Comfort Reads discussion

We have been discussing traditional foods that we eat for Christmas and New Year's, on a different thread. I'd love to hear what special foods you prepare for the holiday season.

Gundula -- I have a dampfnudeln recipe from Dr. Oetker! It calls for dried yeast. If you like, pm your email address to me, and I will send you a scanned copy of the recipe.

French cookies. They go by different names, but are made on a pizelle iron. Wonderful!! My husband & I make them together ... tiring, but fun!! Got in trouble with the kids b/c we didn't make them last year. We've been given orders to make them this year! LOL

Martha wrote: "French cookies. They go by different names, but are made on a pizelle iron. Wonderful!! My husband & I make them together ... tiring, but fun!! Got in trouble with the kids b/c we didn't make them ..."

Oh, yeah, you can't NOT make something that the kids are expecting. I'll have to google "pizelle iron". I'm not familiar with it.

Try this http://pizzelleiron.net/

I would think they would be Italian cookies since the iron seems to be Italian, but they will always be "French" cookies to us! That's what Granny called them!

My all time favorite holiday baking is Linzer torte. It is a cake made from ground hazelnuts and has jam. Yummy.

Oh, I love Linzer Torte! There used to be a bakery (Gizella's) that had the best German pastries, including a delicious Linzer Torte. It's gone now, unfortunately.
I do have a recipe for it. I should dig it out and try to bake it this Christmas. Thanks for the reminder!

Jeannette wrote: "Gundula -- I have a dampfnudeln recipe from Dr. Oetker! It calls for dried yeast. If you like, pm your email address to me, and I will send you a scanned copy of the recipe."

Cool, I will do that asap, even though it will probably not be good for my waistline.

It's only once a year! ;)

Petra wrote: "Oh, I love Linzer Torte! There used to be a bakery (Gizella's) that had the best German pastries, including a delicious Linzer Torte. It's gone now, unfortunately.
I do have a recipe for it. I sho..."

I love Linzer Torte as well, and Black Forest Cake (with real whipped cream, and sour cherries). My favourite German Christmas cookies, besides Lebkuchen (German gingerbread) are Pfeffernüsse and Zimtsterne (cinnamon stars). I will try to see if I can dig up some English language recipes for these.

Can't believe I almost forgot Lebkuchen...I so miss those.

My mother-in-law makes her own Lebkuchen. They are way better than the store-bought variety. But, we can get the traditional kinds at World Market.

well my family has a varied of dishes prepare on christmas day also new year's day . we believe that we must spread the joy around our family table.

Chevonese wrote: "well my family has a varied of dishes prepare on christmas day also new year's day . we believe that we must spread the joy around our family table."

Any traditional favorites or must-haves?

Gundula wrote: "Petra wrote: "Zimtsterne (cinnamon stars). I will try to see if I can dig up some English language recipes for these. ..."

I have recipes for Zimtsterne (uses egg whites)and Lemon Hearts (uses the same number of egg yolks). Want me to post them? I make them almost every year.
I think there's a Pfeffernusse recipe as well.

Petra wrote: "Gundula wrote: "Petra wrote: "Zimtsterne (cinnamon stars). I will try to see if I can dig up some English language recipes for these. ..."

I have recipes for Zimtsterne (uses egg whites)and Lemo..."

Please do, that would be really appreciated. I've made "Zimtsterne" before, but I've never tried making Pfeffernüsse (I usually just buy them at the deli, but the store-bought cinnamon stars are way too sweet). I've never tried lemon hearts, but I love everything that's lemony.

Our Christmas box from Germany just arrived! Yum! Home-baked cookies and my favorite Ferrero booze-in-the-center chocolate covered cherries!

Jeannette wrote: "Our Christmas box from Germany just arrived! Yum! Home-baked cookies and my favorite Ferrero booze-in-the-center chocolate covered cherries!"

Enjoy, but make sure to save some for Christmas. My parents always hid the Christmas boxes from Germany, other wise we would have had nothing left by the 24th. One year, my mother forgot where she hid one of the boxes, so we ended up eating Christmas Stollen in April (not bad, actually).

lol We'll ration the cookies, but the cherries won't last long. I have to ration them out to my husband. He eats 3 at a time!

A really amazing type of Swiss Lebkuchen are "Baseler Leckerli" If you are ever lucky enough to find any at a deli, give them a try. They are not as sweet as German Lebkuchen, but I actually like them better (but, I've never been able to find them outside of Switzerland, sigh).

Another thing I just remembered about making dampfnudeln (which are big, steamed yeast buns) is that my husband asked me to make them because his mom never got them right. That was a point for me early in the marriage! :)

Here are the recipes. They require a kitchen scale. I make the Cinnamon Stars and Lemon Hearts at the same time in order to use up the eggs.
There isn't a Pfeffernusse recipe but there is one for Lebkuchen, if anyone is interested. Let me know.

For the Lemon cookies, the hotter the cookie is when you glaze it, the more evenly glazed the cookie is. I usually bake these cookies very close together, have the glaze and brush ready and at a good consistency, take the pan out of the oven and quickly glaze the entire pan. No thinking, no worrying about any mess on the pan, just quick glazing.

Lemon Hearts
3 egg yolks
4 1/2 oz (120 gr) sugar
1 packet Vanilla Sugar (about 1 Tbsp)
3 drops Oetker Baking Essence, Lemon flavor (a concentrated extract)
1 pinch Baking Powder
7 - 9 oz (200-250 gr) ground almonds (depends on the size of the yolks; have a bit extra at hand for rolling out the cookies; no flour is used in this recipe)

Lemon Glaze
3 1/2 oz. (100 gr) Icing Sugar
1- 1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice (freshly squeezed, if possible)
Blend the icing sugar with as much lemon juice as will give a good coating consistency. It needs to spread easily.

Preheat oven to 400 for at least 5 minutes.
Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla sugar until thick and creamy. Mix in the flavouring (extract), baking powder and the almonds until the mixture is too firm to mix by spoon.
Knead in more almonds until the mixture scarecely continues to stick.
Use almonds or icing sugar to roll out instead of flour. Roll to 1/4" (1/2 cm) thick and cut into shapes.
Lay these on a well-greased baking sheet.
As soon as the sheet is in the oven, lower the temperature to 350 deg.
Bake for 10 minutes
As soon as the cookies are removed from the oven, quickly glaze them.
As the cookies cool, the glaze won't look as 'glazey' but the cookies will still taste great.

Cinnamon Stars

3 egg whites
9 oz (250 gr) icing sugar
1 packet Vanilla Sugar
3 drops Oetker Baking Essence, Bitter Almond Flavour
1 level tsp ground cinnamon
10 - 11 1/2 oz (275-325 gr) ground almonds or hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 300 deg.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff enough to show and retain the cut of a knife.
Whisk in the sieved icing sugar, a tablespoon at a time.
Remove 4 Tbsps. of the meringue and put aside. Use this to coat the stars later.
Add the vanilla sugar, the flavouring, cinnamon and about half the ground nuts to the meringue mixture left in the bowl (not the 4 Tbsps). Knead in as much of the rest of the ground nuts so that the mixture scarcely continues to stick.
Roll out, using ground nuts or icing sugar instead of flour, to 1/4" (1/2 cm) thick. Cut into shapes.
Place the cookies onto a well-greased cookie sheet. Carefully brush the tops of the cookies with the reserved meringue. If the meringue has become too firm, mix in a few drops of water to bring it to a thick spreading consistency.
Bake 20-30 minutes. Upon removing from the oven, the cookies will feel soft. They will harden as they cool.

These recipes are from a very old cookbook called "Dr. Oetker German Home Baking". I wish I could find another copy as mine is falling apart....literally.


Enjoy!

I have two Dr. Oetker cookbooks: Baking Today & Cooking Today.

Petra wrote: "Here are the recipes. They require a kitchen scale. I make the Cinnamon Stars and Lemon Hearts at the same time in order to use up the eggs.
There isn't a Pfeffernusse recipe but there is one for..."

Thanks for the recipes, Petra, I will definitely try to make these.

I love pfeffernusse and lebkuchen cookies. My mother and grandma used to make them. I've never tried to make them myself. Trader Joes has very good pfeffernusse though, almost as good as the real thing.

My grandmother always made little balls with peanut butter and dates in the middle dipped in dark chocolate. I think she just called them peanut butter balls. And we always had shortbread.

Lee wrote: "My grandmother always made little balls with peanut butter and dates in the middle dipped in dark chocolate. I think she just called them peanut butter balls. And we always had shortbread."

Yum!

Trader Joe's is a cool store for the unusual stuff, Joy. We used to go to one in Sammammish.

I wish we had Trader Joe's in Canada. Wah!

Lee wrote: "I wish we had Trader Joe's in Canada. Wah!"

It is a great store although I probably do less than 25% of my grocery shopping there.

It just sounds so fun. I'm always hearing about it all over the place.

Normally, I bake over 100 dozen cookies, about 6 different kinds, which vary from year to year. I do this all by myself, and by hand. (No mixer) I do drop cookies since I do not have much room for rolled cookies, and I always make my German Chocolate Caramel Bars (a.k.a those caramel brownie things). They are very easy and if I didn't, there would be a riot.

Last year, I made quick breads, 2 of my own creation, and 1 I reworked from an old recipe. This year, due to finances, I thought I would not be able to bake. I LOVE to bake. For me it's therapy. My boyfriend, whom I love dearly, told me that he would help me buy ingredients, and my mom told me to give her my list.

So, this year, I am doing bar cookies and 2 batches of my bars.

(To see this recipe, the quick breads, and others, check out my group Cookies! where we share recipes.)

Yay for your mom & BF, Kim! It's nice to share the costs,

Kim, is your German Choclate Caramel Bar recipe on the Cookies group? They sound really great!

Yes, the caramel bars are in the group. The recipe is in the brownies folder.

Thanks Kim!

No prob. I like to share my recipes, and since they are already posted there, I don't have to re-type everything or risk mistyping.