Ich bin ein berliner

It’s about time to tell you about my wonderful short trip to Berlin!

I went to visit my friend Sarah who lives there now and 2 other friends of ours that I haven’t seen in about 8 years also joined us. It was so good to see the girls again!

It’s always great to visit a place guided by a person that lives there, isn’t it? Sarah took us to see all the “touristic stuff” like some pieces that are left from the Berlin Wall and the Brandenburg Gate, one of the most important symbols of the city.

And knowing me she also took me to eat the most traditional foods. I mean you can’t leave Germany without eating a Bratwurst, right?

Even if you have to eat one that’s about the size of your arm...

And then there were the Bretzls, the german pretzels. Of course I had to try them with salt and with cheese, and of course I preferred the ones with cheese.

What about the sweets?! I really liked the pastry scene there, and oh boy, German people love their cakes and cookies! And now I love them too!

In fact I loved them so much that I brought back some ingredients to bake some things here. One of the things I brought was a mix of spices to make a famous German cookie: the Spekulatius.

This is the recipe printed on the spice mix package, I gave it a go and it was quite good! I also brought the cute spoon cookie cutter from there.

SPEKULATIUS (from the spice mix package)

• 250 gr butter (9 oz)
• 250 gr sugar (9 oz)
• 2 eggs
• 500 gr flour (18 oz)
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 10 gr Spekulatius spices* (o.6 oz)
• 250 gr almonds (I dind't use them)

Mix the butter with the sugar, add the eggs. Mix the flour with the baking powder and spices and then add to the butter mixture. Mix just until well incorporated. Roll the dough, cut in the desired shapes and bake in a pre heated oven at 180ºC (350ºF) for about 8-10 minutes.

* You can make your own spice mix (that’s what I’ll have to do next time). The typical spices used in spekulatius are cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cardamom and white pepper.

Ok, I’ve spooned it all out for you. Now it’s time to go back to my holiday baking marathon.