Wibele, an eight-shaped delight

The name comes from the surname Wibel, the pastry chef who created the recipe. This small hard meringue is only about 2 cm (0.8 inches) long with a very characteristic and distinctive "eight" shape.

This recipe comes from the region called Franconia, which is currently divided between several federal states, although most of it is in Bavaria. The most important city in Franconia is Nuremberg. Today Wibele are in fact considered a recipe of Swabian cuisine, so they are often popularly known as Schwäbische Wibele (Swabian wibele).

They require very few ingredients and are easy to make.

INGREDIENTS :

• 250 grams  (9 oz) of icing sugar
• 200 grams (7 oz) of white wheat flour
• 5 egg whites
• 1 heaping tablespoon vanilla sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• A few drops of lemon juice

First, beat the egg whites with a few drops of lemon juice and a pinch of salt until they are stiff. They must be very firm, so that when you turn the bowl over, the egg whites stick to it and do not fall out.

Sift the sugar, flour and vanilla sugar, mixing them in a bowl. Then add the whipped egg whites and beat well to obtain a homogeneous mass.

Fill a pastry bag with the resulting dough, with a small nozzle, and then place a small ball of dough on a piece of parchment paper (or baking paper).

Then, right next to the previous one, we deposit other balls of the same size that will adhere by proximity to the first. This will form the typical figure eight shape of these cookies. We finish the dough contained in the pastry bag and let it rest overnight to harden (8 hours).

Remember that the maximum length is about 2 cm (0.8 inches). At 8 hours we preheat the oven to 180 degrees (356 F) and place the cookies in the central part of the oven and leave them for about 6 minutes.

They are eaten cold and are a delight, the best to accompany tea or coffee.

Butterkuchen, the Germans' favorite butter cake

This cake or sponge cake is very popular in Rhineland-Westphalia and North Germany. It is the cake that is usually ordered in cafeterias to accompany tea or coffee, what the Germans call the "kaffezeit", the time in the afternoon when they go to the nearest cafeteria.

It belongs to a type of cakes that are covered with the so-called "streusel", a mixture of flour, butter and sugar that you have probably eaten more than once, ignoring that it is a German invention.

Often the streusel is enriched with nuts as we are going to do next, in this case by adding almonds (so the name would be butterkuchen mit mandel, where mandel means almond).

It is usually made in shallow trays.

INGREDIENTS

• 500 grams (1.1 lbs) of pastry flour
• 250 grams (9 oz) of butter
• 200 ml of whole milk (1 cup)
• 180 grams (6.3 oz) of sugar
• 100 grams (3.5 oz)  of almonds (chopped or filleted)
• 1 XL size egg
•  1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
• 40 grams (1.4 oz) of fresh yeast

First you have to heat the milk until it is lukewarm. Then add the crumbled yeast and reserve.

In a large bowl add the flour, 50 grams (1.8 oz)  of sugar, 100 grams (3.5 oz)  of melted butter (that we have melted in the microwave, for example), the beaten egg and the mixture that we have made at the beginning of yeast and milk. Mix well and knead to form a smooth and homogeneous dough.

Cover the bowl with a cloth and place it in a warm place, without much light and free from drafts. In 1 hour it will have doubled the volume. Once the time has elapsed, we must take the dough to the mold that is used with the butterkuchen. Said mold is a tray of about 40 x 40 cm (16 x 16 inches), not very deep (about 2 cm~0.9 inches). If you can't find it, use a baking dish that is at least the size indicated, filling it halfway. We spread the mold with melted butter to facilitate unmolding (unless it is silicone, which would not be necessary).

Pour the dough into the mold and flatten it. So, pay attention to this, with the four fingers of the hand we make holes in the dough so that we touch the bottom of the tray. Make them throughout the dough, at spaces as regular as possible. This is very important.

We cut the rest of the butter (150 grams ~ 5.3 oz) into small cubes that we place in each of the holes that we have made with our fingers. Then sprinkle the sliced ​​or chopped almonds all over the surface, doing the same with the 130 grams (4.5 oz) of sugar.

This mixture of almonds, sugar and butter is the streusel of the cake. Let rest for half an hour for the dough to rise again.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees (390 F) and introduce the cake for about 20 minutes, until it is visibly done.

We extract and cut directly from the tray, it is not usually unmolded. If everything has gone well, the cake will be soft and the surface will be crispy with the sugar and almonds.

Kartoffelbrot, German Potato Bread

Potato breads are quite popular in Germany. Germans like it for its rough appearance, very similar to the taste we have in Spain or Italy for rustic bread. Sometimes they even add seeds or  onion for a more ancient flavor.

This recipe specifically is the one that is made in Franconia (which has nothing to do with France despite the name), a region within the Federal State of Bavaria.

INGREDIENTS :

    • 400 grams (0.9 lbs) of floury potatoes

    • 300 grams (10 oz) of wholemeal spelled flour*

    • 200 grams (7 oz) of refined spelled flour*

    • 150 ml (3/4 cup) of water

    • 10 grams (half a tbsp) of fresh yeast

    • 1 teaspoon of salt

* Spelled flour comes from a type of wheat that until relatively recently was hegemonic in much of Europe. It is a wheat very well adapted to cold and humid climates, which is why it is grown without problems in southern Germany. However, it has a lower yield per hectare, causing its replacement by more productive species. At present there is a return to some types of wheat that the agricultural industrialization of the 20th century left aside, such as spelled, kamut, etc. In some cases because they are more nutritious or because they have characteristics that make them suitable in some climates, in others because of simple fashion.

A mixture of whole and refined spelled is used so that the crumb is not too coarse.

First, we peel and boil the potatoes, after which we use the food mill to obtain the base paste.

Heat the water in the microwave until lukewarm. In it we dissolve the yeast. If you want, you can add a pinch of sugar to promote growth, although in principle it is not necessary.

We mix the two types of flour (wholemeal and refined spelled) with the mashed potatoes (warm if possible), the salt and the yeast that we have dissolved in the water. Mix and knead well until you get a homogeneous dough.

Let it rest in a dark place or with a cloth over it, warm and draft-free.

With half an hour the dough will have risen enough to go into the oven.

After the time we knead again for about 15 minutes after which we give a round shape and place on a baking tray.

Let stand again for 30 minutes.

We preheat the oven to 250 degrees (480 F)

We place the bread in the oven, central tray, with a container that contains water in the lower part and thus give a little moisture to the dough.

After 20 minutes we lower the temperature to 220 degrees (428 F) , baking the bread for around 40 minutes, until crust is golden and crunchy.

Ready to eat when it reaches room temperature. It's worth a try, it's excellent.

Leberkäse

Leber means liver while Käse is cheese. However, this meatloaf that is eaten as sausage has neither one nor the other, at least in its Bavarian version. The name actually derives from Old German, where Lab would be bread and Kasi a solid dough. Therefore the name would literally mean Dough Bread. 

This is one of the most famous and popular specialties in Bavarian cuisine. It is a meatloaf that is baked as if it were bread and eaten as a sausage. So far it is easy to explain.

What is not so easy is to understand its name. The leberkäse is well documented since the late 18th century and it is Munich, the capital of Bavaria, its birthplace. The name would mean, in current standard German, Liver Cheese, although it did not originally contain any of these ingredients. The truth is that it seems that the name comes from Old German and would come to mean "compact mass", alluding to the coagulation of meat protein. Nothing to do with the cheese or the liver.

Leberkäse is consumed throughout Germany both as a meatloaf fresh from the oven and as a cold sausage, but outside of Bavaria it does include liver in its composition. It is argued that, as the name indicates, it must have liver. The Germans are that logical.

If it is consumed hot, it is common to serve it accompanied by a fried egg and pickled gherkins, but it is also usually eaten in a sandwich, which is usually the way that Germans like the most. When it is consumed as a sausage it is ingested in the same way as any other sausage, that is, cold and in salads, sandwiches, on toast etc, etc. The difference is that this sausage can be prepared at home with the quality of the ingredients you want and the flavor of spices that you like the most.

We are going to give the recipe for the Bavarian leberkäse which is the original and does not contain liver. Unlike other meat pies, it does not use eggs to curdle the ingredients, leaving this task to the meat's own proteins. To do this, it is necessary to have a deep rectangular mold that can be baked, made of metal or silicone. The result can be eaten at any meal as a main dish or as a sausage by simply slicing it, taking into account that since it is not an industrialized recipe, it must be consumed in less than three days.

INGREDIENTS :

• 400 grams (14 oz) of lean beef
• 400 grams (14 oz)  of pork
• 200 grams (7 oz) of bacon (without crust)
• 250 ml (1 cup and 1/4) of water almost to the point of freezing
• 1 medium red onion
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon of white pepper
• 1 tablespoon of marjoram or oregano

All meat must be very cold before starting the recipe. The usual thing is that it is around 3 degrees Celsius (38 F), so it is best to place it in the freezer for a while before starting to make the sausage.

Likewise, the water to be incorporated must be almost frozen. This is not capricious, since otherwise the cake will not curdle (remember that it does not have an egg). The ideal temperature is the one where putting your hand in the water really hurts. As if you had introduced it into a high mountain stream.

We cut all the meat into pieces and we pass it through the shredder until it is soft. Then we add the salt, pepper and cold water. We mix well.

Add the grated onion and oregano or marjoram. We incorporate the meat, mix well and take it to the mold that unless it is made of silicone we must grease with butter.

We preheat the oven to 180 degrees (356 F) and bake for 1 hour or until a dark crust forms on the cake.

We unmold it carefully so that it does not fall apart and we can now serve the portions on each guest's plate.

If we want to use it as a sausage, we let it cool and unmold, taking it to the refrigerator immediately. It is sliced ​​like any other sausage.

 Of course, in the latter case it must be consumed with some speed. It is also possible to fry or reheat the meatloaf if you prefer to consume it cold.

Pretzels

 

The bretzel or pretzel are well known throughout the world although it is not always the original recipe.

In general, there are two types of bretzel: some that are actually biscuits and therefore have a hard texture and are sweet (or salty, it changes) and others that are soft-textured breads, with a considerably larger size. In any case all the types share the same shape that has made them famous.

In Germany they are very popular although it is in Bavaria where they are ubiquitous. Although it is possible that I fall in the exaggeration, in this Federal State they accompany any informal meal with a bretzel, from a white sausage to the famous Obatzda.

The origin of the bretzel is the subject of debate but it is likely that it comes from a Roman bread that was made in Bavarian monasteries on special festivals.

Apart from the shape - there are other breads that also have a strange shape - the way to prepare them is curious. Before baking, they are briefly passed through a solution of boiling water with bicarbonate. In fact, in the past they were boiled for a minute in an alkaline solution that was obtained thanks to the action of culinary bleach. This operation allows the bretzel to acquire a deep, regular and intense baking and also favors the flavor. In case of not doing this previous "bleaching" it would be noticed both in the aesthetic result and in the taste. Of course at the domestic level it is not recommended to use alkaline agents, being more than enough to use sodium bicarbonate.

INGREDIENTS :

• 500 grams (3 cups and 2 tbsp) of white wheat flour
• 300 ml of milk (a cup and a half)
• 50 grams (3 tbsp + 2 tsp) of unsalted butter
• 20 grams (3 tbsp) of fresh yeast
• 3 tablespoons of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Coarse salt

First we heat the milk until it is warm - just a few seconds in the microwave -. We add the teaspoon of sugar and the crumbled yeast. We leave in a dark place without drafts, which is not too cold. Let stand 30 minutes.

In a large bowl, pour the flour, the milk with the yeast, the teaspoon of salt and the melted butter. Mix well and knead to obtain a homogeneous dough. We cover the bowl with a cloth, place it in a place without much light and that has a good room temperature. After half an hour the volume should have doubled.

Once the size has been doubled, it is dumped on a large flat surface covered with flour and with the roller it is given a flattened shape to later turn it into a cylinder about two fingers wide.

We cut other smaller ones of about 30 cm (12 inches)  long from said cylinder. With the indicated quantities you should get about 15 cylinders.

We work each cylinder a little so that it is thick in the center and thin at the ends. Now we give them the typical shape of bretzels.

Let it rest for 20 minutes at room temperature and then 1 hour in the refrigerator.

We boil 1 liter of water (5 cups) with 3 tablespoons of bicarbonate and in this solution we bathe the bretzel one by one for 30 seconds. It is best to use a slotted spoon, that is, collect them with it, introduce them without detaching them in the water and then remove them in the same way. It is recommended that the water does not bubble excessively.

Let it drain, sprinkle with coarse salt and place directly on the oven tray. Attention: they are put IN THE COLD OVEN and the temperature is raised to 220 degrees (428 F). They should be removed when these loaves are well browned. The first ones - because it is not possible that you can enter them all at the same time, although it would be ideal - can take a long time, although after about 20 minutes it should be more than enough. It is a matter of patience and looking continuously, you already know that each oven is different.

And they are ready to eat, warm or cold, to taste.