Nachtisch (Dessert)

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

Brüsseler Waffeln

Ingredients

  • 100 g butter
  • 4 eggs
  • a pinch of salt
  • 150 g sugar
  • 300 ml milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 500 g all purpose flour
  • 1 envelope baking powder

Preparation

Blend together butter, eggs, salt, and sugar until creamy. Add milk and slowly add flour and baking powder. The resulting dough should be smooth and liquid. Bake in waffle iron until golden.

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 powedered sugar. When cooled, use a kitchen syringe to fill each Berliner with a small squirt of jam.

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 souce. 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.

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.