#21. Bärentatzen

This is a traditional German Christmas cookie recipe, meaning 'Bear paw prints'. In different parts of the country, there are different variations of this recipe, below is one. It is a moist cookie, filled with ground almonds and grated chocolate with ground cinnamon. It has a distinct European flavor, and is tasty. It is a low fat cookie since there it is made with egg whites and no butter.

In a large bowl put:
3 egg whites. With a whisk attachment make this into a meringue by adding 250g of powdered sugar gradually as the whites stiffen. They should be stiff peaks. Then add the juice of half a lemon and whisk some more.
To the stiff meringue fold in 250g almond meal, 90g grated bittersweet chocolate (ground in a food processor), 1T vanilla extract, 1/4t salt, 1 1/2t ground cinnamon and 1 1/4c all purpose flour.
It will be a sticky dough, but should be stiff enough to roll into 1" balls. Roll each ball into granulated sugar, so it has a sugar crust after it has been baked. Place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, they won't spread much. Bake for about 15 minutes in a 350F oven. They won't brown too much except on the bottom of the cookie, so check that after 15 minutes. Cool.

Before baking, rolled in sugar

Visible grated chocolate