Writers put Advent to the test
Trying out recipes from book of German bakes by Anja Dunk
Everyone goes on about the palaver of the turkey come December 25, but some of the best festive cooking at this time of year is actually spent in the run up to the big day. Now food writer Anja Dunk, has collected together a whole slew of festive German bakes in her new cookbook, Advent. We grabbed some gluhwein and put three recipes to the test…
Prudence
Wade tested: Jamfilled Lebkuchen hearts
As a lifelong lover of gingerbread, I jumped at the chance to make these jam-filled biscuits – and I’m glad I did, because it was worth it for the smell of the spices wafting through the house alone.
The process was a bit fiddlier than your average biscuit – you have to roll out the dough, cut heart shapes, blob jam in the middle and cover with a slightly bigger heart on top. My efforts weren’t the most finessed – as shown by bits of jam pouring out after baking – but it tasted delicious.
Baking as a vegan is often pretty hit or miss, but this was a definite win – probably because few of the ingredients had to be changed, it was just subbing out the butter for a dairy-free alternative and using golden syrup instead of honey. The biscuits weren’t soft or crumbly like shortbread or cookie (that’s down to the rye flour) – but tasted more like gingerbread.
The recipe recommends a sharp, smooth jam so I bought some damson jelly to go in the middle, but in all honesty, I’m not sure I could’ve told the difference between that and regular strawberry or raspberry. Best yet, the biscuits tasted even better in the days after baking.
Lisa Salmon tested: Christmas spiced shortbread
If you’ve got a food processer, making these biscuits would be as easy as buying a packet and opening them – and a much tastier experience.
But if you’re like me and don’t have one, and if you can’t buy some of the (many) ingredients ready-ground, this recipe is rather time-consuming!
I couldn’t find any ground hazelnuts, star anise or cloves, so I had to ‘grind’ them myself, and with only a hand-held blender to help, it took ages. And then, instead of being able to just bung everything in a processor, there was rubbing the butter into the flour, and kneading (for another age, it seemed) to get the mixture together and pliable.
But I got there in the end, made sure my little sausages of cookie dough were far enough apart on the baking tray so they didn’t spread into each other in the oven, and was pleased with the final result.
The icing sugar glaze on the top was a really nice addition, and despite the huge number of spices in the mixture, the biscuits tasted pretty Christmassy.
lADVENT: Festive German Bakes to Celebrate the Coming of Christmas is priced £25.