It´s Xmas time again and luckily I had some time to make Xmas cookies. Maybe you want to try out these recipes as well. :)

The first recipe that I made this year were Vanillekiperl (vanilla crescent cookies).

For those you need:  

560 g flour

160 g sugar

400 g margarine

200 g crushed hazelnuts

4 packages of vanilla sugar

4 drops of vanilla flavor

Decoration:

100g icing sugar

dark couverture (optional)

You can also use half of the amount, because you will get a lot of cookies out of it :)

Frist of all mix all the dry ingridents - the four, the sugar, the crushed hazelnuts and the vanilla sugar-  together. Stir them well and then add the vanilla flavor and the margarine. Mix everything well with a mixer. Put the dough for 1hour into the refrigerator.

Cover the dough with a wrapping film or dish towel and put it for 1hour into the refrigerator.

Form little crescents out of the dough, put them on a baking tray and bake them for around 15minutes at 180°C. When they are gold-brown take them out of the oven and let them cool down for a couple of minutes. Afterwards take a sieve and spread icing sugar over them. When you want to you can also use dark dark couverture (melted) to decorate the cookies.

The second recipe I made this year were black and white cookies.

These are the thing that you will need:

For the white dough

125g magarine

60g icing sugar

160g flour

2 package vanilla sugar

For the black dough

125g magarine

80g icing sugar

125g flour

50 g hazelnuts, ground

25g cocoa powder

4 drops of rum flavoring

For the decoration:

100g icing sugar

water

Some drops of lemon juice

dark couverture

sugar beads

Put some flour on your table and roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Then use a cookie cutter to cut out the cookies.

Put the cookies on a baking tray and bake them for 10-15 minutes at 180°C.

Afterwards let them cool down for a couple of minutes.

Heat up the dark couverture in a water quench (Take a big pot and put water into it, then take a smaller one put the couverture inside and sit it in the big pot. Heat up the water.)

When the couverture is liquid spread it over the cookies and sprinekl some sugar beads over them.

Alternative you can mix some icing sugar with a bit of lemon jucie until it has a pasty consistency, spread it over the cookies and sprinkel it with sugar beads.

Let the decoration dry for some time. Afterwards: enjoy :)

Since it is rhubarb time in Germany at the moment I decided to make a rhubarb cake today. And it turned out really well. Maybe you want to try it out yourself. =)

This cake consists of 4 layers: a yeast dough, vanilla pudding, rhubarb and crumble.

Ingredients

Dough:

250 g flour (wheat flour)
40 g margarine (that´s good for baking)
40 g sugar

1 package of vanila sugar
1 pinch of salt
1/2 package of dry yeast
200 ml soy milk

1 package of vanilla sugar

Pudding:

1 package of pudding powder

500 ml of soy milk

5 packages of vanilla sugar

3 big rhubarb stalks

Crumble:

200g flour
130 g magarine
130 g sugar
1 pack. vanilla sugar
1 pinch of salt

First off all prepare the dough. While it is resting in a warm place, prepare the pudding, the rhubarb and the crumble.

For the dough:

1) Put the "dry ingredients" together in a big bowl (flour, sugar, vanila sugar, salt)

2) Melt the magarine in a cooking pot with low temperature and later on put the soy milk into it too, so that it becomes lukewarm.

3) Make a hole in the center and put all the "wet ingredients" into it (soy milk, magarine).

4) Put the dry yeast and a pinch of sugar in the middle of the hole, into the wet ingredients as well and let the yeast "work" for 10 minutes.

5) Mix all the ingredients and the knead the dough very well.

6) Let the dough rest for about an hour somewhere warm.

For the pudding:

1) Put 450 ml of soy milk into a pot.

2) Use the rest of the soy milk (50ml) and mix it well with the pudding powder and the vanilla sugar.

3) Heat up the soy milk in the pot, stir it permanently. When the soy milk is boiling take the pot form the oven and mix the prepared soy milk-sugar-pudding-powder-mix into it.

4) Put the pot back on the oven until the pudding just started to boil again.

5) Let the pudding cool down.

Rhubarb:

1) Peel the rhubarb

2) Cut it into 1 cm (0.4 inch) wide slices

For the crumble:

1) Mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, vanilla sugar)

2) Add the magarine.

3) Knead the crumble well.

1) Take the dough and knead it again. Then spread it out with a rolling pin and put it onto the baking sheet. Make a nice rim with the dough.

2) Afterwards put the pudding onto the dough and spread it out evenly.

3) Take the rhubarb slices and sit them in nice rows onto the pudding. Put a little bit of sugar over them.

4) Take the crumble and put it over the rhubarb, in different sized chunks (the bigger ones are the best).

5) Back the cake for about 30 to 40 minutes at 180°C (356°F) until the crumble gets golden brown.

A very tasty plum cake that I made a couple days ago=)

If you want to try it out yourself: here is the recipe.^^

This cake consists of 4 layers: a yeast dough, vanilla pudding, damson plums and crumble.

Ingredients

Dough:

500 g flour (wheat flour)
60 g butter
70 g sugar
1 pinch of salt
1 package of dry yeast
200 ml milk
1 egg

1 package of vanilla sugar

Pudding:

1 package of pudding powder

500 ml of milk

2 packages of vanilla sugar

24g sugar

1kg of damson plums

Crumble:

275 g flour
175 g butter
150 g sugar
1 pack. vanilla sugar
1 pinch of salt

First off all prepare the dough. While it is resting in a warm place, prepare the pudding, the plumbs and the crumble.

For the dough:

1) Put the "dry ingredients" together in a big bowl (flour, sugar, vanila sugar, salt)

2) Melt the butter in a cooking pot with low temperature and later on put the milk into it too, so that it becomes lukewarm.

3) Make a hole in the center and put all the "wet ingredients" into it (milk, butter, eggs).

4) Put the dry yeast and a pinch of sugar in the middle of the hole, into the wet ingredients as well and let the yeast "work" for 10 minutes.

5) Mix all the ingredients and the knead the dough very well.

6) Let the dough rest for about an hour somewhere warm.

For the pudding:

1) Put 450 ml of milk into a pot.

2) Use the rest of the milk (50ml) and mix it well with the pudding powder, the vanilla sugar and the sugar.

3) Heat up the milk in the pot, stir it permanently. When the milk is boiling take the pot form the oven and mix the prepared milk-sugar-pudding-powder-mix into it.

4) Put the pot back on the oven until the pudding just started to boil again.

5) Let the pudding cool down.

Plums:

1) Wash the plums.

2) Cut them into halves and take out the stone.

For the crumble:

1) Mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, vanilla sugar)

2) Add the butter.

3) Knead the crumble well.

1) Take the dough and knead it again. Then spread it out with a rolling pin and put it onto the baking sheet. Make a nice rim with the dough.

2) Afterwards put the pudding onto the dough and spread it out evenly.

3) Take the plum halves and sit them in nice rows onto the pudding. Put a little bit of sugar over them.

4) Take the crumble and put it over the plums, in different sized chunks (the bigger ones are the best).

5) Back the cake for about 30 minutes at 180°C (356°F) until the crumble is golden brown.

Today I made yeast dumplings - a tradition german food that you can eat for example with blueberries and custard.

It was the first time I made it, but it turned out really great. (We all had little bit to much of it^^)

Ingredients:

500g flour

1 pinch of salt

1 pack of dry yeast

250 ml milk
100 g of butter
100 g of sugar

2 packs of vanilla sugar
2 egg (s)

(tinned blueberries / vanilla sauce)

In the first step mix all the dry ingredients (besides the yeast) well together in a big bowl.

Then make a little mole in the middle.

Next melt the butter and make the milk lukewarm. But the butter, the milk, the eggs, a little bit of sugar and the yeast into the mole and mix them slightly (without mixing them with the dry ingredients).

After 15 minutes mix everything together and knead the dough very well.

Then let the dough rest in a warm place for 1 hour and cover it with a dishcloth.

After 1 hour knead the dough again and add some flour if necessary until the dough is soft and not sticky anymore.

Then make little rolls out of it, sit them on a dishcloth that is dusted with flour and put another dishcloth over them (dusted with flour as well). Wait until the rolls got bigger.

Fill a cooking pot with water and cover it with a dishcloth. Fix the dishcloth with a big rubber band to the pot. Then put the yeast dumplings onto it. Cover everything with a lid. Damp the dumplings for about 15 - 20 minutes. Check with a split whether they are done - if no dough is on the split anymore.

Serve the yeast dumplings when they are still hot with tinned blueberries (and optional with vanilla sauce).