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Shortbread Cookie Recipe with Hazelnuts: Gerhild's Vanillekipferln

This Shortbread Cookie recipe, the German Vanillekipferln, is one of the best Christmas cookie recipes that's an easy version of the original. 

This is a translation of the recipe sent in by Gerhild Froeschke who loves to take recipes and change them to make them her own.  

Ingredients:

• 1¼ cups (284 grams) butter
• ⅝ cup (125 grams) granulated sugar
• 1½ teaspoon (6 grams) vanilla sugar
• ¼ pound (114 grams) ground hazelnuts
• 3½ cups (455 grams) all-purpose flour
• powdered sugar, for dusting

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, mix together the butter, granulated sugar, vanilla sugar, and ground hazelnuts.
3. Add the flour and continue mixing with a mixer or with your hands to make a dough.
4. Roll the dough into ½-inch thick logs. Cut 2-inch slices from the logs and form them into crescents.
5. Bake about 10 minutes until lightly golden, being careful that they don't get too brown.
6. Place cookies on a wire rack and dust with powdered sugar while they are still warm. To dust them, put about a teaspoon of powdered sugar in a small sieve and tap sieve to let icing sugar "dust" the cookies.

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Updated on November 24, 2025