German Lebkuchen Bites For Holidays and Christmas
In Germany there is no Christmas without Lebkuchen. The German Lebkuchen Bites are an alternative to the the regular gingerbread cookies. Important is the Lebkuchen spice that is a must add, like in the USA you add these spices to a pumpkin pie which make a unique taste. Happy Baking!
Ingredients German Lebkuchen Bites
Makes 45 pieces
70 g dark unsweetened or semi-sweet chocolate
200 g soft butter
200 g powdered sugar
2 eggs
70 g ground hazelnuts
1 tbsp baking powder, salt
2 tbsp brown rum
2 tbsp Lebkuchen spice or all spice (see below)
How to Make the Lebkuichen Spice –
250 g flour
2 packages cake glaze (in German it’s a so called Kuchenglasur) preferably white but dark one will be ok too; alternatively use white or dark unsweetened baking chocolate
50 g dried unsweetened apricots
Baking Instructions German Lebkuchen Bites
– Chop chocolate with a knife and melt it by using the double-boiler method.
– Place butter in a big bowl and sieve powdered sugar over it.
– By using a hand mixer mix until bubbly.
– Add eggs, chocolate, hazelnuts, baking powder, pinch of salt, rum and spice,
– Mix until you get a smooth dough.
– Place baking paper on a baking tray and spread the dough evenly on it (about 1,5 cm thick).
– Bake it in preheated oven for 25 minutes on 160 C or 320 F.
– Remove the tray and let cool off thoroughly.
– With a round cutter cutter cut circles out of the dough; place them on a grid.
– Melt the glaze per instructions.
– Spread it over the bites, then decorate with small apricot pieces when glaze is still wet.
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(Source: Essen und Trinken 11/1996)
German Quark Streusel Cake with Fruit
What about a Quark Streusel Cake with fruit to combine with a cup of German coffee or tea? My favorite German coffee is from Tschibo. This is an authentic and proven German recipe, you just have to make the quark which is not so difficult. There are also alternatives for quark – Curious what it is? Check out our article Substitutes for Quark – If you cannot get the desired fresh fruit use alternatively frozen or canned fruit. Trader Joes or ALDI carry the sour cherries in the jar. Happy Baking!
Check this out: HOW TO MAKE QUARK
Ingredients German Quark Streusel Cake
DOUGH
250 g butter
200 g sugar (or less depending on your taste for sweetness)
1 package vanilla sugar – 0.5oz
1 egg
1 dash salt
1 package baking powder – 0.3oz
500 g flour
TOPPING
1 kg quark
200 g sugar
1 package vanilla pudding – 1.5 oz (alternatively corn starch and vanilla extract)
juice of half lemon
1 egg
1 jar sour cherries or other fruit like raspberries or blueberries (fresh, jar or frozen) – 24oz
Send some German Love…
Baking Instructions German Quark Streusel Cake
– Melt butter, let cool off.
– Combine all dough ingredients and knead until you get a crumbly dough.
– Keep 1/4 of the dough.
– Layer a high rim baking tray (Height 2 inches) with parchment paper.
– Press 3/4 of the dough evenly on the baking tray.
– Pre-heat oven to 375 F (175 C).
– Mix all ingredients – NOT THE FRUIT – for the topping, and spread evenly over the dough.
– Place the fruit on top plus the remaining dough as Streusel (if you use frozen fruit, defrost it first and drain all liquid).
– Bake for 30-35 min on the middle rack.
Make a Streusel Cake with this Baking Mix – So Easy
Halloween Recipes: Bloody Hands
It is time for great Halloween recipes like the Bloody hands recipe. It is an original German recipe but it is easy to make. You find all ingredients for the German Halloween recipes on LoveGermanfood.com, Amazon or in your local super market. This is for sure a scary dessert!
The hands are made out of Dr. Oetker Vanilla pudding and the blood is made out of raspberries with cherry juice. Happy Cooking and Happy Halloween!
Ingredients Halloween Recipes Bloody Hands
2 packages of Vanilla pudding Dr. Oetker – How to Make Vanilla Pudding –
1 liter milk
sugar as per instructions or to taste
For the Sauce:
250 g frozen raspberries, 2 tbsp sugar, 100ml cherry juice
Cooking Instructions
– Fill pudding in 2 rubber gloves (without a powdery layer inside!). The best is to get some help of someone else. One person holds the glove, the other one pours the pudding into the glove. If you don’t have a helper, place the glove into a cup and pour the pudding in several steps and not at once.
– Close the gloves with paper clips, and keep them in the fridge for some hours so it will get firm.
– Put raspberries into a pan and bring them with sugar and juice to a boil; puree or mash them with a stick mixer, then let cool off. Place in the fridge for 3-4 hours.
– When the hands are completely firm hold them briefly in hot water so you can remove the plastic gloves.
– Decorate the hands on a plate and pour the raspberry sauce over them. Cut off some finger to make it look really dramatic.
Black Forest Gugelhupf – Authentic German
The Black Forest Gugelhupf is a German bundt cake that is containing sour cherries which are sprinkled with “Kirsch Brandy” (Kirschwasser, the famous brandy from the Black Forest). If you don’t want to use brandy you might want to add some natural rum flavor which contains no alcohol. The cake should be made in a Gugelhupf form (bundt form) but if you don’t have one you can use a round baking form that has a tubular base; 9 or 10 inches diameter, see below. Trader Joes or Aldi carries sour cherries. Happy Baking.
Ingredients Black Forest Gugelhupf
1 jar (24oz) sour cherries
60 ml Kirschschnaps (Cherry Brandy), alternatively rum or brandy flavor
100 g semi-sweet chocolate
200 g butter
300 g sugar
1 dash salt
5 eggs
400 g flour
3 tsp baking powder
100 ml milk
2 tsp cocoa, unsweetened
1 package vanilla sugar 0.3oz – How to make Vanilla Sugar –
250 g powdered sugar
some butter and flour for the form
Baking Instructions
– Drain cherries.
– Drip with 30ml Kirsch brandy or add the rum flavor.
– Melt chocolate using the double boiler method (Add water in a pan, place chocolate into a ceramic bowl that fits into the pan. Bring water to a boil, reduce heat, see how the chocolate is melting, stir accordingly).
– Mix soft butter, salt and sugar, add one egg after the other.
– Mix flour with baking powder, add alternating with milk.
– Part dough.
– In one part add cherries, the other part mix with molten chocolate, 1 tsp cocoa and vanilla sugar.
– Grease gugelhupf form and dust completely with flour.
– Fill in light dough, on top fill dark dough, with a fork go through both dough in spirals.
– Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
– Bake cake for 60-70 min.
– Mix powdered sugar with remaining Kirsch Brandy and 2 tbsp water.
– If you like a two-colored glaze mix half of the glaze with 1 tsp cocoa.
– When cake is done add glaze(s) on top.
Alternative for the Bundt Cake Form
The German Breakfast Box Makes a Great Gift!
Tomato Sauce German Style
In Germany you can get a classic packaged spaghetti dinner that is called “Miracoli”. (from Italian miracolo = Miracle). You might know it because you lived in Germany, and it’s available in every supermarket. It’s very popular and widely known. But I learned that this product is not the same anymore, and you cannot get it in the USA at all. Kraft sells a spaghetti dinner that is similar but the ingredient list is not the same.
Miracoli was one of my favorites back in Germany because I wasn’t much into cooking (really!) so this packaged dinner was very convenient.
I found a recipe that is copying the taste of the tomato sauce and I must admit, it’s the best tomato sauce German style I ever had. Forget about the ones in the jars – they are tasteless compared to this home made tomato sauce. Best is to serve the sauce with Italian spaghetti that are made only out of durum wheat and are not enriched. I find them at ALDI, they are very good. And of course sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan. Happy Cooking!
Ingredients Tomato Sauce German Style
7 ripe tomatoes, medium size
1 medium onion
5 twigs of fresh rosemary, thyme and oregano
1,5 tsp Italian herb mix
salt, pepper to taste
1 dash Cayenne pepper
2 celery stalks, 1/2 zucchini
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 dash sugar
olive oil for frying
1 cube instant vegetable broth (eg from Edwards & Sons)
Spaghetti
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Cooking Instructions
First you need to Peel the Tomatoes
– Cut with a knife a cross on the top or bottom side of the tomatoes.
– Place them in a big bowl.
– Pour enough boiling water over them so all are covered. Let tomatoes in the water for 10-15 min.
– Now remove the skin with hands as the skin has become very loose around the tomatoes. That’s how it should be. If the tomatoes are not quite ripe leave them in the water 10 min longer.
– Cut all tomatoes into smaller pieces, keep all the liquid from them. If tomatoes are very ripe they produce quite some liquid.
– Peel onions and chop fine.
– Heat olive oil in a pot, sauté onions until transparent.
– Add the tomatoes, chopped herbs, sugar, herb mix, salt and pepper. Mix well.
– Chop celery stalks and zucchini into very fine cubes.
– Let cook on low-medium heat for 10 min.
– Now depending on the tomatoes the sauce can be thin or thicker. If the sauce is thin it needs to cook much longer as it will thicken the longer you cook it. Is it too thick add some water.
– Add the chopped vegetable, the broth cube and Cayenne pepper.
– Leave the pot uncovered at all times.
– Let cook for another 15 min or longer depending on the consistency. It can take up to 45 min if tomatoes are very juicy.
– Mix frequently, make sure sauce won’t stick on the bottom of the pot.
– Spice as needed.
Cook the Spaghetti
– Boil water in a pot with some salt and a splash of olive oil.
– Place the whole spaghetti into the pot and make sure that they all fit nicely into the water (they will sink into the water).
– Boil until they are “al dente”.
– Drain and put back into the pot and serve right away.
Serve the sauce with Spaghetti and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
Bavarian Fleischkaese Recipe from Scratch
This Bavarian Fleischkaese recipe is an original recipe from Germany. It differs a bit from the other one but it is also is a proven recipe. Don’t forget the ingredients might be a bit different in Germany despite the fact that they have the same name.
Ingredients Bavarian Fleischkaese
To make the so called Fleischbraet – for 1kg
60% lean pork
40% fat pork belly or 30% pork belly and 10% Speck without slab
Spices for 1 kg Fleischbrät
22 g curing salt – click to Find Curing Salt Information
3 g white pepper, ground
Ground Spices and herbs, each 0,5 g: Marjoram, Thyme, nutmeg and ginger
ice cubes: at least 300g per 1kg meat
Cooking Instructions
1. Cut meat and refrigerate it. It must be very cold before handling it (shortly before freezing temperature).
2. Make at least 300 g ice cubes and before you start with the meat, shred and (ice snow) keep aside. Use mixer or any device that can shred ice fine.
3. Mix the very cold meat with spices, very fast as meat should not get warm.
4. Add meat to the grinder or food processor and grind it on high speed for about 1-2 minutes. Add grated “ice snow” and grind again thoroughly. You should get a fine but tough mass. That’s all okay.
4. You can do a test now if you like:
Bring water to a boil, then turn off. Take 1 tbsp of the meat mass and add it into the water. It needs to be firm and should not fall apart
5. Take a rectangle form that is cooled and grease it with taste neutral (expeller pressed) coconut oil or shortening (eg. from Spectrum – needs to be a grease that can be used for high cooking temperatures – don’t use olive oil, other oil, butter or margarine; in Germany we use the grease Palmin or Biskin).
The grease should be sticking in the edges, that’s why the form needs to be very cold. You do this so the Leberkaese can get smoothly out of the form when done. Press the meat thoroughly into the form because you don’t want bubbles.
6. Use a dough scraper that you dip into cold water and smooth the surface, make a rhombic patter into the loaf by pressing the dough scraper into the loaf, don’t cut it.
7. Bake in the oven on 160 C for about 90 minutes until the surface browns slightly, if it wont get brown, use the broiler for 5-6 minutes.
OKTOBERFEST BOX Available Now
Bavarian Apple Turnovers – Apfelmaultaschen
If you love sweet apple dishes the Bavarian Apple Turnovers, or Apfelmaultaschen, is the dish to make. It can be varied with Italian plums, and it tastes the best when served with a warm vanilla sauce. Happy Cooking!
Ingredients Bavarian Apple Turnovers
DOUGH
300 g flour
1 tbsp butter
2 eggs
2-3 tbsp milk
1 tsp salt
FILLING
125 ml milk
3-4 apples (depends on the size)
1 splash lemon juice
Optional: Cinnamon to taste and/or raisins soaked in apple juice (or brandy) for 5 minutes
sugar as needed
Cooking Instructions Bavarian Apple Turnovers
For the Filling
– Peel apples, remove core, grate fine. Don’t cut in pieces. Mix with cinnamon.
– Drip with lemon juice so they wont get brown. Set aside.
Make the Dough
– Place flour into a bowl, add salt.
– Add 1 heaped tbsp butter, egg and some milk to flour, knead dough for about 5 min very thoroughly. Dough should come off the bowl’s edges and should not be sticky.
– Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
– Mix 125ml milk with 1 egg, set aside.
– Sprinkle flour on a baking board or smooth surface.
– Roll dough evenly so you get 4 pieces of same size (cut with knife).
– Spread melted butter on each piece, add grated apples. If you use raisins dd them.
– Fold in the sides, then roll each piece.
– Place apple pockets in a greased fire proof form.
– Bake for 10 min then add milk-egg mix over apple turnovers so they are covered. Maybe you need additional milk.
Baking time is 20-30 min.
Serve with Vanilla sauce. How to Make Vanilla Sauce – Go to The RECIPE –
Vanilla Sugar and Vanilla Sauce
Authentic Swabian Cheese Spaetzle
You will love this recipe for authentic Swabian Cheese Spaetzle! This local recipe comes from a region named “Allgaeu”, a very popular region of the South that is very close to Bavaria.
It’s a region that is famous for its various dairy products: Cheese, the milk, quark and yoghurts. Because the landscape is so lovely it attracts many tourists throughout the year.
During the winter season the mountains are inviting to ski while in summer you can do the most amazing hiking and biking tours.
The Allgäu is a very relaxing place on earth, and some people say, it must have been created by God. So are the food specialties of this region. It’s Southern German food for the soul! The German Cheese Spaetzle can be found on almost every menu of the local Inns. Enjoy the Spaetzle with fried onions and a mixed salad. Happy Cooking.
Ingredients Authentic Swabian Cheese Spaetzle
400 flour
5 eggs
1 tsp salt
about 1/4 l cold water or mineral water
or 300 g dried Spaetzle
2 big onions
salt, pepper to taste
1 tbsp Butter
300 g grated cheese (Emmenthaler, Gouda, any cheese which melts easily but don’t use processed cheese)
water with some salt
optional: chopped chives or parsley
Swabian Spätzle from Bechtle included!
Cooking Instructions Spaetzle
– Sieve the flour into a bowl; add eggs, salt and water and mix it with a wooden spoon.
– Stir the dough until you can see bubbles. Maybe you have to add some more cold water.
– Melt butter in a skillet; peel onions and cut them in small rings. Fry them in the butter until light brown.
– In a big pot bring water to a boil. By using a wooden board or a Spaetzle maker, make the Spaetzle. Stir often with a wooden spoon.
Find the Spätzle Maker on Amazon
– When the Spätzle are floating on the surface, they are done. Remove them with a skimmer, and keep in a fireproof bowl in the oven. Before you place them in the oven sprinkle some of the grated cheese on top.
– Repeat above step until the entire dough is gone.
– Peel onions, slice them.
– In a pan with some butter fry the onions until they are brown. Alternatively you can use the already made dried onions.
– Serve Spätzle on warm plates and place some add fried onions on each portion.
– Sprinkle chopped chives/parsley on top.
As a main dish serve the Cheese Spätzle with fried onions and mixed lettuce.
Beautiful Allgäu Countryside
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