Nussbusserl

Every December in my grandmother Eva's kitchen in Kent, the Weihnachtsbäckerei began. Gretel would arrive with her notebooks and her opinions, and the two of them would take over the kitchen for a full weekend. Vanillekipferl first, then Linzer Augen, then Lebkuchen if they were feeling ambitious. But the cookie I stole from the cooling rack before anyone could stop me, every single year, was the Nussbusserl.

Nussbusserl are hazelnut meringue kisses baked on thin Oblaten wafers. The mixture is nothing more than egg whites, sugar, and roasted ground hazelnuts, warmed together over a Wasserbad until the sugar dissolves and the whole thing turns thick and glossy. You pipe or spoon small mounds onto the wafers, press a whole hazelnut into each peak, and bake them low and slow. What comes out is something between a macaroon and a meringue: chewy in the center, with a thin shell that cracks when you bite through it, and a roasted nut flavor so deep it fills the room.

The Oblaten are part of the tradition, not decoration. Those thin wafer rounds keep the soft meringue from sticking to the baking sheet and give the bottom a quiet crunch that plays against the chewiness above. You can find them at Austrian specialty shops or online. If you can't, use baking parchment, but I'd encourage you to track down the real thing. Gretel always said the Oblaten make the Busserl, and after thirty years of baking them I still agree with her.