Weihnachten Stollen!

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Today I will be posting a recipe that is near and dear to my heart. The good German that is me demands this at Christmas time.  Now, this is a food that you can buy at all times of the year.  However, I find it best to eat it at Christmas. So, today I present to you Weihnachten Stollen! I hope you enjoy this super traditional German food.

Ingredients

·         1 ½ cups warm milk at 115°F

·         2 packages active dry yeast

·         6 ½ cups unbleached flour, divided

·         1 ½ cups butter

·         ¾ cup sugar

·         3 eggs

·         ¾ teaspoon salt

·         ¾ teaspoon grated lemon peel

·         ½ pound raisins

·         ½ pound chopped almonds

·         ½ cup chopped candied fruit

·         3 tablespoons butter, melted

·         1 ¼ cups of confectioners’ sugar

·         ¼ cup of lemon juice

·         1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

·         2 sheets of rolled marzipan

Directions

·         Combine milk  and yeast

·         Let stand 3-5 minutes

·         Add 1 cup flour and mix well

·         Cover and let rest in a warm place until light and foamy or about 1 hour.

·         In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar

·         Beat in eggs, one at a time

·         Add salt and lemon peel

·         Stir in the yeast mixture and enough remaining flour to form a soft dough

·         Knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes

·         Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

·         Punch dough down; knead in raisins, nuts and fruit

·         Divide into two parts and roll each into an oval

·         Fold each in half lengthwise and place on a greased baking sheet

·         Brush with melted butter

·         Cover and allow loaves to rise until almost doubled,  about 45 minutes.

·         Bake at 350°F for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown

·         Cool on wire racks

·         Combine confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla extract

·         Brush on tops of cooled loaves.

·         Cover each with a sheet of marzipan

Glühmost

So, I thought I had this posted somewhere on here, but I guess I was wrong. Anyways, this recipe was requested by one of my co-workers. She’s pretty awesome.  This recipe is for Glühmost. Since it is getting cold this seems like a good time to want this recipe. For those who don’t know what  Glühmost is, it’s a form of apple cider. This recipe calls for wine, if you don’t like wine you can substitute it for more apple cider. However, for the sake of being the good Prussian that I am, I will include the wine in the recipe.

Ingredients

·         4 cups of a dry white wine

·         4 cups of apple cider

·         1/8 of a teaspoon of  ground cinnamon, or three sticks broke in half

·         1 pinch of ground cloves

·         1 pinch of cardamom, this can be substituted for nutmeg

·         Honey

Directions

·         In a saucepan, combine the wine, apple cider, cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom

·         Bring to a simmer over medium heat, do not allow it to boil

·         Add the honey and stir until well mixed

·         Serve hot

There you have it. It’s that simple. Hope you enjoy!

Raspberry Torte

Well, it has been a super busy month since I posted last. I got publish, which is why I have not put anything new up for a bit. Huzzah! If you are all interested in knowing more about the book, please hop on over to my German language blog and translate the post about it there. 

Anyways, this is a recipe for a Raspberry Torte that I was given a few years ago. It's pretty tasty. One of my friends made it on St. Valentine's Day and it turned out well for her. So, here is the recipe for you all! Hope you all enjoy it as much as everyone else has! Fair warning though, this cake takes a great deal of work to make and it is very touchy to humidity. If it is too humid the cake will have a greater chance of falling and if it is too dry it will crack and not go together right.

Ingredients for Cake

• 5 eggs, separated
• 1/2 cup of shortening
• 1/2 cup of butter, softened
• 2 cups of sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 2 cups of cake flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 cup of buttermilk
• 1 cup of toasted pecans, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup of flaked coconut
• 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar

Ingredients for Filling/Frosting

• 1 cup of raspberry preserves, warmed
• 11 ounces of cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup of butter, softened
• 6 1/2 cups of confectioners' sugar
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup of chopped pecans

Directions

• Let eggs stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. In a large mixing bowl, cream the shortening, butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour and baking soda; add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Stir in pecans and coconut.
• In another mixing bowl and with clean beaters, beat egg whites and cream of tartar on high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold a fourth of egg whites into the batter, then fold in remaining whites.
• Pour into three greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 28-30 minutes or top springs back lightly when touched. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
• Spread raspberry preserves over the top of two cake layers. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and confectioners' sugar until fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Place one raspberry topped cake layer on a serving plate. Spread with some of the frosting. Repeat with second raspberry topped cake layer. Top with plain cake layer. Spread remaining frosting over the top and sides of cake. Sprinkle with nuts.

Well, there you have it! Hope you enjoy! It is definitely worth the trouble. Also, if you replace the plain sugar in the cake with vanilla sugar it give the cake a bit more flavour. Also, you can put some frosting between the layers in additions to the preserves. If you choose to do that though keep in mind that you will need to frost the cake before putting the preserves on.

German Streusel

Hallo!So, I’ve been asked to translate this recipe from German and to convert the measurements. I made this when I was in my first year of college and it was delicious! Of course this is coming from someone of German decent and every “good German” loves their streusel. Anyways, this is a traditional type of streusel without fruit in it, so some may not like it. I will probably post a different streusel recipe that has fruit in it. This is more of a coffee cake so enjoy it with some good coffee.

 

Ingredients for the Topping

• 2 tablespoons of butter
• ½ cup of brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/3 cup of chopped walnuts

Ingredients for the Batter

• 1 ½ cups of flour
• 2 teaspoon of baking powder
• A dash of salt
• ¾ cup of sugar
• ¼ cup of shortening
• ½ cup of cream
• 1 egg
• ½ teaspoon of vanilla

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F
• Mix topping ingredients and set aside
• For the batter; mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar together
• Add in the shortening, cream, egg, and vanilla
• Beat mixture for 2 minutes
• Grease and flour a 9”x13” pan
• Pour the batter into the pan and sprinkle the topping over it.
• Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean

Oh boy, that was quite a strange thing to translate. I don’t think I’ve ever looked at it in English. Oh well, have fun and enjoy!