How are you all feeling today? Any better? No? Me neither. But it's December 2nd and the first Advent has already come and gone and so I have a little distraction for all of us. Drumroll……
BAKING.
Surprise!
But actually, it really does kind of work, at least momentarily. It keeps you busy, and off the internet, not just while you're plannning which cookies to make, and writing ingredient lists, and going grocery shopping. But also while you mix and beat and chop and bake. Then you get to assemble your masses of cookies, in cellophone bags or aluminum tins or perhaps little cardboard boxes wrapped up with string. And we haven't even gotten to the part where you have to decide whom to give the cookies too! You're looking at at least a week's worth of distraction in total. At least! Pretty good, huh? I'll say.
So let's do another giveaway, shall we? Let's get our minds off the end of the world. Leave me a comment here listing what your favorite Christmas baking list looks like and I'll pick a winner on Sunday. The winner gets a signed (and personalized) copy of Classic German Baking, an assortment of German baking ingredients (candied citrus peels, poppy seeds, marzipan, various raising agents, and mixed Lebkuchen spice) plus a jar of my homemade Pflaumenmus, which will hopefully motivate the winner (and at least a few other of you?) to bake the Lebkuchen-Powidltatschkerln – little rye cookie pockets filled with plum jam – in the Christmas chapter. I love those little babies – we discovered them in a magazine while on a "research" trip to Austria last year. They're soft and tangy and spicy and delicious. Spread the word!
(If anyone is wondering, my baking list would include those plum jam rye cookies, nutty Spekulatius, Pfeffernüsse, Basler Brunsli and Springerle, which I'll be making with Joanie next week and – if all goes according to plan – filming! In some capacity. We'll see. It'll probably be terrible. But also hopefully a little useful? Oh! And I've committed to the most insane thing ever: providing enough homemade slabs of Lebkuchen to make gingerbread houses with Hugo and FOUR of his little friends. Yeah. I don't know what I was thinking either. Hold me?)
In other news, the Washington Post recently included Classic German Baking in their round-up of the year's best cookbooks, writing "This overdue guide is a happy marriage of European craft and American sensibilities." Which made me want to marry the Washington Post in a happy marriage of my own.
On Food52's gorgeously illustrated guide to global holiday sweets, I was thrilled to get to contribute a little piece on Elisenlebkuchen (with recipe).
On Tastebook, I was interviewed about Classic German Baking, plus asked to talk a little bit about the three cookbooks I'm currently cooking from.
Deutsche Welle interviewed me on some of the nitty-gritty aspects of writing the cookbook, including my recipe for Brezeln (soft pretzels).
The loveliest cookbook store in Seattle, Book Larder, asked me 11 questions about food memories, my food heroes and favorite cookbooks.
But the most important thing I wanted to write about today is actually about the biggest complaint I've gotten on the cookbook so far: the relatively low number of food photos. For a variety of reasons, it just wasn't feasible for every recipe, or even every other recipe, to get its own photo. I did my very best to write the recipes as tightly and carefully as I could, so that home bakers would get good results without a photo guiding them. But I understand the frustration of some. So I've put together a list of every recipe in the book with an accompanying photograph – where I could, this will get updated going forward – and have posted them on a separate page which is accessible by clicking on the "Classic German Baking Photos" link under the book image that you see over in the right sidebar. It's a little clunky, but I hope it satisfies the need for visuals in the book and can be a helpful resource for all of you. Feel free to let your friends who have the book know about this. Thank you!
UPDATE: Nora is the winner and has been notified. Thank you so much for participating! Happy baking to all – you are an inspiration!
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300 responses to “A Classic German Baking Giveaway, plus Classic German Baking Photos!”
Gingerbread. Lots of gingerbread!
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I was born in Korea, but grew up in the Midwest (of the United States) with grandparents of German and Scandinavian descent. So – my ideal cookie platter would include pfeffernusse and spritz inspired by Germany, Norwegian sandbakkels, and Korean sesame-honey cookies! And some jam thumbprints for good measure, because my grandma made the best.
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Sugar cookies, gingerbread, Poinsettia cookies, Church Windows, mint chocolate chip cookies, cranberry pie.
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We make German shortbread cookies – an old family recipe!
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Oh! I just saw a copy of your book! Now I want a copy of my very own, too so here’s my list:
Berliner Lebkuchen, Stollen with marzipan inside, chocolate-chestnut Buche de Noel, an English fruitcake, raspberry linzer cookies, gingerbread snowflakes, soft springerle, candy canes – they’re really cookies that taste like almond-vanilla-and peppermint, spritz cookies, gingerbread that is actually bread/loaf with some bits of candied orange peel, and my husband always likes sugar cookie cut-outs of some sort. 🙂
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This is a sad holiday for us…my mother died a couple of days ago. Born in Germany 89 years ago, she would always make a large array of wonderful German cookies for Weinachten. So my sister and I will carry on the tradition this year — vanillenkipfel, lebkucken, marzipannusse, studentenbrot. I was not able to purchase Classic German Baking in time to share it with her. She would have loved the taste memories from the many recipes. But my father is still with us, a vigorous 92 years old with a persistent sweet tooth. So he will benefit from Luisa’s wonderful piece of work.
Doris
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I’m going to make (and freeze) a bunch of sweet rolls (cinnamon and orange marmalade, maybe?), along with some chewy ginger cookies, some peanut butter blossoms (I know, but I love them!) and maybe take another crack at shortbread, which never turns out right.
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I plan to bake my little heart out…it’s such good therapy. My list includes;
lemon angel pie, pumpkin roll, cheesecake, and thumbprint cookies. Oh,and possibly good old chocolate chip cookies and some madeleines. =)
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Oh, the christmas baking list! Most of them are my Hungarian grandmothers recipes.
Grandmom’s Sugar Cookies
Gingerbread cookies
Pfeffernüsse
Honey cookies
Chocolate and Almond Spritz cookies
and a couple batches of Stollen!
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Gingerbread, hazelnut lace cookies, pinwheels, buttertart squares, shortbread…but I’ve always wanted to try my mother’s Vanillekipferl. Maybe this will be the year!
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My roommate just got your cookbook and we are totally adding the Lebkuchen-Powidltatschkerln to our bake list this year!! This is the third year we have made variety cookie tins for friends near and far – it’s a nice way to bake a TON of cookies and share a little love on both of our musicians’ salary. 🙂
Here’s our bakelist:
Spitzbuben (my Great Grandma Gerta’s recipe! She came from Bavaria. I make raspberry and apricot preserves for each variety)
Russian tea cakes (a hazelnut butter cookie that’s rolled in powdered sugar)
Anise Pizzelles
Kick-ass gingerbread (as spicy as they come)
Cardamom snaps
Swedish almond cookies (delightful little buttery bars)
Bourbon balls
Peppermint bark
Candied Orange peel
Toffee
Coconut macaroons
…and STOLLEN! When I was in grad school (and for two years postgrad) I worked at a German bakery in Chicago and they had the most incredible stollen. This is the first Christmas I haven’t worked there and I am going to attempt to replicate it at home. Wish me luck!!!
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I will be making probably 6 or 7 different types including white chocolate macadamia nut, sugar cookies, hazelnut chocolate, linzer bars, but I really would like to start making German cookies as it is part of my heritage. Lebkuchen was my favorite food when visiting Germany…
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My mother’s Stollen recipe. We loved it as children growing up in a German home, and
still make it every year at Christmas time. It’s tradition!
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If I stuck to tradition, my holiday “baking” list would actually be a holiday frying list. Nonetheless, I bake far more than I fry. And always on my list is a nut roll recipe that came from my mom’s best friend, which has a not-sweet yeasted dough that uses egg yolks and a sweet walnut-meringue based filling that takes care of the whites. I keep cookie dough balls stashed in my freezer so it’s easy to make a few warm cookies any time you want them. Rugelach of some flavor, every year. I love cakes that get baked in fancy bundt pans: so much bang for the buck! And this year, I look forward to trying some yeast-risen cakes as well.
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Cookies-sugar, gingerbread, snicker doodle, berry shortbread, walnut melts ways and then gingerbread cake style
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Cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning! Plus Buckeyes, maple walnut cranberry thumbprints, and sugar cookies from the Seasame Street encyclopedia circa 1982. 🙂
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Definitely gingersnaps, and something chocolaty. And I’m buying your book for a friend!
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Pfeffernuesse, gingersnaps, and chocolate biscotti …
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We do the basics based on what my other 1/2 learned during his formative years in Germany…plus what my mother-in-law taught me.
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My baking list:
Pfeffernüsse, Lebkuchen, Elisenlebkuchen, Vanillekipferl, Heidesand and kalter Hund.
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First of all, I will bake a batch of classic oatmeal cookies from the recipe on the Quaker Oats lid. Chocolate chips, not raisins. It is my son’s favorite so They will be waiting for him when he arrives home from college. I will make gingersnaps, caramel brownie bars and frosted cut-out cookies.
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Hi Luisa!
I’ve been distracting myself with baking from Classic German Baking ever since November 8th (ok a little before then too). It’s been an incredible journey so far and I can’t wait to continue it. I’m eyeing the Lebkuchen recipe (which I fell terribly behind on) for a post-Christmas pick-me-up, but also on my holiday baking list are: a gingerbread-spiced Yule Log, your cinnamon-almond meringue stars, plenty of classic crisp Christmas cookies for icing, Pfeffernusse (currently ripening) and your Christbrot!
Hoping you’ll find an opportunity to tour the West Coast once things settle down over there – we miss you.
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Stollen!!
Pecan sandies
Derby pie bars
Gingerbread
Now I’m starving, thanks!
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My all time favorite holiday recipe is for Spoon Cookies, which was published in Gourmet (RIP) about a million years ago. Those and gingerbread cookies, sugar cutouts, and chocolate shortbread.
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My favorite Christmas baking list include ginger cookies, swedish cardamom and poppyseed buns, raisin-y bread pudding and pumpkin spice quark cheesecake.
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Huzzah! On my list this year (and most years) are chewy higher-molasses cookies, peanut butter cookies, chocolate yogurt cookies, and some kind of butter cookie for cutting out and decorating. And Stollen for the first time ever!
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There are some things just have to be on the table: pecan pie, pumpkin bars and springerle. I’m lucky enough to have my husband’s grandmother’s hand carved springerle mold which she received as a wedding present in 1900. And then there’s brandied mince tarts, cranberry raisin pie and Nantucket cranberry cake. And oh yes, pumpkin empanadas. Happy holidays everyone!
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I’ve made Lebkuchen in previous years without the Oblaten, and I look forward to trying out your recipe!
This year’s holiday baking list includes:
orange cardamom cookies
candied ginger shortbread
chai spiced cookies
peppermint meringue cookies
seven layer cookies
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I’ve already made molasses crinkles and a shortbread cookie that is half dipped in chocolate then sprinkled with peppermint pieces. I will probably also make gingerbread cutouts and decorated cut outs and the snowball cookies.
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My baking list includes lots of cookies and candy. This year chocolate chip cookies, almond bark crunch, gingersnaps, buckeyes, stollen cookies, wedding cookies, rugelach and a Christmasy cake that hasn’t been chosen yet. Baking at this time of year gives me Christmas spirit and I love the smells in the kitchen as all the spices blend together!
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Xmas season is very inspiring for baking. Here in Paris we will bake Christollen with a German mold, Zimtsternen, Vanillekippfelrn, mince pies, Spekuloos, Mannele and of course some Mont Blanc & bûches de Noël.
Would love to win you book thanks to this game, but if not, it is on my liste au père Noël.
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In the eyes of my family, peppermint bark chocolate chocolate chip cookies are the thing I cannot omit. I already have my dark chocolate and my white chocolate (well hidden!) but I need more peppermint extract and some candy canes to shatter!
Also butter and sugar and flour and eggs for the butter cookies.
And candied ginger and powdered ginger and cinnamon and cloves and molasses for gingerbread.
We’ll see how The Plumpness is after all that….
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This year, I’m baking homemade saltines! I made them a few years back and have promised myself a second go for our holiday party. They’ll go beautifully with my mom’s cheese ball recipe.
As for BAKING, baking?? I really love my old Fannie Farmer cookbook and will definitely be making cookies – sugar cookies, chocolate chip and pecan sandies, for sure. I haven’t looked at a copy of your new book yet (it’s on my list), but I’m certain I’ll find some favorites there for future holiday parties!
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How kind of you to host yet another giveaway. Thank you ! That is quite a Christmas treat ! We love trying new recipes and they vary from year to year as our fancy directs us but on the list with essentials there are old family recipes from both sides. So we will enjoy
* easy peasy things (backed on sheets and cut in form after or during backing): dicker Pfefferkuchen (full of honey and lovely spices and butter and best eaten slathered with even more butter, Berliner Brot (also a traditional recipe with cinnamon and cloves and no fat), Dinkelcantucci (with loads of cinnamon)
* fairly quick cookies (formed into rolls and cut into slices aka cookies before baking):
Schmalzbrötchen (traditional chocolaty type of Mürbeteigplätzchen which – when topped off with icing – looks like a Schmalzstulle/ Schwarzbrot mit Schmalz – hence the name), Butterknöpfchen (lots of butter and icing sugar and egg whites – modern recipe but classic Dr. Oe.), Bischofsbrot (traditional hazelnut Mürbeteig with dried fruit filling)
* cookies I dread to make (read: hard work, time commitment) but love to eat: Pfefferkuchchen (as “dicker Pfefferkuchen” but dough has to rest for weeks and then it has to be rolled out so thin that you can see the table on which you work and then it has to be cut out and reworked into a ball and rolled out and cut out again and again but they are deliciously crisp and tasty and do melt in your mouth and the crumbs can go into “Weihnachtsrotkohl” and transform it, too), Vanillekipferl, Würmchenplätzchen (like Vanillekipferl only that they use hazelnuts and margarine), Rogehner Kringel (mandelige mürbteigige kleine Bretzeln with Hagelzucker) and Saffrankringel (Swedish yeast rolls).
Adi
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My favorite Christmas Baking List—what a fun break to my day! I am doing a juice cleanse so very focused on food ;-)…
–Chocolate Almond Toffee Bars, my own recipe, and former winner of Best Cookie at a County Fair! All of my neighbors and friends expect these!
–Swedish Spritz, hand crafted with loving care, and a tradition from my mother
–Frosted Brownie Mallow Bars, a recipe I love because it is in my mother’s handwriting
–A Peanut Butter Ball Candy that takes a great deal of effort, but is worth it
–Raspberry Oat Bars, handed down through my paternal grandmother
–Sugar cookies, decorated, and carried every year
–Gingerbread House, with my son, who has been away at first year in college, but will be home 😀
–and at least two new recipes every year! Just to keep me on my toes! I experimented with one last week as a thank you to a neighbor, but it did not turn out to my satisfaction.
It’s my season…Holly
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Saint Lucia buns and Nazook! I love mildly sweet pastries, because I can eat more of them and not feel guilty?? 🙂
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most consistent item on shopping lists is B-U-T-T-E-R!!!
baking is very varied; next up is rugulach
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Yes, it’s feeling a tad more subdued this year, but the holidays are a healthy distraction and gingerbread, biscotti, chocolate crinkles, cranberry orange mini-loaves for the neighbors, those rye plum thingees that sound so outrageous (just got your book – yay!) and a savory biscotti fromThe Splendid Table to give with bubbly when we need a hostess gift. Thanks for the photos which are so helpful and for the generous giveaway. Happy Holidays.
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My Christmas baking list includes:
1) my sister-in-law’s shortbread cookie recipe, which she got from a church recipe book from 1972. They got the seal of approval from a Scottish friend of mine–“real shortbread!”
2) white chocolate macadamia brownies, which I bake every year for a Christmas open house at the health food store I work for–customers ask for them and always want the recipe. (I think it’s the hint of orange peel that pulls it all together.)
3) marzipan bars from a Canadian Living Holiday Best magazine from 2001. A friend has already put in her order.
4) Dark Chocolate, Orange, and Cardamon cookies, because I love anything with cardamon.
Don’t know much about German baking, but would love to give it a try.
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I don’t do a lot variety, but what I do bake I bake in quantity (there are special people that await their Christmas box of treats from me).
I do my Ma-Maw’s Cocoons – a shortbread-like cookie with lots of pecans and rolled in powdered sugar (sort of a wedding cookie). I also do orange cake/brownies. I live in Florida so incorporating fresh oranges into something makes sense. And then typically one other thing, subject to whim and inclination – maybe pretzel turtles. Pretzel base with caramel, chocolate, pecan.
I also make a mean homemade Chex Mix – for those of you familiar with that salty, crunchy snack treat. Heavy on the worchestshire sauce and garlic. Nutty crunchy salty goodness.
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Hi Luisa! I will be baking 13 kinds of cookies with my mom this year. It is fun to help her, but I have a few of my own that I make…olive scourtins, gingerbread, and usually one or two from our local newspaper cookie contest. I am excited to add some of your recipes to my list.
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This is the best. Giveaway. Ever. I’ve had your book on my Christmasukah list since I knew it was coming out this fall.
So. I grew up in Koeln, a Catholic town in Protestant NRWF, a British occupied zone, as a nice culturally Jewish girl in an Ami-expat family with American PX privileges (diplomatic godfathers). I mention this only to let you know how schizoid my holiday traditions are. So my baking list goes like this:
Classic British fruitcake, made on Stir-up Sunday (yes, I know it ought to be Xmas pud but that’s the way we did it)
Many years, a gingerbread house
Many years, a buche de Noel (my mother was a Cordon Bleu quality cook)
Zimtsterne
Mandelhoernchen
Vanillekipferl
Three or four other cookies, which rotate (fruit, usually citrus; nut [usually the NYT recipe for peanut sandies that so closely approximates the one from City Bakery]; chocolate – lately I’m partial to an adapted version of Dorie Greenspan’s chocolate oatmeal cookies)]
Many varieties of spiced nuts (I know it’s not really baking, but they get made in the oven and I give pounds and pounds as gifts)
We also give neighbor gifts each year and this year I’m giving vanilla sugar. I always forget that most other people don’t just make it as a matter of course and you reminded me with Deb Perelman’s post on your strudel (which is a marvelous recipe, by the way, and thanks for helping me conquer my own strudel fear!).
Can’t wait to read CGB…I’m sure it will engender many happy tears and thoughts of home. To have a signed copy would be even more special.
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thank you for the wonderful posts…..I to have gone into bake mode to shut out the news…I carry your book around for inspiration and bless you for finding and adding the pictures so i have a gentle guide… Christmas in my home always includes Krum cakes i form them into cones and fill with whipped cream studded with fruit ( or candied orange peel…maybe ginger bits) I cook them in a stove top iron my mother-in-law gave me 52 years ago, and so while i bake i surround myself with all my memories ….they came from Norway Poland Scotland France and left me with a giant melting pot of cooking with love…..
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My Christmas baking list is LARGE and usually includes peppermint bark, snowballs, kutchen, shortbread, chocolate crinkles and many other cookies and candies, becauspe I give cookies as gifts to friends and family. I would love a copy of your book – my grandmother was from Romania and cooked for wealthy people her whole life. When she was alive we cooked many German dishes together.
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Every year we make Gingerbread Queens. They are just gingerbread cutout cookies, but the cutter is a souvenir of a London trip years ago. Each year my sister does several theme-decorated queens: hula, biker, etc. We hate to eat them! But we do!
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I never settle on my Christmas baking list until the last minute. I was hoping to bake a Jamaican fruit cake, but I doubt I’ll get around to it. Instead, what I’ll bake is an assortment of cookies including pepparkor, lebkuchen, stollen, cinnamon nut squares and mostaccioli. And, fingers crossed, I will get Dorie’s Cookies and your book for Christmas to keep this going into the new year.
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Not entering book contest – feel like you you already gave us a wonderful gift – the photo post is great and a wonderful encouragement to those who have yet to buy your book – though the fact is the recipes are really well written. Thank you!!
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How awesome of you to provide additional photos!
Today’s my birthday and it maks me happy to think of holiday baking:
My granny’s roll-out cookies
Molasses spice cookies
Spritz
Cinnamon-cocoa shortbread
Scandinavian berry pie (includes fresh cranberries. I’ve already made two this season and know there will be need for several more. You are so right about soothing properties of a favorite bake.)
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I try new recipes every year. This year I plan to try a new biscotti recipe, shortbread sandwich cookies with almond and a raspberry filling, toffee saltine cookies and some kind of spice cookie. I also plan to make some kind of sweet poppyseed bread or roll. And for a Christmas meal dessert I would like to make pot de creme.
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Oh, how fun to think of holiday baking. I recently made a pumpkin pie and an apple pie with a streusel topping which were enjoyed by family and friends for Thanksgiving. I like making a treat every week and this week it was a simple almond cake. For Christmas, I will make snowballs with my girls and we always make spritz cookies with a cookie press. I like including chocolate whenever possible, so I plan to make David Lebovitz’s “Idiot Cake” for a party as well as a pumpkin layer cake for Christmas. My younger daughter loves to decorate, so I imagine we will make some simple sugar cookies as well. I LOVE imagining how the house will smell!
My cousin lives in Herford and just started working at a bakery. Sounds like heaven!
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