Vanilla Biscuits

There are 10 different types – including “Zimtsterne” (cinnamon stars), “Vanillekipferl” (vanilla biscuits), dark and light “Spritzkipferl” and “Busserl” (shortbread biscuits dipped in chocolate), “Kokosbusserl” (coconut kisses biscuits), “Husarenkrapferl” (open-topped jam doughnuts) “Linzer Augen” (Linzer eye biscuits), “Hazelnusskrapferl” (hazelnut doughnuts), “Eisenbahner” (railroad biscuits), and many more.

It is important for the ingredients to always be stored at room temperature. Butter, eggs, flour – everything is kneaded into a supple dough that has to be left to rest overnight. It’s only the next day that the biscuits are formed. The recipes have been passed down over the generations, says Karl-Heinz Thurndorfer, and also imparts the fact that bread used to be baked on this spot as early as 1575. Master Baker Thurnhofer is also guild master of the Salzburg Bakers. 

What many people don’t realise is that 70% of his biscuits are sold all over the world, from America to the Arab Emirates. It does without saying that Salzburg residents also come here to fill up their biscuit tins. The Christmas markets, such as the one the year on the Kajetaner Platz, are also not complete without Thurnhofer’s biscuits. Delicatessens in Vienna, Munich, Salzburg (Monte Mio, Azwanger, Greisslerei beim Gwandhaus) and Hamburg are also supplied with Thurnhofer’s biscuits.

Granny’s Vanillekipferl (vanilla biscuits) recipe:
340g wheat flour
300g butter
150g hazelnuts, sieved
80g icing sugar
Zest of a lemon
1 vanilla pod

Method:
Sieve out flour over the work top, make a small pit, put soft butter and icing sugar into the pit, add lemon zest and vanilla to it, add the hazelnuts and knead the mixture from the outside into the middle. Do this briskly, or else the dough will turn “crumbly”.

Wrap it in greaseproof paper and leave it to rest overnight in a cool place. The next day roll the dough out and use it to form small crescent shapes.

Bake the shapes in the oven at 200C (top and bottom heat) for 10 minutes.

Prepare the vanilla icing sugar: Take a well-washed pickle jar and fill it with icing sugar. Put 3 vanilla pods in it, leave it to stand for 14 days. Allow the crescents to cool down after coming out of the oven. Pass the icing sugar through a sieve and coat them generously. Leave them to rest for 14 days before eating them.