Mailänderli recipe with step-by-step instructions

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Many of you have asked us to post a Mailänderli recipe. After all, this buttery treat named after the city of Milan is one of the most popular Swiss Christmas cookies.

Mailänderli cookies are fun to bake because there are hardly any conventions: go traditional with egg glazing or apply icing with colorful sparkles. And use any kind of cookie-cutter, from hearts to camels or even dinosaurs. For instance, we recently made a batch of "Coronasaurus", each with a pink "eye" made of a Japanese sugar treat...

Our Mailänderli recipe with step-by-step instructions

The following is my family recipe for Mailänderli Christmas cookies. The preparation of the dough takes 20 minutes, but you need to account for the two-hour cooling period before baking the cookies.

Mailänderli recipe

List of ingredients (makes about 50 cookies):

250 g butter, soft
5 fresh eggs
225 g sugar
1 pinch of salt
1 (organic) lemon
500 g whole-wheat flour

Instructions to make the dough:

1. Add the soft butter into a bowl.
2. Whisk up 3 eggs and add them to the butter.
3. Now stir in the sugar and a pinch of salt.
4. Mix well until the mixture gets a light color.
5. Wash the lemon and grate its zest into the mixture. Stir more.
6. Add the flour, preferably by sifting it to avoid clumps.
7. Mix the dough even more and flatten it to a compact mass in the bowl
8. Let it rest in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

When you are ready to bake:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.
2. Cut off the dough one portion at a time and leave the rest chilled.

3. Roll it out on a little flour or between a cut open plastic bag.

4. Ensure a consistent thickness of approx. 5 mm.

5. Cut out various shapes and place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Cool for about 15 minutes.

6. Whisk up the remaining two egg yolks and brush the cookies lightly.

7. Bake them for approximately 10 minutes in the middle of the oven. Keep an eye on the first tray - you may need to rotate it half-way through as not to burn the cookies.
8. Remove the cookies from the tray and cool them on a wire rack.
Check out this video if you need to see the steps.