder

For the garnish:

  • 150 gr of butter
  • 150 gr of sugar
  • 1 packet of vanilla sugar
  • 4 tablespoons of water
  • 150 gr of finely ground hazelnuts
  • 150 gr of chopped hazelnuts
  • Raspberry jam

Prepare the dough Mix yeast and flour and make a fountain. Add sugar, vanilla sugar, salt, eggs and make a dough by incorporating little by little some of the flour. Cut the butter into small pieces. Add to the dough and begin kneading, incorporating the remaining flour to obtain a smooth dough. If it sticks, put it in the fridge for 1 hour. Roll out the dough into a large rectangle and place on a buttered baking sheet. A large rectangular pizza pan will fit nicely in the size.


Prepare the filling
Melt butter with sugar and water and heat to boiling point. At this point add the ground and crushed hazelnuts together and let cool. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 150°.


Assembly
Spread the jam on the rolled out dough (heat it up a bit so that it spreads better).

Spread the hazelnut filling preparation on the previous pastry and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. About 5 minutes after cooking, cut into 6 cm squares and cut them in half on the diagonal if necessary.

You can dip a corner in melted dark chocolate, but that’s optional.

Manue’s Leckerlis

bredele-leckerlis-bale

Manue, food blogger on Hum, ça sent bon… :

My daughters and I look forward to the Christmas season to make Bredele – traditional Alsatian cakes. We love this time when we bake together. The Leckerlis (läckerlis), which we love, are small gingerbread cubes from the city of Basel. They smell like honey, cinnamon, orange and gingerbread spices. The whole house smells good! Hummmmm…

Manue’s Leckerlis recipe

Ingredients for a large baking sheet:

  • 150 g almond powder
  • 30 g of slivered almonds
  • 450 g of honey
  • 180 g of sugar
  • 80 g candied orange peel
  • 450 g of flour
  • 1/2 sachet of baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon gingerbread spice
  • 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
  • 100 g of powdered sugar

Preparation:

1. In a large saucepan, gently melt honey and sugar.

2. Cut candied orange into small cubes. Combine almond powder and slivered almonds. Weigh flour, add yeast, cinnamon and gingerbread spices.

3. Pour candied oranges, almonds and slivered almonds over the honey/sugar mixture, stir and then pour in the dry mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon: the mixture is thick, it is normal.

4. Pour into a large rectangular pan to a thickness of 1.5 cm. I used a silicone pan, otherwise a buttered and floured pan.

5. Bake for 25 minutes in the oven at 170°.

6. In the meantime, prepare the icing: mix the powdered sugar with a little water, spread it with a brush and let it cool completely.

7. Cut the leckerlis into cubes and set aside in a metal box.

Flo’s hazelnut and chocolate half-moons

demilunesnoisettes

Flo, food blogger on Un Flo de bonnes choses:

Bredele are sacred, and it has become a real addiction for me in December, always more kinds, must-haves but also new ones every year! These croissants are a hazelnut variant of the Vanillekipferl, and with their chocolate covered half, they are simply irresistible…

Flo’s recipe for hazelnut and chocolate half-moons

Ingredients (for about 40 pieces):

  • 120g of hazelnuts
  • 250g of flour
  • 175g butter (at room temperature)
  • 100g of sugar
  • 80g dessert chocolate
  • 1 good pinch of salt

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 175°C.

2. In a blender, grind the hazelnuts into powder, mix them in a bowl with the flour, butter, salt and sugar until you get a homogeneous paste.

3. Take a small amount of dough, form small rolls of dough, taper the ends and bend the rolls into a crescent shape and place on a sheet of parchment paper or silipat.

4. Bake for 15 minutes at 175°C and then let cool completely.

5. When the cookies are completely cooled, melt the chocolate in a double boiler, dip half of the croissants in the melted chocolate and let set on a rack. Store in a metal box once the chocolate has hardened.

Laurène’s salted butter caramel shortbread

recipe-bredele-sand-caramel

I’m the author of this blog: I’m not a cooking pro but I have my favorite bredele recipes… And I found one of them in the book Bredeles et autres petits gâteaux d’Alsace. This is a recipe for shortbread with milk jam, which can also be made with salted butter caramel or spread. For me, this recipe represents the perfect alliance between Alsace, my adopted region, and Brittany, where I come from. A treat! The only problem is that they leave very quickly…

Shortbread recipe with salted butter caramel

Ingredients (for about 12 pieces):

  • 250g of flour
  • 75g powdered sugar (+ a little to sprinkle on the cookies)
  • 75g of hazelnut powder
  • 140g butter (at room temperature)
  • 1 egg
  • salted butter caramel

Preparation:

1. Mix the flour with the powdered sugar and the hazelnut powder. Sand with the butter with your fingertips.

2. Add the egg and quickly mix the dough to form a ball. Wrap it in cling film and let it rest for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

3. Preheat oven to 180 degrees

4. On a floured work surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 3 to 4 mm

5. Cut out round cookies(with a cookie cutter of this type) and place them as you go on a baking sheet covered with baking paper or a silicone sheet.

6. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes (cookies should be golden brown).

7. Allow to cool. Sprinkle with half of the powdered sugar.

8. Assemble the cookies two by two with the salted butter caramel.

Gluten-free and lactose-free bredele

It’s Laurène again! My husband is gluten- and lactose-intolerant, so I made several attempts so that he too could enjoy our delicious little Alsatian Christmas cookies… I finally found the right recipe – you’d even mistake them for the classic recipe! A delightful treat…

Gluten-free, dairy-free bredele recipe

bredele-alsace

Ingredients (for about 50 pieces):

  • 150g white rice flour
  • 100G tigernut flour
  • 50g chestnut flour
  • 50g potato (or corn) starch
  • 150g Vita Coco margarine (or another, but I haven’t tested it!)
  • 100g brown sugar
  • 1 sachet of vanilla sugar
  • 1 medium egg + 1 egg yolk to brown the cookies
  • 1/2 CC baking soda
  • Option: cinnamon

Preparation:

1. Break the egg into a bowl and add the brown sugar and vanilla sugar. Mix with a whisk until the mixture whitens.

2. In a second bowl, mix the flour, baking soda (and cinnamon, to taste) and margarine, softened with your hands to obtain a sandy dough.

3. Stir in the sugar and egg mixture and work the dough into a smooth ball. Film it and let it rest for 1 hour in a cool place.

4. Knead the dough and roll out to a thickness of about 5 mm. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters and arrange on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

5. Brush with egg yolk to brown, then place in the oven at 180°C for 15-20 minutes.

More bredele recipes in our book

Find 20 recipes for bredele and other Christmas treats in our lovingly written recipe book 🙂

recipe-book-bredele

Kitchen utensils

What equipment to prepare bredele? Fortunately, not much is needed:

By buying items through these links, you allow me to receive a small commission while not paying more…And thus help me to continue this blog! Thank you in advance.

HAVE FUN!

Laurène

Laurène

Laurène est la créatrice du blog Mon week-end en Alsace. Bretonne installée en Alsace depuis 2014, elle est tombée amoureuse de sa région d'adoption au point de lui dédier un blog et d'acheter avec son mari une maison alsacienne dans un village du Kochersberg, près de Strasbourg. A pied, à vélo, sur ses chevaux ou au volant de sa voiture, elle aime partir explorer les moindres recoins de l'Alsace pour dénicher de bonnes adresses à partager sur le blog.

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