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Pastries and Cookies

Burgenland Cookies

by Lisa

Trained pastry chef

Burgenland Christmas cookies topped with meringue and filled with pink ruby chocolate ganache

5.0 (4)out of 5, 4 ratings

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Prep
10 min
Bake
25 min
Total
35 min
Makes
40 pieces

Christmas is knocking at the door, and with it comes holiday baking and cookie season. I've shared quite a few Christmas cookies with you by now, but this recipe with meringue & chocolate filling is something really special.

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Do you know these cookies? Have you ever heard of Burgenland cookies, called Burgenländer Plätzchen in German? Christmas cookies with chocolate and meringue! They're super delicious, wonderfully crisp and tender, and so festive. These cookies will definitely make your cookie tin look amazing :)

Ingredients

Makes 40 pieces

Shortbread dough

  • 1 stick plus 3 tbsp150 gunsalted buttersoftened. German butter is unsalted and has about 82 percent fat. In the US use unsalted butter; European-style unsalted butter is closest. In the UK use unsalted butter.
  • ½ cup plus 1 tbsp70 gpowdered sugarVery finely ground sugar for icings and dusting. In the US use powdered sugar (confectioners' sugar); in the UK, icing sugar.
  • 1 pinchsalt
  • 2 tspvanilla sugar1 packet = 2 tsp (8 g). Vanilla sugar is sugar flavored with vanillin (artificial vanilla), sold in small packets of about 8 g. In the US use 1 tsp vanilla extract plus 2 tsp sugar for each 8 g packet; in the UK, vanilla sugar sachets, or 1 tsp vanilla extract plus 2 tsp sugar per sachet.
  • 2 cups250 gall-purpose flourIn German recipes plain flour means soft wheat flour Type 405 unless stated otherwise. In the US use all-purpose flour; in the UK, plain flour.
  • 1 to 2egg yolks

Meringue

  • 2egg whites
  • 1 ⅓ cups plus 1 tbsp170 gpowdered sugar

Filling

  • 1 ¾ oz50 gcouverture chocolateruby. Couverture is chocolate with a high cocoa butter content that melts smoothly for coating and glazing. In the US use good-quality baking chocolate bars or couverture wafers (not chocolate chips); in the UK, couverture chocolate or a good-quality cooking chocolate bar.
  • 2 tbsp30 mlheavy creamGerman cream for whipping has about 30 to 32 percent fat. In the US use heavy cream or heavy whipping cream; in the UK, whipping cream (double cream also works but whips faster, so watch it).

Method

Shortbread dough

  1. Mix the butter, powdered sugar, salt & vanilla sugar, then work in the egg yolk. Finally, add the flour and bring everything together into a dough.

  2. Press the shortbread dough flat, cover it and chill for at least 1 hour.

  3. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C) convection (fan). Line a large baking sheet (about 16 × 14 inches / 40 × 35 cm; a US half sheet pan, 18 × 13 inches, works too) with parchment paper.

  4. Before rolling, briefly knead the dough once more with a little patience, then roll it out on a floured work surface and cut out the cookies.

  5. Place the cut-out cookies on the baking sheet and pre-bake them in the preheated oven for about 8 minutes. In the meantime, make the meringue.

Meringue

  1. Beat the egg whites, adding the powdered sugar a little at a time. Keep beating until you have a firm, creamy meringue, then transfer it to a piping bag and pipe it onto the cookies.

  2. Then keep baking the cookies until the meringue is firm.

Filling

  1. Bring the cream to a boil and pour it over the couverture chocolate. Let it stand for 2 minutes, then stir into a creamy ganache and leave it until it has cooled.

  2. As soon as the cookies have cooled, carefully add the filling.