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Winter in general and particularly the holiday season - Thanksgiving and Christmas in North America, Advent and Christmas in Germany - is the best season for home bakers to hone their skills. Christmas cookies are a fun way to get started, even for people with no baking experience. The recipes are usually fairly simple and straightforward, requiring only pantry staples, a few special seasonal ingredients and cookie cutters.
Christmas Cookies
What would the Christmas season be without scrumptious homemade cookies?
Once the shopping for the special ingredients is done (sprinkles, spices, and secret ingredients), there is only one taboo - baking Christmas cookies alone. This can be of the most special family activities of the year or a wonderful opportunity to get together with your friends who enjoy baking. 'Tis the season after all ... so get out the cookie cutters and preheat the oven. While it helps to have basic recipes handy, once the cookie dough is finished there is literally no limit to creativity.
Freshly baked Christmas cookies are always a special treat for friends and family and are best served with a mug of delicious, steaming Glühwein (mulled wine) or Kinderpunsch (non-alcoholic fruit punch).
The quintessential Christmas cookie - these crisp, spicy cookies make a perfect snack after a day outdoors. Serve them with big pitchers of mulled wine and hot chocolate.
Delicate, crescent shaped cookies flavored with vanilla and dusted with confectioner's sugar. Even though these cookies are available year-round, the homemade version is traditionally made at Christmas. The recipe originated from Austria but has become a classic among German Christmas cookies.
While these cookies are a popular sweet snack all year round, no Christmas cookie tray should be without them. They have a delightful crunchy texture. Dust off the cookie press and create different shapes - classic straight cookies, round or S-shaped ones. Dipping the ends in melted chocolate makes them even more irresistible.
This anise-flavored, white cookie is a regional specialty from Southern Germany, more precisely form the Swabian region of Baden-Württemberg. What makes them special is their decorative charm since they feature intricate imprints that are made by pressing a mold into the rolled dough and allowing the impression to dry before baking. The molds range form simple patterns and folkloric motives all the way to very intricate depictions of animals, people or localities.
Small and flavorful, these cookies are an almond lover's delight and sure to become favorites.
Everyone seems to love these irresistible jam-filled cookies. Bake plenty because they won't last long!
These delicious cookies are decorative but more importantly very scrumptious and instantly add a romantic touch to your selection of Christmas cookie.
Decorative and dangerously delicious, this jam-filled cookie requires a little bit of skill on part of the baker but will reward cookie lovers with its layers of flavor.
Macaroons
Beaten egg whites are the secret behind the wonderfully light texture of macaroons, which can be made several weeks before Christmas and placed in a tin. Layers of parchment paper will help keep them crisp. Freshly baked macaroons, enjoyed while still warm, are an especially delicious treat. Placing the cookie dough on baking wafers (Backoblaten) gives the macaroons an even more special appearance and adds great texture.
Gingerbread Cookies
The complex flavor and texture of classic Lebkuchen might pose quite the challenge to the home baker and hardly seems worth the effort given the easy availability of many high quality, brand name Lebkuchen in North American grocery stores. These simplified gingerbread cookie versions make great personalized gifts for friends and family. Place them in a decorative jar or a nice box lined with decorative paper and a festive ribbon.
Recipes for the Experienced Baker
While it might well be a rewarding experience to bake homemade Stollen or Lebkuchen, or make a gingerbread house from scratch, lowering one's expectations towards the final product is advisable. In the case of Stollen and Lebkuchen it has taken German bakers centuries to refine their recipes and methods of preparation. Considering that long strive for perfection, buying the finished product imported from Germany and savoring the refinement is becoming easier as more and more specialty foods retailer and well-stocked grocery stores carry these products.
A very special Christmas treat. Stollen is a rich, sweet cake filled with fruits and nuts. Stollen from Dresden are particularly well-known. A masterpiece of baking, treasured around the world. The product's long shelf life also makes it a perfect gift for any food lover.
Honey-sweet, richly spiced ginger Lebkuchen come in three basic varieties - plain, chocolate covered or sugar glazed. While they are available in different shapes like hearts, the classic Lebkuchen is round. Learn more about Lebkuchen.
Gingerbread houses are often old-fashioned looking, but they don't have to be. Let this
recipe for a townhouse with a garage and a skylight be your guide to all kinds of modern,
whimsical possibilities. Use German cookies and candies to make it authentic, as gingerbread
houses were first made as a Christmas tradition in Germany.
The following ingredients may not be a staple in everyone's pantry. Most of the ingredients are available at well-stocked specialty food stores near you or even in the international aisle of your local grocery store. Placing on order online with online retailers who carry German products is another convenient option.
Baking wafers (Backoblaten)
While in the North America the use of wafers is usually limited to communion in church services, in Germany they have long been used as a baking ingredient, primarily for Christmas cookies.
Candied citrus peel
The two most renowned German Christmas treats, Lebkuchen (ginger bread) and Stollen (sweet bread), require candied citrus peel as a basic ingredient. In Germany two basic varieties are sold - Zitronat, which is candied lemon or lime peel and Orangeat, which is candied orange peel. These ingredients are sold in diced form in small containers.
Gingerbread Spice (Lebkuchengewürz)
Gingerbread spice is a wonderfully fragrant mixture of ground spices containing a combination of the following spices - cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, mace, ginger, allspice, coriander, cardamom.
Hazelnuts
While hazelnuts are available in most well-stocked specialty food and grocery stores, the ground version is still fairly hard to find. These nuts are not as easily peeled as almonds. If a recipe requires ground hazelnuts, it might be worth the effort of trying to find a store which carries German baking ingredients or buying them online.
Marzipan
Marzipan is a confection consisting primarily of sugar and ground almonds. It derives its characteristic flavor from bitter almonds, which constitute 4% to 6% of the total almond content by weight. Some marzipan is also flavored with rosewater. Persipan is a similar product, in which the almonds are replaced by apricot or peach kernels.
Marzipan is available as a baking ingredient as a paste or in bars. Consumer-ready marzipan products include chocolate covered marzipan bars or marzipan-filled chocolate as well as small marzipan imitations of animals, fruits and vegetables. It is also used to decorate cakes. During Advent and Christmas season, marzipan is an indispensable ingredient in Stollen, cakes and Christmas cookies.
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