Category Archives: Recipes

Apfelstrudel – Apple Strudel

Posted in 1st - 4th Grade, Baking & Cooking, Recipes, Uncategorized by

Here is another language lesson in the form of a recipe! Today we are baking Apfelstrudel.

Here is the video, and below is a link to download the recipe in German & English.

Here is the PDF for the recipe:

Apfelstrudel Rezept GitADownload

Guten Appetit!

I created a couple of worksheets as follow-up activities, in case students are not able to back the strudel. The information needed to complete each of the worksheets can be found in the video. You can download them here.

There is a crossword puzzle:

Apfelstrudel Kreuzworträtsel GitADownload

And there is a short geography worksheet:

Geography GitADownload

Pfannkuchen! – German Pancakes

Posted in 1st - 4th Grade, Baking & Cooking, Recipes, Uncategorized by

I’m branching out into new territory with my online lessons. This week I made a recipe video on how to make German Pancakes – Pfannkuchen!

It’s not perfect. I won’t be changing careers to a video editor any time soon 🙂 But I did have fun putting it together!

Here is the video. Below is the recipe that you can download. It has all the information in German and English. Guten Appetit!

 

Here is the recipe: Rezept Pfannkuchen GitA

Play dough Recipe

Posted in Crafty Projects, Recipes, Uncategorized by

After posting my shape play dough mats, I thought you might like a recipe for some homemade play dough! The boys’ preschool teachers gave me this recipe, and it worked out really well. For those of you with really little ones, you don’t have to worry so much if they happen to eat some of it!

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups of flour
  • 1 cup of salt
  • 4 cups of water
  • 4 tablespoons of oil
  • 1/2 cup of cream of tartar
  • Food coloring

Instructions:

  1. Mix all ingredients in a saucepan, including color.
  2. When it is well mixed cook over low heat.
  3. Mix continuously until it is the consistency of play dough. You won’t be able to stir it any longer.
  4. It will still need to be mixed a little, so put it on a cookie sheet and let cool for a while. Then mix with your hands until it is all mixed

There are lots of ways to change up the recipe:

  • Try adding spices. For example, in the fall or at Christmas: 4-8 tablespoons of cinnamon and a bit of allspice, cloves, and/or nutmeg.
  • Add some extract for scent. For example: 4 teaspoon almond extract, 4 teaspoon ginger.
  • Or add scent with some essential oils. You can add the essential oils to the oil in the recipe before adding it to the other ingredients. Different scents can also have a therapeutic effect. For example: frankincense for focus, peppermint for energy, lemon for clarity, citrus for creativity, lavender for comfort.

Tips:

  • Be forewarned! If you add color, your hands will also take on some color. Try some rubber gloves!
  • You can buy Cream of Tartar at Amazon or a warehouse store. It keeps for quite some time.
  • This recipe makes quite a lot! You could divide it up, using different colors and scents.
  • Store in an airtight container or zip top bag. But don’t close it up until the dough is completely cool!
  • Try to get your little ones to help. They can measure, pour, and mix ingredients. And they can knead the dough after it cools.

Next time we make some play dough, I’ll take some pictures of the steps!

Lucky Pig! (Glücksschwein)

Posted in Books, Recipes, Uncategorized by

Happy New Year! As I mentioned in my last post, it is traditional to have a pig made of bread or marzipan to celebrate New Year’s in Germany.

In addition to our pancake pigs, we also got creative with the bread version of the lucky pig. One of my boys’ favorite snacks is bread with Nutella. So why not have pig-shaped bread with Nutella?! All you need is a pig cookie cutter. Ours was quite large, so it just barely fit on the bread. I added a little candy eye that we had from decorating cupcakes.

Just makes me want to say, “Happy Pig Day!” (But maybe we’ve been reading too many of Mo Willem’s Elephant and Piggie books! I just found two of these books in German: Das Buch über Uns and Du hast einen Vogel auf dem Kopf. I ordered the first one through Book Depository, so we’ll see how it is in German!)

Christmas Punch

Posted in Holidays, Recipes, Uncategorized by

My very favorite memory from living in Germany is going to the Christmas markets in December. In every town, the market square is transformed into a holiday wonderland. Charming stalls go up from which vendors sell their handmade crafts, food, and drink. It feels like stepping into the magic of Christmas!

I only got to spend two Christmases in Germany. But both times, I made sure to visit as many Christmas markets as I could.

Every town in Germany – as with Austria and Switzerland – has a Weihnachtsmarkt. And every town has its own special Christmas mug. So as you stroll through the wonderland, you can keep warm as you sip your hot drink. For the adults, there is Glühwein, a mulled wine with spices like cinnamon and cloves that is served piping hot. For me it was an acquired taste. But as I made my way from one market to another – Freiburg, Mainz, Worms, Nürnberg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Rüdesheim, and Innsbruck, just to name a few – I came to love that warm red wine that tasted like it was flavored with Christmas itself.

As I was only in Germany as an adult, I never bothered to try the children’s version of Glühwein. For them, there is an alcohol-free Kinderpunsch. Since I was visiting Froggy’s 1st & 2nd grade class today to share some of Germany’s Christmas traditions, I decided to bring them some Kinderpunsch. I found a few recipes online and tried them out until I got it right. Of course, I had no idea how it should really taste! So AP3 helped out 🙂  She had never made it herself, but she certainly knew if I’d gotten it right or not.

Here is the recipe that I came up with:

  • 1 liter of fruit tea (I used Celestial Seasonings decaffeinated rooibos pomegranate tea)
  • 1 liter of orange juice
  • 1 liter of grape juice
  • about 1/2 packet (about 5g) of vanilla sugar (I found Dr Oetker’s at my grocery store in the international section. I’ve also bought some from Savory Spice Shop.)
  • 1 tablespoon of honey
  • 2 or 3 cinnamon sticks
  • 3-5 whole cloves
  • 1 small lemon, sliced

Brew the tea in a pot. Then add the remaining ingredients and heat on low. I put my cinnamon sticks and cloves in a muslin bag, so they would be easy to remove. The longer you let the punch simmer, the more time it has to blend the ingredients. Serve warm and enjoy!

The children had mixed reactions, of course! Some loved it. For others, it was not quite their cup of tea!

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