German Baking Tradition

For the last several years, a good friend and I have been baking traditional German holiday sweets in preparation for the festive holiday season.  Why German?  Well, she is German and I love German baked goods such as Lebkuchen, Printen, Christstollen, etc.  It's a great day of baking for hours and hours.

We usually make 3 or 4 different recipes from a German cookbook.  My friend translates them as we go and we're off and baking.  Lebkuchen is always a must. After that we try out a new thing or two each year, and one or two from the past.  This year's new item was Speculaas cookies. I had this wrong when I originally posted this - I had called them Springerle, which is the southern German version.  Speculaas is the northern version. My friend, Nina, had gotten beautiful carved wooden molds to use for them, including this beautiful Saint Nicholas.

This year we also made Printen, one of my favorites from in and around Aachen, Germany.  This recipe calls for a special chunky sugar - see the picture below.  This type of sugar is hard to get in the US, so you can either leave it off or use the more common sugar sprinkles you find in this country that are clear crystals, or perhaps use nuts (almonds or hazelnuts) instead.

 

Aachener Printen

Ingredients

• 250 g. dark honey
• 65 g. brown sugar
• 65 g. butter
• 375 g. flour
• Grated lemon peel of 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon each of cardamom, coriander and cloves
• 3 teaspoons baking soda (original recipe calls for 7 g. Potash, which is not available in the US, but if you get it mix it with a little water until all lumps are gone)
• 100 g. chunky sugar sprinkles, in Germany you'd purchase "grümmel" (see picture above)

Preparation

Melt honey, brown sugar and butter together over low heat in a saucepan. Cool slightly and add rest of ingredients.  If using potash add after dough is mixed and knead into it.  Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour.  Roll out dough and press the "grümmel" onto to the top (roll lightly with rolling pin to press in evenly).  Cut into 3x8 cm strips.  Put on a greased baking sheet sugar side up and brush top with a little water.  Bake 15-18 minutes at 175-190c (or in convection oven at 170-180c).  Cover with chocolate, if desired.  These need to sit for several days or more before eating.  You can store them in an air-tight container with a piece of bread, an apple or something that will give off some moisture to soften the cookies if you like them chewier rather than hard. We are still eating them several weeks later and they are wonderful.

Happy baking to all my readers!  Thanks for another great baking year, Nina!