Advent used to be considered a time of fasting. It was ended after Christmas mass with sausages or the Christmas goose on the festive days. Today, the days before the holidays also invite you to enjoy certain delicacies. 12 delicacies from Kletzenbrot to Christmas beer
Bavarian Advent: 12 x Culinary Specialities
End of Lent with Mettenwürsten
In Bavaria, the pre-Christmas fast traditionally ended with the Mettenwurst meal after Christmas mass. These were usually blood and liver sausages. Mettenwurst, no matter what recipe, is still the traditional meal on Christmas Eve in many families. It is usually accompanied by potato salad. It is also easy to prepare and cook.
The Classic: Christmas Goose
The Christmas goose is the quintessential holiday roast, celebrated on Christmas Day or Boxing Day. The goose is usually stuffed with apples, chestnuts, onions or prunes
Typical spices, apart from pepper and salt, are mugwort and marjoram. Side dishes include red cabbage, dumplings and a sauce made from the gravy. Of course, fresh farm-raised goose tastes best!
Sweet: Boozy Maidens
This down-to-earth, sustainable and high-proof speciality is particularly popular in the Allgäu during Advent. The "Versoffenen Jungfern" are initially a leftover use of old white bread, but turn out to be a sweet delicacy after the first bite.
The bread balls soaked in mulled wine are fried in fat and coated with cinnamon sugar. The name supposedly comes from the virgin-white pancake batter in which they are dipped before being deep-fried.
Tastes Good: Christmas Beer
It doesn't always have to be mulled wine or red wine to go with the roast! Many Bavarian breweries create special Christmas beers during Advent, mostly dark, malty and intense beers with a spicy note. Like, for example, the cult gingerbread beer from Mönchshof in Kulmbach, a golden-yellow export beer with a hint of smoked malt and finely hopped.
The brewing speciality is reminiscent of Räuchermännchen and goes well with hearty food as well as gingerbread and other treats. It's served by the bottle or on tap at the Mönchshof open house on the second Sunday in Advent, the 5th. December.
kulmbacher.de (only in German)
Nice and Fruity: Kletzenbrot
Kletzenbrot is one of the oldest Christmas pastries and has been popular since the Middle Ages. It is a spicy-sweet bread in which kletzen or other dried fruit and spices are mixed with the bread dough. "Kletzen" are pears dried in their skins, which have turned brown, soft and sweet.
Kletzenbrot used to be made without honey or sugar. It is dark brown, has a juicy, firm dough and has a small, elongated loaf shape. It is often decorated with white almonds. Kletzenbrot can be kept for a very long time.
Nuremberg Elisen Gingerbread: The Spice of the Orient
According to legend, Elisenlebkuchen got its name from the daughter of a Nuremberg gingerbread maker named Elisabeth. When she fell seriously ill, he devised a special recipe with many healthy oriental spices and little flour.
Today, the original Elisenlebkuchen contain a maximum of ten percent flour. The spices vanilla, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom, allspice and coriander provide the typical aroma. "Nürnberger Lebkuchen" is a protected designation of origin.
nuernberg.de
Coburg: Sweet Kisses
Coburger Schmätzchen, or "kisses", are a gingerbread speciality that was registered as a trademark as early as 1904. After a long storage period, a gingerbread dough is made into a firm dough by adding honey, roasted hazelnuts and almonds, candied orange peel, candied lemon peel and spices. This is then turned into three-centimetre biscuits. The "Goldschmätzchen" variety is even decorated with gold leaf. The biscuits are made and sold exclusively in the fourth-generation Feyler manufactory in Coburg.
genussregion-oberfranken.de (only in German)
Rothenburg ob der Tauber: Crumbly Snowballs
The Rothenburg Schneeballen are a traditional shortbread. They have been known in eastern Franconia for about 300 years. To make them, the dough is cut into strips and kneaded into a ball with a special tool and dusted with icing sugar. The snowballs come in numerous variations and with different fillings. They are eight to ten centimetres in diameter.
rothenburg-tourismus.de
Fruity: Allgäuer Most Soup
This speciality from the Allgäu region tastes particularly good in the cold season! And this is how it's done: Heat lard or butter in a pan and add some flour. Ehen it turns brown, add a litre of perry and stir in. Add salt, sugar and lemon juice and leave to infuse. Then whisk two egg yolks and carefully stir into the soup. Serve the cider soup in plates with finely chopped parsley. Guten Appetit!
Swabian Springerle
This pastry made of an aniseed-egg batter has a long tradition in Swabia and is mainly baked at Christmas time as a treat, but also an original eye-catcher for a nice plate of biscuits. Hand-carved wooden stamps with picture motifs are used for the various shapes.
The patterns are handed down from generation to generation in families. But you can also find them in good household shops or at flea markets during Advent. Springerle are the name of the biscuits because the dough, if well done, grows to twice the height and "jumps up".
Christmas Carp Make People Happy
Especially in the Upper Palatinate, carp is a traditional dish for Christmas Eve. The fish is cut into pieces, breaded and fried in fat. It is served with potato salad, lemon wedges, boiled potatoes or remoulade.
High-quality fish come from the Upper Palatinate pond regions, such as the districts of Schwandorf and Tirschenreuth. Slow growth guarantees lean, firm meat that is rich in valuable proteins and unsaturated fatty acids. Valuable tip: The scale of a Christmas carp in your wallet guarantees luck and prosperity for the coming year!
karpfenland-oberpfalz.de (only in German)
Mettenwurst Sweet and Sour
A Franconian alternative to Mettenwurst with potato salad, but also popular in the Upper Palatinate: Saure or Blaue Zipfel. "Blue" means something like "boiled down sweet and sour".
The small Nuremberg sausages or other bratwursts are cooked in a spicy broth of white wine and vinegar as well as onions and spices. This gives them a slightly bluish sheen and a particularly tender bite. They also have fewer calories than fried sausages and are easier to digest. They are eaten with white bread.
