A little cultural treat

hehehehe

The spekulaas at the hamburger's house have to well hidden. hamburger and I and the dogs LOVE them. My best friend brought her kids over at Christmas one year - her 3 year old son ate about 2 pounds of spekulaas. hamburger was a little worried as the effect of all those spices, well, it could be a bit cleansing.

I've tried making spekulaas, but I'm not using enough of some spice. My stollen on the other hand, is IMNSHO, spectacular !

Bummer!

Plums on the other hand would be excellent littlek.
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ehbeth, do you get all the ingredients for the stollen
to buy? Here I had trouble finding the spices orange and
lemon pieces and the true "Marzipan".

mmmmmmmmmmmmm

DUTCH SPEKULAAS
INGREDIENTS:
-- 3 1/2 cups unbleached flour -- 1/2 teaspoon salt -- 4 teaspoons baking powder -- 1/2 teaspoon cardamom -- 1 teaspoon cinnamon -- 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves -- 1 teaspoon mace -- 1/4 cup finely ground almonds -- 1/2 pound butter -- 1 cup light brown sugar -- Grated peel of 1 large lemon -- 6 to 8 tablespoons strongly brewed cold coffee -- 1/2 cup blanched slivered almonds

INSTRUCTIONS: Sift together flour, salt, baking powder and spices. Stir in almonds.

Cream together butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Do not use a food processor. Stir in lemon peel. Add flour mixture alternately with spoons of coffeeuntil you achieve a pliable dough. Shape into a ball, wrap in waxed paper and refrigerate 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with bakers' parchment. Lightly flour a work surface. Place dough on work surface; roll out to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut into cookies, using floured cutters. Place on cookie sheets and decorate with slivered almonds. Bake about 17 minutes, or until medium brown. Remove cookies to cooling racks. When completely cool, decorate with frosting, if desired. Store in airtight containers for up to 10 days, or freeze.

Yields 3 dozen cookies.

PER COOKIE: 125 calories, 2 g protein, 15 g carbohydrate, 7 g fat (3 g saturated), 14 mg cholesterol, 379 mg sodium, 1 g fiber.

Littlek -- have you made those before? Cardamom is my favorite spice. I'm slightly allergic to almonds though. Do you think I could use pecans or walnuts or cashews? I've copied and emailed that recipe to myself (my way of saving stuff).

Calamity Jane -- You don't have an accent -- I didn't realize you were German. Was it a community-wide parade?

Remind me next summer that it's time to start the Rumtopf, OK?

What's true Marzipan? I thought it was just ground almonds with honey or something? I love it, even though I'm not really supposed to eat it.

Did you hear about the German Christmas shops that come to Manchester, England? Walter wrote about them on some other thread. I think it would be fun to be in another country for Christmas sometime.

I know the pantomimes are supposed to be corny, but I'd like to go to one and have always thought a Christmas in the UK would be fun. Shopping in London and then taking the train up to someplace far in the north and having a little Christmas on a snowy loch sounds fun to me. I've also thought it would be fun to spend Christmas in Mexico. We have a made a tradition of tamales and other Mexican foods for our Christmas Eve party. So festive and tasty.

C Jane - the spices are fairly basic for stollen, and I avoid most of the candied citrus - it's not traditional in the old German cookbooks in any case. I've reverted to the more traditional raisins and sultanas.

piff - you could make a spice cookie with ground hazelnuts instead of almonds but it obviously wouldn't taste the same. Almonds are big in German baking. When I make my stollen I use plain slivered almonds as well as slivered almonds that I've toasted - and I use amaretto as my soaking booze instead of rum. Over at Taunton there's been quite a discussion on the variants of stollen.

We've got pantos here for the Christmas season as well, piff. All of those great Brit traditions like Last Night of the Proms are nearly as popular as events like Caribana. The joy of the multimultimulticultural community!

Jane, no, I looked it up. Those germanesque cookies and cakes always seem so appealing to me. Maybe I was German in a former life.....

Hmmm. Maybe I'll go check Taunton. Thanks.

Geez, you get Pantos, too???!!??

Piffka, I was born in Munich, but moved to the States in my
late teens. The christmas parade was just for La Jolla, which is my little town. My 9 year old one goes to a catholic school
here and we parents build every year a float for the
parade.

Hm, I have to look for Walter's thread talking about the
christmas in England. I was in Mexico once for christmas
and it was just beautiful and very colorful. I have a German friend living in Mexico (Guadalajara), so we got to go to
the right places for a nice christmas tradition.

True Marzipan means, it does taste differently there than here. Same with Nutella, by the way.

So, what about the rum kopf on top of some german spice cake?

littlek, I think 2/3 of Americans have somewhere down the line
German blood

Have you ever tasted the Speculatius?

Luckily I am in a fortunate position of having a Mother who supplies
her daughter with lots of home baked christmas cookies, just the
ones I liked to eat as a child.

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ehbeth,
Amaretto instead of Rum is a great idea and I'm sure will give the
stollen a great taste. My favorite is the one with Marzipan, but I
rather buy them (lazy me)

hehe, pretty soon it's dumm kopf, actually Rum Topf can be
poured over anything you want to littlek.

hahaha.... I'm drunk already. I probably do have German blood, just a little bit.

C Jane - you can always cheat. Get a stollen as soon as they arrive in the stores in early November, unwrap it, and shake the powdered sugar off. Pour some amaretto over the top, and wrap the stollen in a tea towel and then some saran wrap. Unwrap, add booze and rewrap each week til Christmas. Melt a little butter with a shot of amaretto, and brush on top - then put powdered sugar on - and serve.

mmmmmm

a nice thick slab with butter and a cup of tea


or for French toast, with leftover eggnog


mmmmmmmm - great on boxing day

another yummmm:

German Dresden Stollen
by Tony van Roon

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Makes 2 loaves:

3/4 cup raisins, rinsed
1/3 cup chopped lemon
2 tablespoons slivered, fresh orange peel
1/4 cup rum
1 package dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup warm milk
2/3 cup butter
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon salt (optional) 2 tablespoons slivered, fresh lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
2 egss
4 to 4-1/2 cups unbleached white flour
3/4 cup chopped almonds
melted butter

Place raisins, lemon, and orange peel in a bowl. Add the rum and let soak for 1 hour. Drain and reserve the rum.

Sprinkle the yeast into warm water and let stand until dissolved. In a saucepan, heat the milk and the butter until the butter melts. Pour into a large mixing bowl, add the honey, salt, lemon peel, drained rum (reserve fruits), and almond extract. Cool to lukewarm. Beat in eggs and dissolved yeast mixture. Add enough flour to make a soft dough. Dredge fruits in flour and add to dough. Add almonds. Mix well.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth (about 8 to 10 minutes). Place in a greased bowl, turn once to coat the top, cover, and place in a warm spot to rise until doubled in bulk (45 minutes to 1 hour).

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, divide dough into 2 parts. Roll each piece into an oval about 3/4 inch thick. Brush with melted butter, cover lightly with wax paper, and place in a warm spot until doubled in bulk.

Bake at 350 °F. for about 40 minutes.

the citrus in that recipe is a fairly modern adaptation

you've definitely got to have time and patience to make stollen

three proofings in the 'full' recipe

I'd limit the raisins, toss the orange and keep the lemon.

Hi all,

This all sounds really good. I'm taking notes......

Yes, the rum should be the 151 variety for the rumtopf......Nothing like getting a buzz on from a cherry. (grin)

Let's not forget this=so nice on a crispy cold day........

Recipe: Gluehwein (hot Spiced Wine)
***********************************Gluehwein (Hot Spiced Wine)************************************

Categories: Try it, Beverage, German, Austrian
Yield: 1 servings

MMMMM----------------DONAULAND KOCHBUCH; KOFRANEK---------------------
1 c White or red wine
5 Sugar cubes, or to taste
1 Whole clove
1 sm Piece lemon peel
-a little stick cinnamon

Combine all ingredients and heat, barely to boiling point. Pour into a
pre-warmed glass, wrap glass in a napkin, and serve immediately.

ehbeth,
that's a great idea. littlek and I will run tomorrow
and buy some stollen (I have Amaretto in the house)
and start preparing it

We'll get drunk just from eating stollen

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This thread made me so hungry for christmas goodies,
I just made myself a cup of "gluehwein" and have
some of my Mom's cookies to it.

Hi danon,

there is an Atlanta in Texas?
What's your Advent tradition besides boozing?


Wait: you added something to your post.
Actually, you never use white wine for "Guehwein" *brrrrr*
only red wine, and the good kind please and no cheapo Zinfandel