h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Christmas Cookies from German-speaking Countries - A17862186
Author: Tavaron da Quirm - U1314679

A collection of recipes for common cookies, mostly from Austria and Germany.

Unfortunately this comes a bit late for christmas but RL work delayed everything a bit.
There already is an Entry about German Christmas Cookies, but in it are only Mürbteigplätzchen, which doesn't cover the subject at all (well, in fact the subject fills books of course).

Zimtsterne ... Heidesand! I had forgotten about that...

Zimtsterne are my very favourite And Heidesand is wonderful, too! I baked both this year, using those recipes, and they turned out very well

Yummy, these sound so good I will be making some of them

A few typos and oddities;

Under Haselnussbusserl - Hazelnut Kisses

Put the mass in little heaps on the wavers --> wafers

Under Hausfreunde - Gallants

Spread the masse -->mixture?

5x2,5 cm --> for neatness 5 x 2.5cm

Under Heidesand – Heath Sand

and let it brown gently until golden -->bubble? gently... doesn't sound right either, but I think you know what I mean

chill for several hours --> how many? overnight?

bake until done through, but still pale. --> cooked through

Under Husaren-Krapferl

cut off slices, you and form into balls --> just get rid of you

Under Vanillekipferl - Vanilla crescents

rollsabout --> rolls about

Bake the cookies at 180°C/350° Funtil the ends are brown --> until

Under Zimtsterne

retain 4 heaping tablespoons --> heaped (although I know what you mean)

(This is a good time to make the hearts…)---> rather than ... use 'see below'


Zitronen/Mandelherzen - Lemon or Almond Hearts

Can be made into round shapes with a drinking glass in a pinch, but that’s not doing it properly!) --> at a pinch

Pull from the baking sheets on the parchment --> just pull from the parchment, I think

powdered sugar --> is this icing sugar?

Finally, A note on the ingredients might be better with a header.

Good stuff! I feel really Christmassy now!

These look mouth-wateringly lovely I can smell them baking already.

About the original entry: (A907535 - German Christmas Cookies).

To be honest, we should have all of the recipes in one place. The obvious solution is an update. The alternative is to change the scope and/or title of yours to make it distinctive from the other one. There's nothing wrong with the original as such, it just doesn't contain as many mouth-wateringly lovely recipes as yours does.

What do you think?

thanks magwitch, I'll change that

thanks Icy

Well, I'm not really for updating. Generally. And in this case a 'problem' is that the other entry is clearly called 'German' Christmas cookies... we shouldn't let the Germans get all the rewards for the good stuff, should we? I really don't think so.

But a change of the title would indeed be good. We just couldn't think of a proper one.

What do you mean with change the scope?

ok, I changed what I could, Mala will have to decide about what to do with the Heidesand and the last of Zimtsterne.

Right, and here I am...

The butter isn't supposed to bubble. Just heat it until it takes on some colour.

An hour or two is enough chilling time - just needs to be firm enough to slice.

And yes, powdered sugar is icing sugar, sorry, we can change that.

Pulling the parchment off is correct - that way, you don't have to handle them individually, they're fragile at that point and might stick to the parchment anyway.


And yes, thanks, magwitch. Hard to catch all the errors, you've got a good eye for them!

ok, I changed that, too

Well, as it is, it's just a list of cookie recipes and doesn't justify an entry on itself, imo, which is why I'd suggest the update forum. What you could/should do if you insist that it's a stand-alone entry, is tell us abou the different cookies you introduce - their history, what's special about them, etc. It's not all that difficult, here are a few things I found when I started looking:
Appenzeller Biberli:created sometime in the 16th Century, nowadays sold as a souvenir, different motifs and sizes, the 14 herbs and spices are very important, the recipe is top secret to this day, they're made in Appenzell and St Gallen (both Switzerland), they're what is called 'Lebkuchen' in Germany, etc.

Florentiner: you should mention that it's not only a cookie, but also known as a hat, with even movies made about it, as well as apparently a slangword: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=florentiner

Heidesand: maybe mention that there is something like Heidesand, and that the cookies are just as dry

and so on, you get the gist.

Good points B'El, however, does this not just come into 'everything' category

btw I've copied this entry and saved it, just in case

I'm not sure what I shall say at the moment. Apart from that as far as I know there are many entries which are 'just' recipes.

True, but don't you want to make your entry better? You have the chance of writing something outstanding, and you're content with 'just' recipes? It's not for me to decide, but in that case, I'd suggest the update forum once more.

True - it's a good suggestion, but we'd have to work on it in time for *next* Christmas

Well, you can work on it as planned, and once it's completed, it will be there for everybody searching for christmas cookie recipes.

That's right.

I know myself, I'll try to find out something. I just hope I can. Just don't let me start tonight already.

Sure.

An in-between step would be to just find the region each one's from - they're all regional specialties, so far as I know.

I have no idea.

Yes, from what I've seen, they're regional, or at least special. I have no idea where the Florentiner got their name from - maybe it's got to do something with the ingredients? I imagine it to be fun trying to find out.

research, m'dear

I think we can safely say that Linzer Augen are from Linz - in Linz beginnt's (It begins in Linz, o Hamsters)