“This is bringing me back to my childhood!”

Franca Lindner is doing a taste test on the dough of a spiced Christmas cookie. The recipe was perfected by her nonna (grandmother), Elizabeth Hammel, who has sent her only the ingredients list and some scant instructions over WhatsApp. I am helping her translate the handwritten recipe into something an American baker might be able to reproduce.

As the holidays approach, Franca is over 4,000 miles from home in Munich, Germany. She has spent the past four months studying at American University in the Washington Semester Program. Through a friend of a friend, Franca found out that my husband and I house visiting scholars, interns, research fellows, and others on a budget needing temporary quarters near the city.

Living with an “older couple” in the suburbs doesn’t appeal to every young person, but Franca found it to her liking. “I wanted the full American experience,” she told me. “I knew I would be among young people at university, and working as an intern, but I felt as though I was missing a demographic. Living with a retired couple in a neighborhood seemed like a good idea.”

She enjoys cooking and gardening, so having access to a full, well-stocked kitchen and a backyard vegetable garden also appealed. “It reminds me of cooking and tending the garden with my nonna.” She has shared some traditional German recipes, making incredible German-style potatoes, pretzels, and apple strudel.

Over the past fifteen or so years, even before our daughter “flew the nest,” my husband, Steve Francis, and I have housed approximately forty temporary visitors. Many worked for a summer at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival or interned at the Center; others, like Franca, came through word of mouth. Not all have become permanent friends, but the ones who have form a network of extended family around the globe, from Vietnam to Sweden, Mexico to India.

And now, Franca will join those ranks. We’re already thinking about a trip to Munich to visit her and her family. Meanwhile, we are experiencing a touch of German holiday cheer by enjoying her nonna’s delicious spice cookies.

Nonna’s Plätzchen (Christmas Spice Cookies)

Makes 60 cookies

Ingredients

2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon rolled oats
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon each ground cinnamon, cardamon, and ginger
2 cups walnuts
2/3 cup grated coconut
1 cup + 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, cubed
4 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 whole egg
Powdered sugar (for sprinkling)

Preparation

Heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Mix the flours, oats, cornstarch, sugar, and spices together. Grind the walnuts finely, and add them with the coconut to the dry ingredients.

With a hand mixer, or in a stand mixer, whip the egg whites until they are fluffy, then add the butter. Once combined, add the whole egg.

With a wooden spoon, mix the dry ingredients into the butter and egg mixture. Use your hands to mix toward the end as the dough becomes stiff. Put the dough into the refrigerator to cool for about an hour.

Roll out to about a quarter-inch thick and cut into desired shapes. Bake for about 12 to 15 minutes or until brown around the edges. Cool, and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Suggested accompanying music while you bake, from Franca’s childhood:

• “In der Weihnachtsbäckerei” (In the Christmas Bakery)
• The soundtrack of Drei Nüsse für Aschenbrödel (Three Wishes for Cinderella, a movie that is screened all over Germany every year at Christmas time)

Betty Belanus retired from her position at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage as curator and education specialist in January 2024. She is now an official volunteer and oversees the front desk most Tuesdays.