Advent: Festive German Bakes to Celebrate the Coming of Christmas

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As we hunker and snuggle around the stove each day, we are entertained, warmed and comforted by it. If ever there was a time for the oven to prove its worth as the real hearth of our home, advent is it. I hope you enjoy making these festive German bakes, which are made to share with friends and family for years – together or as presents. Almond domes recipe Add the icing sugar along with 1 tablespoon of vodka and blitz again until a smooth paste forms. You may need to add a bit more vodka depending on how fresh the nuts are. In one bite-sized biscuit, they swept me directly to cold snowy cobbled streets with people’s breath hanging in clouds under the glow of street lamps. There was just something about them that seemed so old-fashioned that was hard to put my finger on – the vodka somehow brought a mysterious feeling of cold into your mouth.

Six festive German bakes to try this Christmas - The Telegraph Six festive German bakes to try this Christmas - The Telegraph

Advent is an edible countdown in 24 chapters inspired by the idea of traditional paper advent calendars, where you open up a window to reveal an image of winter on the 24 days leading up to Christmas. It is a real gem that I know will be used for very many Christmases to come in my house. So far I have tried the spiced Lebkuchen, Jam filled Lebkuchen (these were amazing!), Stollen, Cinnamon roast almonds, Potato cakes, Cherry and almond Florentines, Coffee fondant biscuits, Rum balls, Almond chocolates, Marzipan and almond stuffed dates, and Christmas schnapps. These all worked incredibly well. What is a huge plus point for me, is that the finished product keeps well for several weeks. Last year I made a panettone late on Christmas eve, it was light fluffy and delicious when it it came out of the oven, but a few hours later on Christmas day breakfast it was hard to swallow. Recipes that keep well are particularly good for Christmas as it's busy enough without doing all your baking on the day itself. I was going to bring you the Stollen recipe today, but for many reasons (including the words in the introduction to this recipe) I decided, with a glad heart, to share the Christbrot — the Christmas Bread with Dried Fruit — with you. And I must own up here, that I made it with chopped dried apricots in place of the candied peel, used a little more rum than instructed, and then realised only when it was too late that I'd forgotten to add the almonds I'd so carefully weighed out! But it was de-luscious like that, I may have to do exactly the same next time I make it, which will most definitely be soon. The kneading in of the fruits is not light work, but patience is more than rewarded. 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 still tasted delicious. Put all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and stir with a wooden spoon. Add the butter and mix it into the flour using your fingertips until it has the consistency of fine breadcrumbs.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.

Strudel, Noodles and Dumplings: The New Taste of German Strudel, Noodles and Dumplings: The New Taste of German

Put the flour, salt and butter in a mixing bowl and, using your fingertips, work the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the icing sugar and mix it through. Now add the egg yolks and vanilla extract and bring everything together into a dough with your hands. Knead for a few minutes. Hardly surprisingly, this time of year abounds in Christmassy cookbooks, but Anja Dunk’s Advent offers something excitingly different. For one thing, the Germans do Christmas like no one else; or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that much of what we think of a proper, traditional Christmas we owe to them, only they do it more so!

Crumble the yeast (or sprinkle if using dried) into the tepid milk and stir to dissolve. Pour the yeasted milk into the flour mixture and, using your hands, bring the ingredients together into a rough dough. Tip the dough on to a floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes until it becomes more elastic. Form it into a ball and nestle it into the bottom of the bowl. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and set aside in a warm spot to rise for 1-3 hours until almost doubled in size. (Alternatively, put the flour, sugar, salt and citrus zests into the bowl of a free-standing electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the butter and egg. Pour in the yeasted milk and knead for 5 minutes until the dough is elastic. Cover the bowl and set aside, as above.) Cosy Happy Hygge: Setting up a rhythm to life and rituals to enjoy it to make for a more balanced life that handles waves and storms better. August is like a pause before real life begins again in September, so it’s a second chance to set up rituals and rhythms that boost happiness and work for you. GERMAN kitchens are the place to be during December, as Anja Dunk’s Advent testifies. Beginning with seasonal “almost unbearable” expectation and the tradition of baking a “saltbread” Advent wreath, the book segues effortlessly into the Bunter Teller, a plate of assorted bite-sized cakes and biscuits always on hand to offer friends and relatives who call by during the “magic time” of the Advent weeks.