Christmas Archives - Jenny is baking

Turrón de Maní or Peanut Nougat

Tada, today I’m introducing a specialty that actually comes from Spain and has been adapted in Latin America with local products: turrón. In Germany, we would probably call this nougat. Turrón traditionally consists of a honey-sugar syrup that is mixed with egg whites and almonds. This “paste” is then pressed into relatively flat bars and then cut into pieces or cubes. I use the version with peanuts (maní), which are much cheaper to buy in Uruguay and are also native to the country. The Uruguayans have simply replaced almonds with a local product: peanuts. Turrón basically comes in two varieties: “duro”, i.e. hard turrón, or “blando”, i.e. the softer verrsion. I opted for the hard version. You should definitely be prepared to take at least 45 minutes to make this delicacy and you will need some arm muscle. However, I think it’s well worth the effort.

22/12/2024

Festive Orange Sponge Roll with Cranberry Filling

Today I am going to introduce a festive orange sponge roll with cranberry filling. What I like best about this recipe? That you can make a lot of the components in advance. In fact you can make the entire roll the day before and only decorate it shortly before serving. This is perfect if you want to show something on Christmas, but don’t want to do everything on Christmas directly, stress-free recipes are the best, are you with me?

13/12/2024

Sustainable Christmas Tree Decorations

Today I have sustainable Christmas (tree) decorations for you. I decided to decorate my Christmas tree with cookies and dried orange slices. Yes, you read right, theoretically speaking all these decorations can be eaten. I don’t as I keep them for the following years for decorating. If you are considering decorating your tree with homemade cookies and orange slices, this blog post is for you. You may also make a wreath with the dried orange slices as pictured below. I have mentioned this before, but as a university student, I was too poor to buy expensive Christmas decorations, so I started decorating everything with gingerbread. Gingerbread houses, gingerbread advent wreath, tiny gingerbread houses for the mug, you name it, I was the gingerbread queen. I then slowly started making other cookie ornaments, for example, I used sugar cookies for my tree and I checked for some other ideas. The latest idea was to dry orange slices and put them on the tree. After a little bit of research, I finally arrived at the “recipe” below and I am happy to share it. I usually keep my cookies and the orange slices for the following year. As long as you don’t plan on eating them, you are good to go. Keep them cool and dry in a loose box. This works for me. I hope for you, too!

10/12/2024

Scottish Tablet or Fudge

I think I have mentioned that we went to Scotland in fall. You know what we ate a lot? Tablet or Scottish fudge. Their version is slightly harder, it has a more sandy texture. Funnily enough, my husband knows something pretty similar from Colombia, which he calls “panelitas”. Obviously I had to give this candy a try once we made it back to Munich, Germany. So I quickly looked up some recipes and gave it a go. However, the first batch didn’t really turn out great, it turned rock hard and was extremely sandy. So I had to try again. I scoured the Internet and found the Youtube channel “Granny’s Scottish Kitchen“. This lady has a very unique method, she does it at very low temperature. Yes, you will have a pot on the stovetop for at least an hour, but I was like, sure, let’s try. And alas, her recipe worked. I like its simplicity, you don’t need to stir often, you don’t need any thermometer, you just have to wait for the right consistency and you are golden. Are you interested?

06/12/2024

Inspiration with my Cookie Plate with 14 Different Cookies

Are you also baking cookies for the season? I was and it is so much fun! You especially seem to like my new recipe for spritz cookies without a cookie press. Below I give you a lot of new ideas (including previious years of my cookie plate) so that you have an abundance of cookies available. Have fun baking!

03/12/2024

Colombian Buñuelos with German Ingredients

Yay, today I get to introduce Colombian buñuelos with German ingredients. I already have a buñuelos recipe on the blog. However, for the previous recipe we had to make the cheese ourselves. But now I managed to make a recipe with cheeses that are readily available in Germany. So let me introduce to you these cheese fritters. They are traditionally served in December, for sure for Christmas, but also for New Year’s. If you would like to learn more about Colombian Christmas traditions and recipes, check out that blog post. Just as I managed to make Colombian pandebonos with this farmer’s cheese, I replaced the Colombian queso costeño with it. I also like to use a mix and throw in feta cheese. As cheeses have a different amount of liquid, I had to tweak the recipe a bit, but then it was perfect!

29/11/2024

Classic Apple Strudel from Austria

Guys, I was fortunate enough to participate in a strudel online class by the Austrian Astrid Lamarche. I was not paid to say this, I really enjoyed that strudel class. If you want to check Astrid’s Instagram, you will be amazed as to how big she manages to stretch out strudel dough. So I got super ambitious and swore to myself, I want to get as good as she is. If she manages to only use 200 grams of flour (a typical amount for strudel) to stretch the dough over her entire dining table, I want to try that, too! And it worked, of course there still is room for improvement, but I was so happy that this is a super classic and traditional Austrian strudel. So below I am sharing the recipe with you guys.

23/11/2024

Springerle Cookies from Germany

Have you heard of Springerle cookies from Germany? Traditionally they are made with anise seed. However, I don’t really like that flavor and instead made them with orange zest and vanilla extract. If you want to do the traditional flavor, I have you covered as well. Springerle cookies are a cookie that needs to be made in advance. It takes three days until they are baked and will intesify in flavor over the course of weeks. For that reason I recommend making them already now if you want to try them for Christmas. If you believe Wikipedia, Springerle cookies were already made in the Middle Ages and served for a lot of festivities, including weddings. The cookie molds were made from pear trees and passed down from generation to generation. I found my cookie mold here in Munich at the store Holzstandl, you may also try Etsy.

07/11/2024

Spritz Cookies with no Cookies Press

Spritz cookies without any cookie press, this is what I am presenting to you today. All you will need is a piping bag with a star tip and you should be good to go. In order for it to work, there are two secrets: first the consistency of the dough can be altered by adding milk by the spoonful, and second, in order for the piping bag not to explode, we will fasten it with some scotch tape. Kindly note that you need to find the happy middle between very dense dough, which is hard to pipe and dough that is too loose so the cookies won’t hold their shape. It does require a bit of experimenting until you have the right consistency. I hope that below instructions are helpful.
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07/11/2024

Vegan Gingerbread Houses for the Mug

Aren’t these tiny gingerbread houses cute? Bonus point, they are even vegan, I tried for the first time vegan royal icing and the secret is chickpea brine! That is the only “funny” ingredient you need, but other than that, all pretty normal. Of course I already have these cute little gingerbread houses here on the blog. Those are made with normal royal icing, which has egg whites. However, this time I decided to make them fully vegan. I already knew that making the dough vegan was super easy as it does not contain any egg (or potassium carbonate, which for some strange reason is used in seasonal baking in Germany). So I knew the only obstacle to tackle was the vegan icing. Royal icing contains egg whites, however, we are going to use the brine of chickpeas, also known as aquafaba. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was. So are you in? Do you want to gift these to somebody?

05/11/2024

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