Egad! It's a Spritzbeutel!
Since I turned out to be C.O. of Cookies in my family I thought
I might just as well put a few of my more favorite
recipes on the page, what with Christmas and all. If I had known
how hard it is to translate recipes I might have
thought better of it, but by then it was too late ;) Photos might
me added yet so you'll see what they're supposed
to look like...
(Measurements are given in American cups and metric grams)
Also take note that the recipes call for baking paper. You can
also use tefloned cookie sheets or greased normal
ones but I prefer baking paper because you can immediately pull
those off the cookie sheets as soon as they
come out of the oven, allowing you to use the cookie sheets again
in a minute and also preventing the cookies
from getting further heat which is especially useful with Bethmännchen.
The thing with the Spritzbeutel:
After a fashion and help from friends I was able to translate
pretty much all of it with one major exception:
The Spritzbeutel. While upon explaining the device everyone *knew
what I meant and a lot have used it
hemselves not one out of 7 American native speakers polled knew
what a Spritzbeutel is called in English.
So I decided to add the explanation here and just go with the
word Spritzbeutel in the text. Sounds neat
anyhow huh ? ;)
A Spritzbeutel is that sort of conelike cloth, laminated on the
inside with the tip missing and a metal or plastic
tip with different openings to be slid in, used for squirting
semiliquid dough through, for meringues, for decoration
and so on.
Egad! It's a Spritzbeutel!Zimt Baisers
(approx. 45 pcs. )
3 Egg whites
2/3 cup white sugar (150g)
½ teaspoon cinnamon
Beat the egg whites to a peak with a hand mixer.
Mix the sugar with the cinnamon, then slowly add the mix to the
meringue while you keep beating.
Put the whole into the Spritzbeutel* with a starshaped tip and
squirt small heaps on baking paper.
Put them in the oven at 100C / 212F for about 2 hours to dry.
Bethmännchen
(approx. 30 pcs.)
7 oz. Marzipan (200g)
1 ¼ cup confectioners sugar (125g)
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon water
1 cup of sliced almonds (75g)
Icing: 2 tablespoons confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon water
Knead the ingredients (Apart from the sliced almonds) with your
hands untill you have a smooth, not too sticky mass.
(This might take some time and is sticky on the way) If necessary
add a little more sugar or water.
Roll it out and cut it into slices, rolling each of those into
a small ball. (About an inch as a rule of thumb)
Press three almond slices to the sides, then press it on the baking
paper into a blunt coneshape.
Preheat the oven to 250°C / 480 F, put them in and let them
get some color for about 5 minutes.
IMPORTANT: watch them closely for the duration, taking them out
as soon as they start to deform,
marzipan melts at high temperatures and while they'll still taste
as good they'll look all flat and weird ;)
As soon as you take them out frost them with the icing, then let
them dry overnight.
Kleine Schokoladekuchen
(approx. 20 pcs.)
4 oz. bakers chocolate (100g)
1/3 cup of butter (75g)
½ cup white sugar (100g)
2 eggs
1 pinch of salt
1 packet vanilla sugar or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/8 cups all purpose flour (125g)
1 teaspoon baking powder
5/8 cups ground walnuts (100g)
Icing: 1/8 cup of butter (25g)
3 oz. bakers chocolate (75 g)
1/8 cup chopped pistachio (20g)
Preheat the oven to 200 C/ 390 F.
Melt the chocolate. Whip the butter, sugar, eggs, salt and vanilla
sugar creamy with a hand mixer.
Add the chocolate. Fold in the flour, baking powder and ground
nuts.
Squeeze medium size heaps on the baking paper with the Spritzbeutel*.
Bake for about 15 minutes.
Let the cookies cool off, then melt the chocolate and butter,
blend them and use it to coat the cookies,
sprinkling the pistachios on top.
Spritzgebäck
(approx. 40 pcs.)
2 Eggs
5 oz. Marzipan (125g)
1 packet Vanilla sugar
½ cup butter (125g)
1 1/8 cup confectioners sugar (125g)
2 ¼ cups all purpose flour (250g)
Icing: 1/8 cup of butter (25g)
3 oz. bakers chocolate (75g)
Separate the eggs into yolk and whites.
Beat the egg whites to a peak.
Whip the yolks, butter, sugar, vanilla sugar and marzipan creamy,
blend in the flour. Fold in the meringue.
Put the dough into a Spritzbeutel* with starshaped tip and squirt
tight little S shapes on baking paper.
Preheat the oven tom 200 C / 390 F. Bake them for about 10 minutes.
Let the cookies cool, then melt the butter and chocolate and dunk
the cookies to the waist.
Kokosbusserln
(approx. 45 pcs.)
3 egg whites
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 pinch of salt
2 cups confectioners sugar (225g)
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups grated coconut (200g)
Icing: ¼ cup butter
4 oz. bakers chocolate (100g)
Beat the egg whites, lemon juice and salt to a peak.
Sift the confectioners sugar and slowly add it to the meringue.
Fold in the grated coconut.
Put the mass into a Spritzbeutel* with a plain round (not too
small else it gets clogged with
the coconut) opening,squirting small heaps on the baking paper.
Preheat the oven to 150 C/ 300F and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.
Let them cool, melt butter and chocolate and dunk the base of
the Busserln.
Elisenlebkuchen (my favorites)
(approx. 40 pcs.)
2 Eggs
1 1/8 cups white sugar (250g)
1 unsprayed lemon (for zest)
4 oz. candied fruit (I always use candied orange/lemon peel but
you can vary) (100g)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 ½ cups ground almonds (250g)
1 pinch baking powder
45 wafers (round, ~2 inch diameter)
Icing: 1 cup confectioners sugar (175g)
3 tablespoons lemon juice
Whip eggs and sugar with the hand mixer for about 5 minutes.
Add the zest from the lemon, the very finely mashed candied fruit,
cinnamon, almonds and the baking powder.
If the resulting dough is *very runny you can add one or two tablespoons
of flour.
Put the dough into the Spritzbeutel* with plain round opening
and squirt the dough on the wavers about fingerthick,
leaving a bit of a rim yet. (They get much broader in the oven,
keep the wavers spaced well apart on the baking paper.)
Bake in the preheated oven at 175C / 350F for about 15 minutes.
Let them cool off, then stir the confectioners sugar with the
lemon juice and ice the cookies with it.
Afterwards hide them in a hollow treetrunk or under a heavy boulder
else they'll be eaten by greedy guests and relatives ;)