Today I’m sharing my third, and possibly last, recipe for this season: Swiss Rosinen Guetzli holiday cookies. This is the final one we made in my Family European Baking Class at Cibo & Vino last week. This is a traditional Swiss Rosinen Guetzli recipe which comes together super quickly and only requires a 30-minute rest in the fridge before baking. Not a raisin people? I got you. You’ll sub chocolate chips and/or holiday M&Ms.
If you missed our last two recipes they’re German Lebkuchen and French Holiday Palmier Cookies. Check them out!
This recipe leans heavily on the recipe by Andie Pilot at Helvetic Kitchen. I’ve modified a few things with the prep and the ingredients.
European Baking Primer
Like most European recipes, Swiss Rosinen Guetzli Holiday Cookies use weight instead of measuring cups. If you own a kitchen scale, I highly recommend using weight. If you don’t own one, I highly recommend getting an OXO kitchen scale. Mine has lasted more than ten years and is still going strong! If it died today, I’d immediately buy another just like it.
Weighing is more precise than using dry measuring cups (no more sifting flour before measuring or needing to pack down brown sugar). Even better, there are no measuring cups to clean! Just put your mixing bowl on the scale, press the “zero” or “tare” button, and then add the correct amount of butter (or whatever). Once you weigh the butter, press the zero/tare button again so the scale reads zero, and then add the weight you need of sugar. Anybody who has ever measured anything sticky (honey? peanut butter?) in a glass measuring cup will really appreciate using the scale!!!
Prep Work for Swiss Rosinen Guetzli Holiday Cookies
The raisins need to be plumped before use. The Swiss, like the Jamaicans, plump their raisins before using them by soaking them for at least an hour in rum or other alcohol. You could also plump them in apple or orange juice, or even tea. The point is to make them nice and soft. If you do not have time (or the mental bandwidth) to prepare in advance, I totally feel you. Just put the raisins in a small microwaveable bowl, cover with water, sprinkle with sugar, and put in the microwave until it starts to bubble. Voilà! Drain and use!
Important Note
Swiss Rosinen Guetzli Holiday Cookies are not supposed to be brown. If you brown them, they’ll be dry and crumbly. Take them out when the tops no longer look wet, and the bottoms are just hinting at a golden color. Store them in an air-tight container. They freeze well, either before or after baking.
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Swiss Rosinen Guetzli
Ingredients
- 200 g butter soft (7 oz)
- 200 g sugar 7 oz
- 1 t vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 100 ml milk 3.4 oz
- 500 g flour 17.5 oz
- 1 t baking powder
- 1 t salt
- 250 g raisins soaked and drained (8.8 oz), See note above!
- M&Ms and chocolate chips for raisin haters!
Instructions
- Cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla.
- In a measuring cup, whisk together eggs and milk, then add slowly to the butter mixture.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Fold the flour into the butter mixture, then add the raisins and fold in gently. If your family doesn’t enjoy raisins, sub chocolate chips and/or M&Ms.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let cool in fridge for about 30 minutes.
When you are ready to bake
- Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C
- Roll little cookie dough balls (of about 1 inch) and place them on a baking tray.
- Bake for about 10 minutes.
- Be careful not to overbake these. Take them out when the tops no longer look wet and the bottoms are starting to become golden.
