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Nachtisch (Dessert)

Some recipies for nice desserts, but actually they are good anytime!

Schokoladenigel

The finished Schoko-Igel.
The finished chocolate hedgehog smiling
at you with its evil smile.

Ingredients

  • 300 g dark chocolate (Ghirardelli chocolate chips will do)
  • 2 tablespoons hot water
  • 150 g butter (unsalted!)
  • 2 small eggs (or 1 large)
  • 100 g powedered sugar
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 2 tablespoons rum
  • 250 - 300 g lady fingers (those long biscuits also used for Tiramisu)
  • 200 g dark baking chocolate (again, Ghirardelli chocolate chips work just fine)
  • 50-100 g almond slivers
  • 1 teaspoon white sugar

Preparation

Break the chocolate into small pieces (you see, you saved a full step if you got chocolate chips!), mix with the hot water and slowly melt on the stove at very low heat. Set aside to let it cool down again a bit afterwards.
Cream the butter and the eggs together well and slowly add the powedered sugar and salt in the end. Carefully incorporate the cooled down (but still liquid) chocolate and the rum until it has a smooth creamy texture. Set aside in the fridge for half an hour until it starts to become firm.

The cookies covered in the chocolate creme.
Hedgehog shape built out of cookies and chocolate creme. My sculpturing skills leave room for improvement.

Use the lady fingers to lay out a rectangle on a large plate. Cover with some of the chocolate cream and add another layer of biscuits and so on. Make each layer a little smaller than the preceding one so that you get something that roughly resembles the shape of a hedgehog. Break the biscuits in half as you reach the top. Add what is left of the cream to the sides of the hedgehog to cover up all of the biscuits. Refrigerate this for at least 1 hour.

Melt the baking chocolate and cover the hedgehog with it. Right after that place sugar and almond slivers in a pan and brown them a little. Then stick the slivers into the not yet quite hardened chocolate like quills. Add a face made of almonds on one side.
The chocolate hedgehog tastes best if refrigerated for 24 hours before it is served so that the chocolate cream can soak into the biscuits.


Berliner

Berliner
Berliner filled with raspberry jam.

Ingredients

  • 200 ml milk
  • 50 g sugar
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • lemon zest of 1/2 lemon
  • 70 g butter
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 1 envelope of yeast
  • 500 g strong white flour
  • 100 g powdered sugar for decorating
  • jam or pudding for filling
  • about 250 ml vegetable oil for frying

Preparation

Mix the ingredients and knead thoroughly until the dough does not stick to the bowl any more. Let rest for about 1h or until about double in size.
Lightly dust a surface with flour and pick up about golf ball sized pieces of dough. Gently flatten into about 2 cm thick circles.
Let rest for another 10 minutes, meanwhile heating the oil to 170 °C. Fry Berliner for about 30-60 seconds from each side until golden yellow. Cover pot with a lid to make them extra fluffy.
Place on some kitchen towel to drain exess oil, then cover in powdered sugar. When cooled, use a kitchen syringe to fill each Berliner with a small squirt of jam.

Kwarkbollen

This Dutch winter time favorite is a tasty variation on the classical doughnut / Berliner.

Ingredients

  • 250 g Quark
  • 250 g white flour
  • 75 g white sugar
  • 1 envelope of baking powder
  • 3 eggs
  • some vanilla (extract or real)
  • 2 drops of lemon oil
  • pinch of salt
  • 50 g raisins (optional)

Preparation

Mix all ingedients into a smooth dough. Heat a deep fryer to about 180°C or heat about 1 l of sunflower oil in a pot. Using a table spoon, form golf ball sized balls and drop them into the hot oil. Use a slotted spoon to turn them and fry until golden brown. Then let cool on kitchen towel.

Schneckennudeln

Ingredients

  • 175 ml milk
  • 75 g butter
  • 75 g sugar
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 1/2 lemon, zested
  • 1 egg
  • 8 g dried yeast (1 envelope)
  • 500 g strong white flour
  • 40 g soft butter
  • 75 g sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon
  • 100 g raisins
  • 150 g powdered sugar
  • 1/2 lemon, juiced

Preparation

Gently warm milk and melt butter. Dissolve sugar and salt. Knead in other ingredients to make a dough. Let rest for 45-60 minutes.
Roll into rectangular sheet (about 30x40cm) and spread on the soft butter. Mix sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly. Spread raisins and the roll along the short side to make a long roll. Slice into about 1 cm thick slices and put on lined baking sheet. Let rest for another 20-30 minutes then bake at 180°C for about 15-20 minutes.
Remove from oven and while still warm combine powdered sugar, lemon juice and a few drops of cold water to make a thick paste and brush onto the Schneckennudeln.

Dampfnudeln

Ingredients

  • 500 g all purpose flour
  • 250 ml milk
  • 200 ml cream
  • 1 envelope dried yeast
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 50 g butter
  • 80 g white sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • optionally: 10 Damsons (a kind of plums, prunus domestica insititia to be precise)

Preparation

First you need to make a yeast dough from the ingridients. Start out with the flour, sugar, and yeast and mix them well. Then add the vanilla extract and the warm milk. While mixing add the egg and soft butter to it. Combine well until you have a uniform dough.
Now let the dough rise for about 45 to 60 minutes in a warm place.
After the dough has roughly doubled in size knead it again well and let it rise once more for about the same time. While you are waiting prepare a large pan with lid(!) by warming up the cream in it and if you want add a tablespoon of sugar to it.
After the dough has again roughly doubled in size, make about 10 to 15 balls (optionally putting one pitted plum in the middle of each ball for extra credit). Place the balls in the pan one next to the other (do not stack them). Put the lid on and place the pan on full heat to bring everything to a boil. Once you have done that immediately turn the heat down to low and let simmer until the cream is completely absorbed up by the Dampfnudeln (about 20 to 30 minutes). Do NOT ever open the lid while this is happening! If you want to see what is happening, use a glass lid.
Once they are done take out each Dampfnudel with a large spoon and serve while still hot. Preferably with vanilla sauce. And to me. On a cold, snowy winter day. With poppy seeds sprinkled on top.
If you have Dampfnudeln left over you can also put them in plastic containers and freeze them. That way, whenever you feel like it you can heat one up in your microwave. Not quite as good but very much more practical.

Vanillsoße (Custard)

Ingredients

  • 200 ml cream (single)
  • 350 ml milk
  • 2 large egg yolks
  • 3 tablespoons corn starch
  • 40 g sugar
  • 1 envelope vanilla sugar (or vanilla extract)

Preparation

Combine milk and cream in a pot and slowly heat to just before boiling. In a large bowl whisk together egg yolks, starch, sugar, and vanilla.
Add hot liquid starting with one tablespoon at a time while constantly whisking. Once all combined poor back into pot and slowly heat up again to just before boiling until the sauce thickens.

Rote Grütze

Ingredients

  • 750 ml red wine
  • 200 g sugar
  • 200 ml water
  • 100 g corn starch
  • 2 kg red berries (strawberry, raspberry, red currant, cherries, ...)

Preparation

Put red wine in a big pot and slowly bring to a boil. Add sugar and stir until it is dissolved. In a separate glass, mix water and corn starch, and add to the red wine. Add the berries and briefly bring to a boil again. Immediately fill the liquid into a glass bowl, and refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours before serving.