Danish Vanilla Cookies (Vaniljekranse)

If you're not a Dane, you might know these cookies as "Danish vanilla cookies" or "Danish butter cookies". You might have bought a big tin of them at the airport if you visited Denmark, or perhaps even in your own local supermarket. Maybe your grandmother would even store her sewing kit in one of the empty tins!

In Denmark we call them "vaniljekranse" which translates roughly to vanilla wreaths. They're actually a treat we only eat in Denmark around Christmas, but I won't tell anyone if you decide to make them all year round. *wink*

Traditional Danish Vanilla Cookies (Vaniljekranse)

The vanilla seeds from 1 vanilla pod
180g sugar
200g salted butter at room temperature
1 large egg
75g almond flour/meal
250g plain flour

Scrape the vanilla seeds from one pod. Using a palette knife mix the vanilla seeds into a little of the sugar. This will separate the vanilla seeds from each other. I opted for using my knife to mix them in, but this isn’t a good choice as it may dull the blade.

In a big bowl, mix the butter, sugar and vanilla sugar together. Mix in the egg and, lastly, mix in the almond meal and plain flour.

Put the dough into a (strong) piping bag, with a star tip. The dough is really tough to pipe, so make sure your bag and nozzle hold up to it! The star tip I’ve used is 15cm, but I would recommend 10cm. Pipe into circles, with a hole in the middle. My personal preference is small “doughnut shapes”- 3-4cm in diameter.

Bake your vanilla cookies at 200C for about 10-12 minutes until they are lightly golden. Let them cool on a baking tray. Keep in an airtight container. They can also be frozen well before or after baking!

Enjoy!