Happy New Year!

If there is one thing Germans won't miss on New Year's Eve it is watching Dinner for One.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

I am sorry for not posting more Christmas cookie recipes but I was too busy this year. 

Tomorrow I am going to drive home for Christmas, as every year I will spend this time with my family and some really close friends. So I am going to have a blogging break for several days!

Happy holidays to all of you out there!

Idea taken from Fork and Beans and VeganYumYum

few changes:

I used popped amaranth, added vanilla sugar to the powdered sugar, for the hat I used a peppermint chocolate cookie and half of a chocolate banana sweet, covered this with chocolate

that's it :)

A minty meal - Iron Chef Challenge - December 2011

Really. I wanted to skip this Iron Chef Challenge. I do not like mint at all, except for tea and candies. But in my spice shelf there was mint left, so this challenge was a chance to get finally rid of it and as I was very unsure what to cook I tried three different dishes (in fact four) and wanted to decide which one to submit then. 

In the end I found myself having three courses containing mint and everyone was quite fine, so I decided to let you choose your own favourite.


Starter: Tabouleh inspired Bulgur Veggie Tower on a Bed of Mint Sauce

what you need: 

100g bulgur soaked in boiling veggie broth for 1/2h

2 tomatoes, cut in squares

1/4 cucumber, cut in squares

2 spring onions, chopped

a few eggplant slices, sauted in olive oil

5tbsp chopped parsley

salt, pepper, cumin (optional)

sauce:

2tbsp lemon juice

2tbsp olive oil

1tbsp mint

salt, pepper

how to:

at first prepare sauce and allow it to infuse for several minutes

season tomato and cucumber squares with salt and pepper, eventually add cumin to soaked bulgur (it has a really strange taste, so better make sure you like that)

carefully layer all ingredients on top of one another

spread parsley over it

pour sauce around it

Main Course: Mushroom Cannelloni on Bed of Lettuce and garlicy Button Mushrooms

what you need: 

cannelloni:

~200g botton mushrooms

~6-8 cannelloni

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 midi onion, chopped

2tbsp mint

olive oil, salt, pepper

sauce:

usual bechamel sauce (from margarine, flour, soy rice milk), seasoned with nutmeg, salt, pepper, lemon juice

plant milk for baking pan

garlicy button mushrooms:

~5-10 button mushrooms, peeled

1 clove of garlic, minced

olive oil

salad:

lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers

dressing:

125g soy yogurt 

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 spring onion, chopped

1tbsp agave syrup

1tbsp mint

1tbsp lemon juice

fleur de sel, pepper, chili, parsley leaves

how to:

prepare salad dressing, allow to infuse

prepare cannelloni filling, sauté garlic and onions, add mushroom pieces and mint, season with salt and pepper stuff cannelloni

pour plant milk over stuffed cannelloni into the baking pan, then prepare bechamel sauce and pour over it, covering everything

put mushrooms into another baking pan (top-down), stray garlic over them and sprinkle olive oil over them

put both pans in your oven

bake at 180° for ~25min or until brown

in the meantime prepare your salad, place dressing on top of lettuce bed and garnish with parsley leaves

when done remove both pans from the oven, place button mushrooms on lettuce and cannelloni besides

Dessert: Minty Pancakes with Chocolate and Strawberry Jam

                                                                                               

what you need:

pancake batter (from flour, soy eggs, salt, plant milk)

2tbsp mint

dark chocolate rasps

strawberry jam

icing sugar

how to: 

prepare pancake batter (should be really fluent - these are supposed to become very thin, not American style pancakes)

add mint

heat oil in a pan, place a small amount of dough in your pan, then move pan, until the dough covers the whole bottom, flip when brown

rasp chocolate over one side or spread strawberry jam on it, then roll or fold and sprinkle icing sugar on top

-enjoy!

St. Nikolaus Day

Christkind 

I just realized that this day is a special German holiday and I really cannot believe that as it is one of the most important holidays for kids.
St. Nikolaus is somehow like Santa Claus, in fact both have the same origin but there are big differences.

First of all: St. Nikolaus Day is on 6th of December and you have to know that Germany is kind of split when it comes to the ones that bring Christmas presents.
In northern Germany it is done by someone called "Weihnachtsmann" who is quite similar to Santa Claus. But in southern Germany it is the Christkind ("Christ Child"). And this one is a really weird thing. On the one hand it is supposed to be baby Jesus on the other hand most images show something like a female angel dressed in a night gown, having a halo and being accompanied by angels. Yeah, I know, that sounds weird, but still I am part of the Christkind fraction.

But back to St. Nikolaus.

This traditions leads back to the dark ages and a bishop who was very generous.
You may know about him as he is also the model for Santa Claus. In Germany all this got mixed with heathen traditions. On 6th of December children put their shoes in front of their bedroom doors and hope that Nikolaus comes and fills them with sweets. Traditionally there were nuts and fruit as apples and oranges, nowadays it is mainly chocolate.
Sometimes Nikolaus even comes to your home in the evening and reads from his book,
whether the children were polite during the year or not. Children have to recite poems, play Christmas songs on whatever instrument they are forced to learn and a costumed bearded guy has to listen to their attempts. In the end they get a package of sweets or small presents.

St. Nikolaus accompanied by Perchten

Over here in Bavaria he also brings his helper "Knecht Ruprecht" (Krampus) who brings a rod to punish cheeky children. This goes back to ancient heathen traditions, too and sounds lots more cruel than it really is.
Where I live there are even more terrible customs: there is this one old heathen tradition that people dress as "Perchten", a hairy monster with ugly mask which is meant to personalize the evil.
This must sound terrible. But this might have the same origin as Halloween. And it is really much fun to see all these people running through the streets and scaring the hell out of you.
(When I first met one of them I was working at a small cafe and one of those funny guys creeped up on me, I thought I was about to die when I turned around and starred into that mask)

But most of the time St. Nikolaus comes on its own, brings some chocolate, dates, dried figs, sweets, small presents and stuff. And I will never forget how excited I was to wake up in the morning, running down the stairs and finding sweets stuffed into my shoes.
Even though times are changing - the traditional St. Nikolaus looked more like a bishop- dressed in gold and white and wearing a bishop's mitre with a big golden cross and nowadays he starts turning into Santa Claus, with its' distinctive red bonnet and dressed in red and white- this is one day that is very special. All those Nikolaus parties in kindergarten and school are so one of a kind.
So happy St. Nikolaus to all of you!

Inside Out Coconut Macaroons

I love coconut - but usual coconut macaroons are not really to my taste.

And coconut reminds me of snow (funny somehow because it really should remind me of Caribbean sun and stuff like that). We had no snow by now (usually it starts snowing in November) which makes me really sad. I love snow. Christmas without snow is no Christmas at all.


what you need: 

Coconut Chocolate Sweets

150g flour
50g sugar
50g margarine
150ml plant milk
1 pack vanilla sugar (alternative: vanilla extract)
2tsp baking powder
1/2tsp salt

40g dark chocolate, chopped
flour
10-20g dark chocolate (molten)
 a few tbsp coconut rasps

how to: 

mix flour, sugar, margarine, plant milk, vanilla sugar, baking powder and salt
allow dough to cool in the fridge for at least one hour
add chopped chocolate pieces
then add flour until dough becomes unsticky
mold a tbsp of cookie dough around each sweet, covering completely, shape into balls
Preheat oven, bake for 10-12min or until set

prepare chocolate drizzle, drizzle over each cooled cookie, spread grated coconut over it

Barbara Branches

Especially in German speaking countries celebrate the tradition of Barbara Branches (Barbarazweige).

On St. Barbara's Day, the 4th of December, twigs are cut from trees (mainly cherry trees, but other flowering trees work so, too) and put into a vase, they have to be kept in a warm, well-lit place.

When they start to bloom on or before Christmas good luck will come to you and your family.

There are also variations for unmarried girls: Every admirer gets his own branch and the one that starts to bloom at first tells the girl whom to marry.

Snowflake Cookies

There are two reasons these small cookies are called snowflakes. First and most obvious: They are quite colourless (even for cookies) and second: They literally melt in your mouth.

This effect comes from using starch instead of flour and powdered sugar instead of usual one.

There may occur one small problem: you really have to be careful about the baking time. But if you manage this: They are really worth a try.

This recipe is traditionally German and does not request eggs anyway. Hurray!
I used a recipe from a book a local housewife charity organisation sells.


what you need: 

(serves your whole neighbourhood)

250g margarine

250g starch
100g powdered sugar
1 vanilla bean's pith (alternative: 3 packs vanilla sugar; vanilla extract)
~130g flour (amount depends on the marge and flour type you use)


how to: 

Mix margarine, vanilla, starch, 1/3 of flour and powdered sugar
Add flour until you get a very soft kneadable dough
Allow to cool in your fridge for at least one hour
Form cherry sized balls and flatten with a flour dipped fork

bake at 170°C for ~10-12min
don't forget to control whether they are already done!

Almond Chocolate Sweets

Today my mother called me, to ask for some advice which kinds of chocolate she could get for my parcel on St. Nicolas Day.
There are no words for me to describe this feeling. She never really appreciated my lifestyle and my vegetarianism and later veganism was an issue ever since.

But today my technophobic mother searched via google for an online shop that offered vegan Christmas sweets and ordered them, so sweet, now I am really speechless.

You understand I just had to dedicate today's sweets post to her.

This recipe was her first attempt to create vegan Christmas cookies a few years ago, well she did not make it up, in fact these are traditionally made around Christmas, but for me she made them with dark chocolate, so they were vegan. Nowadays I usually make them a few times before Christmas, so I have versions with different sorts of chocolate: "milk" chocolate, white chocolate, dark variations - gorgeous.
You may also experiment on them - using rum (add alcohol to unmolten chocolate and heat then, otherwise it will go lumpy), raisins, different spices or dried fruit.

Plus: These are so simple that they only take a few minutes.


what you need:

100g chocolate
100g almond slices

how to: 

melt chocolate, add almonds, stir carefully but well until all almonds are covered with chocolate,
use two teaspoons to form small balls, place on parchment paper and allow to cool for at least 1 hour





One short "fun fact":
I love literature and yesterday I came across Mark Twain's essay "the awful German language". What a funny read. I highly recommend that.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

I love Christmas time. I think everything about it is beautiful, waiting for the first snow (I had mine already this year, but it wasn't in my town so this doesn't count as first snow), drinking glühwein on Christmas fair, making plans for Christmas dinner, thinking about presents, the Christmas tree, ...

And when it comes to sweets it is even better. All these Christmas goodies are so wonderful and I love baking and preparing them.

Do you love Marzipan the same way I do? It is sweet, it is chewy, it is delicious.

So Christmas time is perfect for me. Lots of marzipan everywhere.

This recipe is totally simple and really quick:

You need:

*marzipan

*almond slices

*molten dark chocolate

(I use GEPA 70% Grand Noir)

How to:

form small marzipan balls, adorn with almond slices and cover with molten chocolate

(I used a toothpick to dunk it into the chocolate and a teaspoon to close the hole)

place on a parchment paper, allow to cool for at least one hour

store in airtight container

Note:

the better the chocolate, the better the result