German Lebkuchen

Mmmh, Lebkuchen!
I am not sure how many variations of Lebkuchen there is but the mix of spices is key.
This recipe is great as it makes a large batch and is easy as you don't have to roll or
form by hand.

 

Ingredients

70 g dark chocolate melts
20 g butter, softened
200 g icing sugar, sifted
2 eggs
70 g ground hazelnuts
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons rum or apple juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon mixed spice
250 g plain flour 

For the icing

180 g icing sugar, sifted
6 EL orange juice or water
125 g glace or candied ginger

Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
For the dough, melt chocolate in a water bath, set aside. In a a stand mixer beat butter and icing sugar until pale and creamy. Add all other ingredients and mix until combined. Spread dough into a Swiss roll tin (30x 24cm), smooth top.

Bake in pre-heated oven for 20-30 minutes or until a skewer inseretd into the centre comes 

out clean.

Cool the gingerbread cake in the tin. In the meantime mix together icing sugar and orange juice. Spread icing evenly over cake. Chop glace ginger and sprinkle over the icing. Let set before cutting into squares.

German coconut maceroons

So here is one of our recipes from the magazine…. enjoy baking the light and fluffy coconut macaroons with chocolate base.

Ingredients
3 eggwhites, at room temperature
330 g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
170 g desiccated coconut
Zest of 1 lemon
150 g dark chocolate, melted
Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Place the eggwhites in a bowl and use an electric mixer to beat until soft peaks form. Add the sugar in batches, beating continually, until the mixture becomes stiff and glossy. Add vanilla extract and fold through with a spatula. Add the lemon zest and coconut, in batches, and gently fold through with a spatula until evenly distributed, being careful not to overwork the mixture.
Spoon 2 teaspoonful of batter on a baking tray lined with greased baking paper. Bake in the oven for 10–12 minutes, or until the macaroons are lightly browned.
Gently remove from the baking paper immediately and cool on wire racks. Once cooled dip macaroons in melted chooclate and let set on a wire rack.

Swiss chocolate cookies - Brunsli

 Brunsli (Swiss chocolate cookies)

Only a few sleeps left til Christmas… enough time to bake another batch of cookies… so why not try Brunsli? One of the most popular Swiss Christmas cookies and absolutely delicious with coffee, tea or even a glass of wine.

Ingredients
250 g sugar
250 g ground almonds
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp plain flour
2 egg whites
Pinch of salt
100 g dark chocolate, chopped

Method
Place the sugar, ground almonds, cinnamon and flour in a bowl and mix well.
Use an electric mixer to whisk egg whites and salt until soft peaks form. Gently fold in the sugar-almond mixture with a spatula until just combined. Don’t overwork.
Melt chocolate in a warm water bath and fold gently through the sugar-almond mixture. Form the dough into a ball, cover and let cool at room temparature for about 1 hour.
Dust the work bench with sugar and roll the cookie dough with a rolling pin to about 5mm thickness. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters and place on a lined baking tray.
Let the cookies dry at room temperature for a few hours (best over night). Pre-heat oven to 250 degrees Celsius and bake cookies for 5 min. Remove from baking tray and place on a wire rack to cool.

Happy Holidays

While Christmas bells are chiming, oh, may there come to you
A dear little fairy, who's always good and true;
The little happy fairy, who drives away dull care,
And makes all things upon the earth seem ever bright and fair.
She'll whisper to good Santa to bring what you most wish;
So if you have been longing for a fine pudding dish,
She will not, as in by-gone years, forget and bring to you
Something that you do not want, though beautiful and new.
By Winifred Sackville Stoner Jr.

And a German poem I grew up with:
Markt und Straßen stehn verlassen,
Still erleuchtet jedes Haus,
Sinnend geh' ich durch die Gassen,
Alles sieht so festlich aus.

An den Fenstern haben Frauen
Buntes Spielzeug fromm geschmückt,
Tausend Kindlein stehn und schauen,
Sind so wunderstill beglückt.

Und ich wandre aus den Mauern
Bis hinaus in's freie Feld,
Hehres Glänzen, heil'ges Schauern!

Wie so weit und still die Welt!
Sterne hoch die Kreise schlingen,
Aus des Schneees Einsamkeit
Steigt 's wie wunderbares Singen -
O du gnadenreiche Zeit!
By Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff

 

See the our Christmas ebook at ISSUU.

Merry Christmas with s'more

Icy cold air, snowflakes and twinkling candles on a Christmas tree. The smell of mandarines, peanuts and cinnamon in the air.
Mum or grandma baking Christmas cookies in the kitchen… These are all typical Swiss and/or German Christmas childhood memories.

Living in Australia, where we have a BBQ for Christmas and go to the beach, bringing back some of those memories inspired us to our new magazine for Christmas. So if you want to know what a Brunsli, Mailänderli or a Lebkuchen is, then look no further and get baking.

To keep you going whilst you are baking or just in case you get really hungry, there is a hearty Baked Beans recipe.
And just in case you are searching for gift ideas, why not give some beautifully wrapped home made cookies or if you would like to venture further, have a look at Juliana’s craft project.

Christmas is in the air

A while ago we went up to the Blue Mountains to a friends place for some "Plaetzchen backen", making cookies. The kids had so much fun and we snapped happily away as we thought we would use it for our s'more Christmas mag. Here are a few that we didn't find space for in our little
cookbook.

And that was the end of the photo shoot.

Christmas wreath

Happy 1st Advent folks!

While my German friends enjoyed the first snow we are sweating at 35 degrees and the thought of
a candle wreath on the table wasn't that appealing to me.

Instead I made a flower power wreath inspired by the amazingly creative guys from prints charming.
I attended their workshop two weeks ago and managed to just finished my cardboard/paper flowers
just in time for the 1st Advent.

My finished paper flower wreath.

Cardboard of all sorts, hot glue gun, paint and twigs is all you need.

A bundle of twigs is getting recycled.

Start with laying out the twigs first and hot glue together.

Beautiful creations by prints charming using recycled cardboard packaging.