Have a wonderful Advent season and a cozy Christmas.
Everything is simply different this year. For us, the year got off to a crazy start and then came to an abrupt halt in mid-March. Corona-related. The bad word of the year.
Everything on pause, everything at a distance. Hugs, vigorous handshakes and hearty laughter gave way to fist bumps, waving at a distance and good-humored (or sometimes bad-humored) expressions behind masks.
But we are a bunch of optimists. So we stepped on the gas, rethought things, did things differently, reinvented and found new things. This time has brought us even closer together as a team, but has also brought us even closer to many of our customers. We would like to say THANK YOU for both. We are taking this feeling of cohesion, support and empathy with us into 2021. We are happy to leave the rest here.
This time we’re sharing our little treat electronically and as this year’s fundraising project, we’d like to support our “neighbors” from Vringstreff e.V. with our donation. The four recipes we’re sharing here are all about chocolatey and lemony family secrets, variations on classics and our love of gin.
Have fun baking & mixing, a wonderful Advent season and a cozy Christmas!
See you again in a grandiose 2021! Definitely.
Your E-MEDIAD Team
Vanilla crescents
Hanna’s favorite recipe
Knead all the ingredients into a smooth dough, shape into rolls about 8 cm in diameter and leave to rest in the fridge for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 180° top/bottom heat (or 160° fan). Cut 1 cm thick slices from each of the dough rolls and roll out with your hands so that the ends are thin.
Then bend into a half-moon shape and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper, spacing them slightly apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes, leave to cool and sprinkle with extra powdered sugar.
“My grandma’s vanilla crescents were always the cookies that nobody could get enough of at Christmas time. This adapted recipe does not contain any animal ingredients, but is in no way inferior to the original in terms of taste and childhood memories!”
Lemon hearts
Sabrina’s favorite recipe
Beat the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla sugar in a food processor or with a hand mixer on the highest setting until the mixture is creamy. Stir in the lemon baking oil, baking powder and ground almonds to form a firm dough.
Knead in the rest of the almonds with your hands until the dough is barely sticky. Then roll out the dough on a work surface sprinkled with ground almonds to a thickness of about 0.5 cm and cut out hearts as small as possible. Place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Preheat the oven and bake the small hearts at 175°C (top/bottom heat!) for approx. 10 minutes. Now sieve the powdered sugar, stir in the lemon juice until smooth to form a thick mixture and coat the hearts with it immediately after baking. Allow to dry well and never stack them in a cookie tin beforehand.
“We Bückers have been baking hundreds of thousands of these little hearts during Advent for as long as I can remember. The recipe is from Marianne, my grandpa’s nanny. The lemon hearts became his absolute favorite cookies. Then, after the wedding, my grandma always had to bake the cookies for my grandpa. And… Probably because my grandpa was my favorite grandpa, his favorite cookies also became mine. And so my mother always baked them for me. Everyone loves these lemon hearts and so they have always ended up in all the cookie bags for all the neighbors and friends at Christmas and in the cookie jar for the agency during the Advent season.”
Chocolate crossies
Yvonne’s favorite recipe
Melt the chocolate and butter in a bain-marie until the chocolate is liquid. Mix half of the cornflakes with the melted chocolate, then fold in the remaining cornflakes. Add coconut flakes as desired. Using a teaspoon, heap up the chocolate mixture in small portions and leave to cool.
“My tip: hide the chocolate crossies well so that they are not all eaten immediately. (Didn’t work at the agency during the photo shoot).
Thank you for the favorite recipe, dear mom.”
Coffee Gin
Paul’s favorite recipe
First put the ice cubes in a nice glass. Pour in the gin, then add the cold-brewed coffee. Finally, top up the cocktail with tonic water. Garnish the glass with a slice of lemon. Done!
“The gin “1528 Qahwa Gin” was a gift from one of our customers, Torsten from www.zigarrentraum.de and gave me the idea to try something new. The gin has just the right amount of bitterness from the coffee beans and a hint of cocoa, which goes perfectly with a rather sweet tonic. Thanks to the botanicals (juniper berries, orange peel and ginger, among others), the resulting drink also goes harmoniously with a few cookies in the (pre-)Christmas season.”
