Nilla Wafers – Classic Recipe for Christmas Guetzli
Enjoyment lies in simplicity – vanilla cookies with a glossy icing
Nilla wafers belong to Christmas just like Spitzbuben, Mailänderli and Cinnamon stars – in other words: you simply can't imagine the season without them. These delicate, vanilla-scented butter cookies are a true treat. It's not for nothing that they say enjoyment lies in simplicity (well, really the saying is "strength" – but one is allowed to reinterpret a proverb or two). The tender nilla wafers, still warm, are coated with a fine icing sugar glaze straight after baking – this gives the cookies their final polish. What are you still waiting for? Off to the kitchen with you!
Ingredients
Nilla Wafer Dough
Icing
Step by step
Making the nilla wafers
Make the dough and chill it
Put the soft butter with the granulated sugar in a Bowl and beat until fluffy with the Hand mixer — a food processor works just as well, of course. Then stir in the beaten whole egg thoroughly. Add the vanilla seeds and the White flour and stir the dry ingredients in only briefly. Turn the slightly crumbly dough out onto the work surface and knead it into a smooth dough. Wrapped in cling film, it goes into the fridge for about an hour.
Roll out, cut out and bake
Preheat the oven to 170 °C fan. Take the dough out of the fridge and knead it briefly so it becomes supple again. Flour the work surface generously and roll the dough out 5 mm thick with rolling pins. Use the pretzel Cookie cutter with ejector to cut out the cookies and place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake the Guetzli for 10 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven.
Mix the icing — while the Guetzli bake
Stir icing sugar and water together in a Bowl into a runny icing. The test: as soon as you can evenly coat the back of a spoon with it, the consistency is perfect. Don't spend more than 1 to 2 minutes mixing it — the nilla wafers must be coated while still very warm, otherwise they lose their shine. So you can also prepare the icing while the Guetzli are in the oven.
Dip warm and let drip off
Let the finished baked nilla wafers rest only very briefly — they should still be warm. Then dip the cookies upside down into the icing and set them on a Cake rack so the excess icing can drip off. It's best to lay a sheet of baking paper under the Cake rack, then the work surface stays clean.
Nilla Wafers
Ingredients
Nilla Wafer Dough
Icing
Preparation
- Dough: Beat 180 g butter and 160 g sugar until fluffy, stir in 80 g whole egg, briefly mix in vanilla and 380 g flour — chill for 1 hr.
- Cutting out: Roll out 5 mm thick, cut out pretzels, oven to 170 °C fan.
- Baking: Bake 10–15 min. — the Guetzli stay pale.
- Icing: Mix 600 g icing sugar with 100 g water into a runny icing (back-of-spoon test).
- Dipping: Dip in upside down while still warm, let drip off on the Cake rack.
Nutritional values per 100 g
Storage & shelf life
Everything for this recipe
Recommended from our bakery — exactly the sizes the recipe was tested with.
Ingredients
White flour, 1 kg
Bourbon vanilla seeds, 5 g
Accessories
Stainless steel Cake rack
Pretzel cookie cutter
Silicone Rolling pin red 25 cm
Plastic Bowl 2.5 l
Professional Rolling pin 40 cm
Professional rolling pin set, 3 sizes
Small Transparent bag with stars, 10 pieces
Bow with clip, gold
Delivery in 1–2 working days · Free shipping from CHF 100
So they turn out perfectly every time
This is the one moment that decides this recipe: the nilla wafers must still be properly warm when you dip them. On warm cookies the icing draws on wafer-thin and dries into a glossy mirror — on cold ones it stays thick, matte and blotchy. So: tray out, let rest briefly, dip.
Runny means: the icing coats the back of a spoon evenly, without showing through and without staying thick. If it's too thick, add water drop by drop; too thin, a spoonful of icing sugar. Mix it while the Guetzli bake — then you don't lose any time after the oven.
Set the dipped pretzels on a Cake rack to dry, never directly on the table: the excess icing has to be able to drip off, otherwise a sugar base forms. A sheet of baking paper under the Cake rack catches the drips — the work surface stays clean and clearing up takes ten seconds.
Frequently asked questions
Almost always because the Guetzli were already too cold when dipped. The icing sugar glaze needs the residual warmth of the cookies to draw on wafer-thin and dry with a shine. Dip the pretzels straight after baking, only very briefly cooled — and mix the icing beforehand so it's ready when the tray comes out of the oven.
The 600 g of icing sugar is intentional: dipping requires a deep icing bath, otherwise you won't get the pretzels evenly coated. It's normal for some icing to be left over at the end. Covered, it keeps for a few days in the fridge — stirred smooth with a few drops of water, you can reuse it for the next batch of Guetzli.
Yes: just butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, White flour and the icing sugar glaze — no nuts and no almonds. That makes them suitable for any cookie plate where children with a nut allergy are eating too. Gluten, egg and milk are, however, present.
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Related products
Stainless steel grille
Cookie cutter pretzel
Rolling pin silicone red 25 cm
Clear bag small with stars, 10 pieces
Bow with clip, gold
White flour, 1 kg
Plastic bowl 2.5 l
Professional rolling pin 40 cm
Bourbon vanilla seeds, 5 g
Professional rolling pin set, 3 sizes
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