Dec 17, 2013 5 min read

As those who work with me at the Observer Publishing Co. know, I am a German. Before working for the newspaper, I was an instructor pilot for jet fighter pilots in the German Luftwaffe (Air Force). I was sent to America for part of my pilot training in the early 1970s, and it was in Phoenix, while training on the F-104 Starfighter, that I met my American wife, Brenda. She returned to Germany with me, and we were married. We lived 18 years in Germany, and both our boys were born there. When I retired from the Luftwaffe, we came back to America to live, settling in the house in Moon Township of my wife’s grandmother, who had passed away the year before we moved.

Although my wife is American, her mother’s parents were German. She acquired the love of German cooking and baking from both her German grandmother and her grandmother on her father’s side, long before she met me. But living in Germany afforded my wife the opportunity to learn much more and perfect her culinary talent.

Our traditional German Christmas dinner is a fabulous roast goose stuffed with apples. It is always accompanied with red cabbage made with apples and bacon, boiled parsley potatoes, tiny green peas, roasted apples from the goose and a homemade cranberry/orange/apple relish with apple schnapps. The meal is served with a nice, robust red wine.

Dessert is the best part, however. Everyone eagerly looks forward to the 35 different Christmas cookies and homemade chocolates that my wife makes, along with a magnificent marzipan christstollen. These cookies are very elaborate, and each is a piece of art.

A great many of the recipes have been handed down through the generations – some are more than 100 years old. She also bakes everyone a gingerbread boy, elaborately decorated and personalized in icing with our names. She begins all this baking in October, as many cookies need to be aged.

We top off our dessert with a very special Christmas after-dinner drink. My wife’s German grandmother started this traditional drink, and passed it down to her daughter, and now to my wife.

For anyone wanting to attempt some authentic German Christmas cookie baking, my wife has shared some of her oldest recipes.

Christmas After-Dinner Liqueur Drink

You will need:

A small liqueur glass

Grenadine syrup

Green crème de menthe

Fresh heavy whipping cream, unwhipped

Pour a small amount of grenadine in the glasses. Slowly pour the crème de menthe in the glass on top of the grenadine, allowing it to flow down the side. Follow with the heavy cream, again allowing it to trickle down the side of the glass on top of the crème de menthe.

Anislaibchen

Coat two baking sheets thinly and evenly with butter and set aside.

Mix together and set aside: 290 grams (2?5/8 cups) sifted flour (measure exactly), 1 teaspoon whole anise seeds and a small pinch of baker’s ammonia or baking powder.

Beat together 250 grams sugar (1?1/8 cup) and 4 medium-sized eggs for a half-hour. Do not cut time!

Using a wire whisk, gently fold flour mixture into egg mixture by hand. The dough needs to be the perfect consistency or the cookies will not work.

Drop very small piles onto greased baking sheets, about an inch apart. The dough, if it is the right consistency, will slowly spread into smooth, round cookies.

Let the cookies dry completely overnight at room temperature – at least 12 hours.

Set oven rack up one notch from the middle position, and bake at 325 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. If the cookies work right, they will rise up like little mushrooms. Do not brown; bake until firm only.

Cool on sheets. Store in an air-tight tin in a cool place. Add a few anise seeds to the storage tin

Note: This cookie is simple but very tricky. Many times, it has taken me several tries to get them right. One year, I made them five times before they worked!

I found this recipe on a package of sugar in Germany when we lived in Walleshausen.

Punschbrezeln (Punch pretzels)

You will need a scale for this recipe – one that measures grams/kilos, available at any kitchen retailer.

Ingredients

200 grams unsalted butter (not margarine)

300 grams powdered sugar, divided

1 egg yolk

Pinch of salt (1/8 teaspoon)

The inner scraping of a whole vanilla bean

300 grams flour

1 egg white

6 cl. (ounces) Pott Rum or Jamaican rum

2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Knead together the softened butter with 100 grams of the divided powdered sugar. Add the egg yolk, salt and vanilla bean scrapings. Sift the flour into the butter mixture, and mix only until blended – best done by hand at this point. Wrap in aluminum foil and refrigerate at least 2 to 3 hours.

Using a pretzel cookie cutter, roll the dough ¼-inch thick. If not available, you can make pretzels by hand, rolling a small piece of dough to a long rope and twisting into a pretzel shape. Bake in a 350-degree, preheated oven 10 to 15 minutes until firm and golden-colored on the bottom side of the cookie. Cool. Glaze.

Glaze: Mix remaining 200 grams of powdered sugar with the egg white, rum and lemon juice. Brush over the tops of the pretzels. Store in air-tight containers in freezer.

Recipe from my German baking book, “Backvergnuegen wie noch nie”

Guten Appetit, und Froehliche Weihnachten!

Lothar Kurczewski, single-copy sales manager