Vanocni Cukrovi or Christmas cookies are a Czech tradition. There are literally hundreds of different recipes for Vanocni Cukrovi with a multitude of variations. Each family have their assortment that they make every year. The recipes are then passed from mother to daughter through the generations. Each recipe is a variation on a theme and I am lucky enough to have the recipe for four of my sister-in-law’s favourites.
I do feel a bit of a fraud baking these cookies as I’m neither Czech, nor is this my family recipe but I’ve been so impressed by my sister-in-law’s baking for so many years that now that I have started to bake I really wanted to give them a go.
These cookies are a lot trickier than they look and I can see how it would take many years of baking them with your mum to perfect the techniques. I can also see why many of these traditions were started in the Northern Hemisphere as the high percentage of butter makes these very delicate and difficult to work with on a hot summer’s day. This lengthened the process as I kept having to put the dough back in the fridge before it melted.
My first pick were the Vanilkove Rohlicky or Vanilla Rolls. They looked easy enough; they are essentially biscuit crescents but they are more difficult to shape than you would think. I tried my sister-in-law’s method of rolling into a long thin rope, chopping and shaping. This involved too much handling for the hot weather. I then tried piping as this relies on the mixture to be soft. There was a bit of trial and error with the piping nozzle size, but I got there, and they look OK.
My Vanilkove Rohlicky are not as uniform as I would like but they have the light, buttery taste I remember so I’m happy to work on the look. I have halved this recipe as I don’t have the patience to make hundreds. When made with the other biscuits this recipe makes a good quantity and enough to share around.
Vanilkove Rohlicky / Vanilla Rolls (Makes 30+)
- 125g unsalted butter, room temperature, cubed;
- 50g icing sugar;
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste;
- 125g plain flour;
- 50g ground hazel nuts.
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius without the fan if possible.
- In a stand mixer, mix the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. Add the vanilla paste and stir to combine. Add the flour and ground hazel nuts and mix briefly until it forms a dough.
- Because of the high proportion of butter the dough is very soft. You will need to put it in the fridge to firm up before shaping and depending on how hot the day is you may need to keep returning it to the fridge. I couldn’t get the dough firm enough to roll so I allowed the dough to come to room temperature and piped it into small crescents.
- Ensure you leave plenty of space between the biscuits on the baking tray as they will spread when baked. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.
Linecke Cukrovi / Jam Flowers (makes 30+)
- 140g unsalted butter;
- 70g icing sugar;
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste;
- 2 egg yolks;
- 210g plain flour;
- rind of half lemon;
- jam for filling.
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius without the fan if possible.
- In a stand mixer, mix the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. Add the vanilla paste and stir to combine, then add the egg yolks and continue to mix. Add the flour and mix briefly until it forms a dough.
- Allow the dough to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Roll the dough between two sheets of baking paper until it is about 3mm thick. Cut out your desired shapes. It seems flowers are traditional, but I didn’t have a flower shaped cutter so I went for Christmassy stars. Set aside half of the cut out shapes for the top of the cookies. Carefully cut a circle from the centre of the reserved shapes. I used a plain piping bag nozzle.
- Ensure you leave plenty of space between the biscuits on the baking tray as they will spread when baked. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 6-8 minutes or until lightly browned.
- Once cool, put a small amount of jam on half of the cookies and top with the cookies with the cut out hole. My sister-in-law recommends using blackcurrant jam but I decided to use raspberry. I think you should use whatever flavour is your favourite.
The cookies will keep for 2 weeks in the fridge. The Czech’s make a large batch and give for gifts at Christmas. I will be practicing my technique this year and hope to be skilled enough to make them as gifts next year. I will also post the other recipes when I have mastered them.
