Kokosbusserl

In my grandmother Eva's kitchen in Deal, the Christmas baking started in November and didn't stop until the tins were full. Kokosbusserl were always first. Gretel would stand at the stove with a bowl over simmering water, stirring egg whites and coconut and sugar together with a wooden spoon, and I'd be next to her on my stool, watching the mixture go from loose and grainy to thick and glossy. She'd let me shape them. My early attempts were lopsided little lumps, but they tasted exactly the same as her perfect peaked ones, and that was the first lesson I ever learned about baking: the oven doesn't care what it looks like going in.

Kokosbusserl belong to the Weihnachtsbäckerei, the Christmas cookie tradition that turns Austrian kitchens into small factories every December. Vanillekipferl, Linzer Augen, Lebkuchen, and Busserl of every kind fill tins that get stacked in cool pantries and brought out for visitors all through Advent. Kokosbusserl are the ones children reach for first. They're sweet, they're chewy, and they look like little snow-capped mountains, which appeals to anyone under ten and most people over it.

The technique is almost absurdly simple. You warm the coconut mixture over a water bath to dissolve the sugar and bind the egg whites, mound it onto Oblaten wafers, and bake until the tips turn golden. That's it. Three ingredients and a wafer. But simple food done well is the whole principle of Austrian cooking, and a properly made Kokosbusserl, soft and fragrant with toasted coconut and real Vanillezucker, is proof that you don't need complexity to make something people remember.