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Breakfast/Brunch

Breakfast/Brunch, Desserts, Sweet Snacks

Crazy for Krapfen: Dough [NUTS] about You!
Irish Cream Doughnuts, Double Coconut Doughnuts and Maple-Soaked Doughnut Holes

Krapfen. Fasnachtsküchle. Berliner. Doughnuts (Donuts). These are all traditional Pre-Fasching (Carnival, Mardi Gras…) sweets common in Southern Germany. OK, maybe most of Germany, but I am from the South, so that is what I can speak to. There are crazy sorts in Germany, and each bakery seems to make a whole bunch of types in the weeks between New Year’s and Fat Tuesday. I just made one base recipe for these and then finished them in overly decadent ways. Eat them while you can: Lent starts tomorrow!* (I’m not religious and I don’t do the whole ‘giving up stuff for Lent thing, but you get the idea.)
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8. February 2016
Breakfast/Brunch, General Reference/Tutorial, Sweet Snacks

Homemade Nutella

World Nutella Day is coming up tomorrow. Yeah, there is such a thing: World Nutella Day. I’m not making it up. And while I guess that someone at the Ferrero Roche company might object to me calling this homemade hazelnut chocolate spread Nutella, it is more or less the same thing, eh? So there you have it: make your own to celebrate the day!
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4. February 2016
Breakfast/Brunch

Overnight Baked Blueberry French Toast

Breakfast. They say it is the most important meal of the day. I, sadly, am never talented enough to pull off a big breakfast, and there are lots of people who need something on the table quickly. That is where this Overnight Baked Blueberry French Toast comes it. With a little planning, you can actually have this on the table in a little over half an hour. Basically, you just have to spend 10 minutes the evening before whisking the milk and eggs together and cutting bread, and in the morning, just place it in the oven (you don’t even need to preheat, though I preheated to about 200F before I put it in — my oven is from 1954; it needs to “think about things” before moving). Voila, on the table 35 minutes later.

A note: the recipe is for a full 9 x 13 inch (like the size of a brownie pan), but the picture is actually of a much smaller version (I halved the recipe). I’m single and didn’t want to be eating French Toast for three days.
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20. January 2016
Appetizers/Starters, Breakfast/Brunch, Dinner, Lunch, Savory Snacks

Zwiebelkuchen (Onion Tart)

The atypical traditional German Zwiebelkuchen (Onion Tart). OK, that sounds rather contradictory, eh? Here is the thing: the recipe is traditional. Onions, Speck, Paprika and Nutmeg. And yes, while it looks a little like a quiche, it only has one egg in it. In Swabia (the Southwestern part of Germany nearest to the French and Swiss borders), this Zwiebelkuchen is often eaten in the fall and is a great accompaniment to new wines.

But why atypical? Well, my presentation, actually. While it certainly is possible that a cast iron pan was used at some point in the history of Zwiebelkuchen-making, it is more often made in a tart pan with a removable bottom or even as a square on a regular Backblech. Also, I am quite sure that no one bothers to cut out many little leaves, cut patterns in them and then glue them to the edge. So there. Typical German recipe. Typical me presentation. All good. Well, would have been better if that one side of the crust didn’t decide to take a nose dive into the filling, but imperfection is perfection.
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5. January 2016
Breads, Breakfast/Brunch, Sweet Snacks

Grosse Neujahrsbrezel

Happy New Year! Now that we have crossed that imaginary line to the new year, here is some more “lucky food” to usher in the year. This is a traditional German Neujahrsbrezel (New Year’s Pretzel). It’s sweet, sort of like Challah bread (that is pearl sugar, not salt). Some people hide a cent piece in it, and who ever find it, gets all the luck. I, of course, didn’t do that because I’m not sharing it with anyone so I’ll just claim all the luck as is. Goes great with coffee at breakfast and actually makes great bread for French Toast too. Enjoy!
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31. December 2015