Christmas Archives - Page 8 of 9

Ginger Cookies or Biscoff Cookies

Einfacher Gewürz-Spekulatius zum Ausstechen

As is tradition in Germany, we are celebrating the advent, waiting eagerly for Christmas. Therefore each Advent Sunday (there are always four in total, leading up to Christmas) is super special and for that reason I brought along some ginger cookies or Spekulatius, the German name for these nicely spiced cookies. I decided to make them with a neat little cookie cutter, it was so much fun cutting out my blog name. Look at it, such fine and thin lines! If you are scared of sugar cookies or shortbread, don’t be, I give a lot of tips in this blog post.

09/12/2018

Colombian Buñuelos or Fried Cheese Balls (gluten free)

Kolumbianische buñuelos aka frittierte Käse-Teigbällchen (glutenfrei)

I am so excited to finally be sharing this recipe for Colombian buñuelos! Colombian buñuelos are, at least in my opinion, so much better than Mexican buñuelos, they are gluten free as they are prepared with cornstarch and tapioca flour and they do contain cheese, lots of cheese. Do I need to say anything more?

05/12/2018

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Cranberry Filling

Lebkuchen-Cupcakes mit Cranberry-Füllung

Today I brought you some wonderful gingerbread cupcakes with cranberry filling. They are so easy to prepare, really! Basically you cream the butter with the sugar, add the egg, and then all other ingredients and that’s about it. Really simple, I promise.

There is a reason why I called these cupcakes gingerbread cupcakes. I made the cupcakes with molasses and added a lot of gingerbread spices. I mean, you do want them to actually taste like Christmas, right? I also decided to fill them with cranberry jam, which we are going to prepare in a few minutes, it is really simple. And the frosting secretly hides some gingerbread spices in the chocolate. I hope you are as excited about these cupcakes as I am!

I am also excited to be introducing the very talented illustrator Ellen Martens who designed these adorable cupcake toppers. I especially like this very cuddly deer and that cute little fox. She was kind enough to graciously invent cupcake topper PLUS Christmas cards. Let me know either her or on Instagram what you think of these illustrations.

Weihnachtskarte mit Reh gestaltet von Ellen Martens

Weihnachtskarte Merry Christmas gestaltet von Ellen Martens

Weihnachtskarte mit Fuchs gestaltet von Ellen Martens

I would also invite you to check out Ellen’s Instagram!

02/12/2018

Cute Santas from Sugar Cookies

Süßer Nikolaus aus Mürbeteig mit Eiweißglasur

Yay, tomorrow is the official beginning of the season! That’s why I brought along some super cute santas made from sugar cookie dough. I stumbled across the idea last year when I visited one of my favorite blogs, Tieghan made these cute little santas for her cookie box and I was hooked immediately. So finally, one year later, I can scratch off this item from my baking list. Oh, and in case you didn’t know, we have a special day here in Germany on December 6th, Nikolaus is yet another day when children put their freshly polished boots outside the door and then secretly they are filled with sweets and the like. So typically, I wanted these to be ready for December 6. I just hate it when bloggers post the idea on the day itself, I decided to give you the chance to actually make these little cuties on time, so that’s why I am starting the season with them!

Don’t they look amazing? I find them perfect for a cookie box, as a little gift, to show your love, there are so many ideas when to take them with you. I even managed to freeze them, sugar cookies are super easy to freeze when plain, but I even froze these santas sucessfully with royal icing aka their beards. Seriously, why not invite a friend, turn on some music and make these santas? Preparing the dough doesn’t take long, and forming the santas is so much more fun when you have company.

30/11/2018

The Tiniest Gingerbread Houses for your Mug

Die allersüßesten Mini-Lebkuchenhäuschen

I honestly can’t imagine Christmas without gingerbread. Every year at the end of November I am faithfully going to make gingerbread of some kind. Be it to decorate the Christmas tree, traditional gingerbread men, or be it gingerbread cut into stars, angels, and stockings. Today I am going to present the cutest mini gingerbread houses you can decorate your mugs with. Prefect for a dinner invitation or as a gift. You can print out the mini houses here.

I do agree that anything made from gingerbread requires a lot of work, but I feel nothing says Christmas more. I really do enjoy starting the season this way. Gingerbread may require a lot of work, but there is one advantage to it, you can take a break after every stage and you can make gingerbread in advance. You can easily store the gingerbread dough for a week in your fridge. Undecorated gingerbread will also keep for weeks if stored in an airtight container, and even fully decoarted gingerbread is safe for consumption. Mind you, I at least happily munch away my Christmas tree decoration every year after Christmas. So I invite you to decorate some gingerbread with some friends. Have them come over, prepare some hot cocoa and just give it a go!

23/11/2018

My 10 favorite Christmas Cookies

I’ve decided to open the season, it is time for Christmas cookies! Have you started yet? Every year I promise to start early and then I end up with a long, long, long list of cookies I want to bake, but nothing happens other than the list getting longer. Well, maybe this blog entry with my ten favorite Christmas cookies will also make your list longer, but maybe you will actually bake some, that would be actually awesome. Please let me know in the comments if you do!

#1 Tiny gingerbread houses

Seriously, I feel Christmas is not complete without gingerbread. Gingerbread houses, gingerbread men, ugly sweater cookies made with gingerbread, you name it. My recipe also includes some printables for these cute little gingerbread houses.

I urge you to try these cute little gingerbread houses

#2 Alfajores with chocolate and a slight hint of orange

Hands down, my favorite cookie from my country of birth Uruguay. It is filled with dulce de leche, do I need to say more?

Alfajores, a cookie made with cornstarch, filled with dulce de leche and covered in chocolate

#3 Cute little Santas

These cute little santas are a simple sugar cookie with ermine frosting, I just love them, check the recipe for further details!

If you really want to get into Christmas, make these cute little Santas!

#4 Peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies with caramel and sea salt

This may not be the traditional Christmas cookie, but all these flavors, I promise, you won’t regret making these!

All my favorite flavors combined, peanut butter, chocolate, caramel and sea salt, yes!

#5 Meringue cookies that actually look like mushrooms

You have some egg white left over? How about these little cuties? They only contain two ingredients, egg whites and sugar and are glued together by some chocolate.

You are making a yule log for Christmas? How about decorating it with these little mushrooms

#6 Linzer cookies

Another Christmas cookie I can’t do without. Who can say no to these cookies with a slight hint of almond and yummy jam filling?

This is one of the traditional Christmas cookies in Germany, go ahead and try it!

#7 Stained-glass cookies

They are easier to prepare than you may think. Obviously I give a lot of tips in my blog post to guide you along.

They look so cool and actually are not that hard to make, try these beautiful stained-glass cookies, they are a perfect gift and wonderful decoration.

#8 Snickerdoodles

These snickerdoodles are made with a lot of brown butter for extra awesomeness.

Oh, this joy of cinnamon and brown butter called snickerdoodles!

#9 Heidesand cookies

You may not know this traditional cookie from Germany, but it has brown butter and real vanilla. So buttery, so good!

These shortbread cookies are prepared with lots of brown butter and real vanilla. Traditionally from the north of Germany and so good for Christmas.

#10 Vanilla stars with chocolate ganache

If you are a chocolate lover, these cookies are for you. Instead of jam or buttercream, these cookies are filled with wonderful chocolate ganache.

If you can’t decide if you want to do chocolate or vanilla, why not combine these two flavors? Make these vanilla stars with chocolate filling.

So which one is your favorite Christmas cookie you can’t do without?

20/11/2018

Mushroom Meringue

I have to admit, I love fall, especially if you check the ground of a dark forest, you will find mushrooms, just like the ones I am presenting today. No, I am kidding, you won’t find these mushrooms in the forest, they are actually made from meringue. However, I do find that they do look very much like their original, don’t you think? I am sure these mushrooms are going to be a show-stopper. And the best thing is, they are basically made from two ingredients. You beat egg whites with sugar, which you then pipe into mushroom caps and stems, you glue it all together with chocolate, and then dust them off with cocoa powder, voilá! Continue Reading…

09/11/2018

Tiramisu Sponge Roll

Guys, I don’t know if I will ever be able to eat regular tiramisu, seriously tiramisu sponge roll is the best! I have to admit, I have not been a big fan of ladyfingers. At least the store-bought ones. They are so dry! For tiramisu to taste great, you have to wait for the ladyfingers to moisten properly. And I am too lazy to actually make the ladyfingers myself.

But then I finally knew it. You need to know that I am a big fan of sponge rolls. For that reason you will find a share of sponge rolls on my blog. Try this pumpkin roll with apple cream, this roll with blueberries or this strawberry roll. Sponge cake is so light and fluffy, I really love its texture. And one day while I was checking out Pinterest, it suddenly hit me. Of course this is the solution! Why not make tiramisu in a roll instead? Why not omit the dry ladyfingers and instead replace them with my favorite sponge cake? Yes, I had to try this out immediately.

26/10/2018

Heidesand Cookies

Recipes with a story behind are the best in my opinion. This definitely holds true for these Heidesand cookies. For that reason I feel especially honored to introduce them here. The recipe was passed down from the lovely lady Mrs. P. Mrs. P was busy baking these cookies for her granddaugther when the handyman who was working at her place asked why it was smelling so nice in her kitchen. Mrs. P. replied that she was preparing Heidesand cookies as these were the favorite of her granddaugther and immediately handed a cookie to the handyman. He was so excited about the cookies after he tried them that he continued praising them as soon as he returned home. The girlfriend of the handyman listened to his story and immediately requested that he ask for the recipe the next day when he was about to return to Mrs. P’s house. He glady returned the favor and asked Mrs. P. for the recipe. She got very excited, immediately sat down and wrote down the recipe for him, which he then faithfully passed on to his girldfriend. And this is the point where the story takes a tragic turn. Because Mrs. P. passed away shortly after. But had passed on the recipe to the girlfriend, who has baked this recipe many times and now passed on the recipe to me. I will definitely hold it very dear in my recipe collection.

05/10/2018

Sachertorte, Austria’s most famous Chocolate Cake

There hasn’t been enough chocolate on this blog yet. So Sachertorte it is! Ever heard of this delicious chocolate cake? It was invented in Austria and it has all the good stuff, lots of butter, lots of eggs (10 in total!), and chocolate, of course. Don’t bore me with cocoa, no, let’s go straight to chocolate. And with these delicious ingredients you make light and fluffy chocolate sponge cake. And to keep it all together, you use apricot jam as the glue. I just love it.

I actually had the chance to eat it in Austria. Originally the cake comes from Vienna, I did have the chance to eat it in Vienna, but, gasp, didn’t like it that much. The one I really enjoyed a lot was in Salzburg, the town Mozart is from. Below picture was one of the first pictures I took with my current camera, the Sony Nex7. If you would like to learn more about food photography, please check these blog posts. I looks great, doesn’t it? Austria is busy exporting its Sachertorte. I can’t blame them for doing that. Because yes, you want to dig into this super rich cake, believe me! What I like best about this rich chocolate cake is that you can actually export it because it gets better over time. The apricot jam seals everything and just to be sure, you pour a thick layer of chocolate ganache on everything, because more chocolate is even better, isn’t it? Continue Reading…

28/09/2018

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