I have a lot of positive childhood memories about Amerikaners.

The biggest question always was, which side do I want to eat first.

Chocolate or icing? Do I go for my favourite one first, chocolate, or do I save it till the end? Or maybe I do one bite each side to mix things up?

Anyways, what makes those vanilla flavoured cookies special is that they are frosted on the bottom and served up side down.

I always wondered why we call them Amerikaner (‘Americans’). Apparently this goes back to one of the ingredients, which was used as the leavening agent - ammonium hydrogen carbonate. Their original name was Ammoniakaner and over time they ended up as Amerikaner …

We used to get them from the bakery but they’re quite easy to make. And as you know homemade always tastes better!

Happy Baking!

Ingredients

For the dough

100g butter (room temperature)

75g sugar

2 eggs

250g flour

1 tbsp corn starch

3 tsp baking powder

80ml milk

1 tbsp vanilla essence

salt

For the glaze

100g icing sugar

2 tbsp lemon juice

50 dark chocolate

Method

Cookies

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan) and line a baking tray.

2. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter, sugar and vanilla essence until light in colour.

3. Add the eggs and keep whisking until well combined.

4. Sift the flour, corn starch, baking powder and a pinch of salt.

5. Add the dry ingredients to the batter in 2 parts, alternating with the milk. Mix well after each addition.

6. Divide the dough into 12 equal portions.

7. Form balls first and place them onto the baking tray, in ~5cm distance.

8. Wet your hands and shape them into ‘mole hills’.

9. Bake for about 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

10. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

Glaze

1. For the chocolate glaze - melt the chocolate over hot water.

2. For the icing - combine the sifted icing sugar with the lemon juice until you get a thick consistency. You might not need all of the juice.

3. Decorate half of the cookie (flat side) with the chocolate glaze and the other with the icing.