♚❤LEARN/TEACH GERMAN❤♚

[ArcaneRooney]

Okay new update: I have made a Quizlet class, read more here

[Schneemaehne]

Thanks guys for all the positive feedback! So have some German Christmas baking...


Snowy's Christmas Baking
First of all, these are just a few of the many, many recipes for Christmas cookies/biscuits. Baking is an important part of German Christmas celebration and a lot of people start weeks before Christmas Eve with making wide varieties of biscuits. Every family and region has their favourites and specialities, I tried to incorporate some easy "classics". You will have to translate parts of the recipies, from single words to whole phrases. According to this, the baking itself will get more complicated, too. If you are looking up vocabs, either use your dictionary (you will have to use it in exams, too, so keep practicing to find words quickly!) or if you use an online dictionary, try to find one which will speak out the words for you. This way you can learn the pronounciation, too!

So, how about surprising your friends and family with some nice German treats this season?
If you want to get into a full-blown baking spree, try out this website: http://www.germanchristmaskekse.com/
And if you want music while baking, how about this funny little children's song about making Christmas cookies? Believe me, it's a classic, most Germans will be able to sing it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BtQtmToUVI
(Here's a translation: http://lyricstranslate.com/de/der-weihn ... .html)

!!! Some ingredients might not be available in your country. I added little * and substitutes where I could. If you have a German supermarket near you, you might actually find them there. At least I know of a ALDI-market near Glasgow where I got a lot of stuff during my stay in Scotland. Please also notice that there is no self-raising flour in Germany, so please use plain flour for all the baking. You might end up with rather weird looking cookies otherwise !!!


1. Easy Butterplätzchen (butter biscuits, not unlike shortbread)
These are the No.1# for children! The batter is easy to make and you have a million options to decorate them! Add nuts and raisins before baking or icing, molten chocolate and sugar decor afterwards!

You'll need:
- 600g Mehl
- 200g Zucker
- 400g softened Butter
- 1 package vanilla sugar*
- 2 Eier
- a dash of Zimt
* "Vanillinzucker" (vanilla sugar) is a widely-used ingredient in German baking. Basically, it's a mixture of sugar and vanilla extract. You can make it yourself (here's a recipe for it: click me!) or simply stirr in a few drops of vanilla extract into your batter.

Directions:
1) Preheat the Ofen to 150°C-175°C.
2) Prepare a Backblech with baking parchment or grease it with some Butter.
3) Mix all the Zutaten until you get a nice, smooth Teig.
4) Put some Mehl on your working space and roll out the batter with a Nudelholz (approx. 1cm thick).
5) Use your favourite cookies cutters or simply use a sharp Messer to cut the Teig into squares and rectangles. Put them on the Backblech and bake on the middle rack for fünf to sieben minutes.
6) Decorate and enjoy!

2. Medium Vanillekipferl (small vanilla biscuits, shaped like crescents)
These are one of the most well-known cookies. The batter is easy to make but you might need few tries until you'll manage to make the crescent forms. They are also rather brittle, so handle them carefully. But gosh-golly, these are sooo good with a hot chocolate!
Here's a link how the finished cookies should look like: Vanillekipferl

You'll need:
- 320 g Mehl
- 120 g grounded Mandeln
- 120 g Zucker
- 2 Eigelb
- 270 g weiche Butter
- 5 Päckchen Vanillinzucker*
* "Vanillinzucker" (vanilla sugar) is a widely-used ingredient in German baking. Basically, it's a mixture of sugar and vanilla extract. You can make it yourself (here's a recipe for it: click me!). For this recipe I would suggest you get yourself some vanilla powder, mix it with a cup of icing sugar and use this as a substitute.

Directions:
1) Mehl, Mandeln und Zucker mischen. Add the egg yolk and butter and knead until you have a smooth batter.
2) Wrap your batter in cling foil and put it in the Kühlschrank for 30 minutes.
3) Den Ofen auf 190°C vorheizen. Cut the batter into four even parts. Take each of them and roll them into ca. 2cm thick bars. Cut those bars into small pieces, around 2cm each. Now form small crescents out of them and put them on your Backblech.
4) Bake for 10 minutes on the middle rack until they have a gold-brownish colour.
5) Take them out but let them cool down for one minute before you continue.
6) Take the biscuits and carefully roll them in your Vanillinzucker/the icing sugar-vanilla-mix. Danach auf einem großen Teller auskühlen lassen.

3. Advanced Lebkuchen (similar to Gingerbread but not quite the same)
There is nothing, nothing that says Christmas as much as a house smelling of fresh Lebkuchen! The batter needs to rest for at least a day, my late grandmother even had a special family recipe which needed to be made in October as it would stay in the cool attic for two months before being baked! This recipe is quicker, so do not worry!
Lebkuchen will get really hard after a few days. If you want it to soften again, put it in a box with a slice of apple. But believe me, you want it hard! Why? Because you can make Lebkuchenhäuser or even gift tags out of it! Just prick a hole into the Lebkuchen before baking. Write the name on it with some icing and use a fancy bow to tie it to your presents. If it does not get wet Lebkuchen will stay edible for months. Here, I collected some pictures to give you ideas:
Lebkuchenhaus, Lebkuchenherzen and colourfully decorated cut-out Lebkuchen

Du brauchst:
- 400 g Honig
- 100 g Wasser
- 100 g brauner Zucker
- 60 g Butter
- 300 g Weizenmehl
- 300 g Roggenmehl
- 6 g Backpulver
- 1 Pck. Lebkuchengewürz*
- 16 g Natron
- etwas Kondensmilch
*Lebkuchengewürz is a special mixture of spices. If you cannot get it in a local store, try out the following mixture: Stirr together 1/4 tablespoon cinnamon, 1/2 tablespoon allspice, 1/2 tablespoon cloves, 1/2 tablespoon nutmeg, 1/8 tablespoon cardamom, 1 1/2 tablespoons coriander. Use 15-20g of this mixture for this recipe!

Zubereitung:
1) Honig, Wasser und braunen Zucker in einem Topf erhitzen.
2) Fett dazu geben und die Masse abkühlen lassen. Danach die restlichen Zutaten dazu tun und alles gut vermischen.
3) Teig über Nacht kühl stellen. (If cooled it can stay like this for up to one week!)
4) Teig glatt ausrollen und große Platten, Herzen, Sterne oder ähnliches ausstechen. Mit etwas Kondensmilch bepinseln und im vorgeheizten Backofen bei 180-200°C für ungefähr 15 Minuten backen.
5) Auskühlen lassen und verzieren




So, that's my small Christmas special! If you have any questions about the recipes shoot me a PM and I will gladly help. Otherwise, enjoy your baking and send me some photos if you're done!

[Miunari]

Ooooh, wie wärs mit Zimtsternen?

(Ooooh how about "Zimtsterne")

[Schneemaehne]

If you send me a recipe, I will happily add it to the post! Just tell me if you want it to be simple, medium or advanced. I love them to bits, but I have no good recipe right now - the ones last year were terrible and as I am doing one kind of cookie each weekend (and I did the ones above the last weeks) I haven't tried out any new versions. If you have a nice one, I'd love to add it here (and to bake them, haha)!

[Miunari]

My mum has a great recipe allthoiugh i'd Fall them advanced
I'll ask her when I'm home today. We'll be baking in saturday bfore the first advent ,so I'll habe it ready at least then xD

[ArcaneRooney]

Thank you very much for this, I'll definitely try to cook some of this, I've also added it to the front page so others can find it upon visiting the Topic uvu

[RavenclawHobbit]

This looks so exciting, I will need to sit down and pick a class to join in soon. I have taken German for 5 years but I will be visiting Germany for the first time this spring, and I want to whip my 'Deutschkenntnisse' into shape!

I have a question for a native speaker, if somebody wouldn't mind helping me please!
When I visit Germany the two girls I will be staying with are called Lia and Sila. I am too embarrassed to ask them how to pronounce their names! DX. I have met a few Americans named Lia (they pronounce it LEE-ah) but I have never heard the name Sila before. Could someone perhaps help me guess how to say it?

[DaydreamNarrator]

Lia is pronounced as you said - LEE-ah ans Sila is spoken SEE-lah (the S is is "soft", Not like in "snowball". That's what i'd Call "Sharp". And the -lah Part is like the One from Lia (LEE-ah) just With an l.)

So we have:
LEE-ah
And
SEE-lah

Hope this helped

[I am Titanium^-^]

Hey guys:), I just wanted to let you know i found
A really cool website that you can get help with learning German:D Its called "AboutGerman.net"http://www.aboutgerman.net/theres the link

[spencer]

To all people who are in my classes: I'm having some family problems at the moment and I haven't had any time to prepare classes. I hope I'll be able to send them out on Friday. c: