Quote EndQuote Cross-Cultural Strategy

Multicultural “Christmas” recipes

Posted by Alisa | 12.10.12

In our global society, many people around the world recognize and observe the traditional Christian holiday Christmas.  It’s fun to see how people from other countries and cultures do this.  We’ve collected some recipes to showcase here.  If you’d like to share your recipe, we welcome contributions!

Germans are world-famous for their Christmas traditions, decor, and celebrations.  An example of this is seen every Christmas season in Vancouver, where we have a traditional Christmas market, complete with carousel, Christmas trees, lights, gluewine (mulled wine), spaetzle (German pasta), almonds in sugar,  and bratwurst, located off Georgia Street and Hamilton. This market is inspired by traditional German Christmas markets. Our intern from Germany shared this recipe for “Vanillekipferl” or “Vanilla Cookies”.

“Vanillekipferl are a traditional Christmas cookie in Germany. It belongs to Christmas time. In my family, it is my job to bake Vanilla cookies and sometimes I have to bake it two or three times, because my father has eaten all the cookies. Vanilla cookies are so delicious!”
— Julia Fuchs, intern from Moers, Germany.

Ingredients:

Dough:
250 g all-purpose white flour
100 g ground almonds
70 g  white sugar
200 g butter, softened
½ pack of vanilla sugar (or substitute with 3 g vanilla extract)

Sugar sprinkling mixture:
3 – 4 tbsp sifted icing sugar
½ – 1 pack of vanilla sugar (optional)

Instructions:

1.  Preheat oven to 175 degrees C./325 degrees F.

2. In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, butter and almonds.

3. Knead the flour mixture into a dough, then allow to cool for ½ hour in the refrigerator.

4. Roll the dough into strips (the width and length of fingers).

5. Shape the strips into crescents (or croissants), pinching the ends into shape.

6. Place on a lined baking tray.

7. Slide the plate in the middle of the preheated oven.

8. Bake for about 12 – 20 minutes, or until edges are nicely browned.

9. While cookies are baking, combine the icing sugar and vanilla sugar mix to make the Sprinkling Mix

10. Put the Sprinkling Mix in a sifter

11. Remove cookies from the oven

12. While the cookies are still hot, sift the sugar sprinkle mixture over the cookie tops.

A German Christmas tradition

“Vanillekipferl”– from Julia Fuchs, intern from Germany