"Linzer Sterne" with cocoa - without refined sugar

When I was a child, there were hundreds of biscuits at home at Christmas. My mum always had all kinds of biscuit tins full of different treats that were offered to every guest and friend. As a child, I loved it when the table was beautifully set for Christmas, lots of friends came to visit and we sat and ate together for hours. Even today, I still spend Advent Sundays with my family and friends to continue this ritual.

For us children, the biscuit tins full of biscuits were a special treat, especially as my mum used to put them on a high kitchen cupboard, so we had to climb up to the kitchen island to sneak some more. But the walk up to the biscuit tin was worth it every time, because we simply couldn't get enough of all the delicious treats.

There were plenty of different types of biscuits - vanilla crescents, the classic shortbread, gingerbread, cinnamon stars, speculoos, butter biscuits, black and white biscuits and my absolute favourites: Linzer Sterne. To this day, my favourite biscuits are and remain Linzer Sterne. Perhaps it's the fond memories of my childhood and the wonderful pre-Christmas period that make them so irresistible to me.

I have since tried a few variations and find that my Linzer Sterne with cocoa and plum jam are particularly delicious. That's why I've now written down the recipe to share it here.

The recipe makes about 30 biscuits.

Ingredients for the dough

300g spelt flour

100g icing sugar made from raw cane sugar (health food store)

100g ground hazelnuts or almonds

50g raw cocoa powder, heavily de-oiled

2 tsp cinnamon

1 msp. cloves

1 pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla paste

1 egg

200g soft butter

Also

300g high quality plum jam (I use homemade)

Preparation

1. For the dough, mix all the ingredients together and knead well.

2. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for at least 1 hour.

3. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees fan.

4. Roll out the dough on a sheet of foil or on a lightly floured work surface and cut out stars.

5. Place the stars on baking trays lined with baking paper and bake for about 12 minutes.

6. Leave the biscuits to cool completely.

7. Spread the centre of half of the stars with a little plum jam and place the other half of the stars on top of the biscuits. Press the top stars down lightly.

8. Store the Linzer Sterne in an airtight tin.

Tip: Linzer Sterne only taste really good when they have been "standing" for at least one night.