Munich, Bavarian Christmas Markets and the best vegan meal in Germany so far

 

We truly enjoyed a couple of nights in Munich, checking out this beautiful city and all the Christmas markets. 

If you love traditional Christmas things this is the place for you! Every corner of the city seems to have a Xmas market, and they are beautiful by day and even more by night! The atmosphere is festive,  with tourists and locals mingle with mugs of mulled wine (buy the mugs or return them for a refund after drinking).

Hot chocolate and cake break at Woerner's Café  for the best view or Marienplatz. The hot chocolate is a kind of 'mix-your-own': you get a glass of hot frothy milk and the chocolate of your choice on the side, to pour in.

Another interesting place to eat in Marienplatz is Ratskeller, a large cellar restaurant possibly not so good with food but quite cool for ambience. There are a few veggie choices too.

The shops are as cool as the markets for Xmas decorations and cute souvenirs. For food and sweet things I was really impressed with Dallmayr , where we bought our Stollen, and I could have spent hours looking at their amazing Xmas trees in the windows! One tree was all about bubbly, one about coffee, one about sweet things and one about seafood (and even if I don't eat seafood I found the idea really cool and could think of one all about vegetarian food ;-) !!)

The best Vegan meal I had so far in Germany (albeit, I have been in the country only a few times) was at Max Pett - beautiful and juicy vegan 'cheese burger' for Max and tasty vegan Schnitzel for me and Peter with perfect chips (Peter had potato salad instead) and all the trimmings. Big portions, plus a good selection of non alcoholic wines and beers. 

Back to the Christmas markets and shops, and creating memories!

Photos by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Stained glass Christmas Cookies

I usually make stained glass cookie windows for the cookie house at Christmas, but this year I didn't get round to making a cookie house (you can find a recipe here with step by step images if you like) so I made some cookies, just for fun! All you need to do is cut out the cookies with a central pattern and fill the hole with some crushed candy.

The candy will melt while the cookies are baking, and harden as they cool. 

 Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Decorating the big tree

Photos  by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Sugar Christmas decorations

On Sunday we had the Dante Alighieri Society Xmas Market (Mercatino di Natale), and I made lots of sugar decorations for sale.

Ideal for 'baby's first Christmas' trees, sweet pastel colours, they can be used for Christmas cards too!

White and hand painted with a thin brush

Chocolate fondant, they smell great!

Green and silver for the trees

Plain white and red, with some meringues too

I used fondant (white, chocolate, red and green), corn flour, cookie cutters, food coloring (not cochineal!) and a thin brush to paint. We sold the lot!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Christmas tree, cookie house and sweet Christmas display (mostly homemade)

For me Christmas is a chance to express creativity, make things by hand, bake, ice, decorate and fill the house with a festive display. 

This is my little coffee table tree, all the decorations are made with paper and rolling icing (fondant).
You can find the step by step instructions here.

And this is the big tree, the main colour is white with a touch of red (with South Tyrol/Scandinavian motifs).
I change the design of my tree every year, and this is possible when you make your own decorations to complements what you may already have at home. 

A few decorations have been collected over the years, they are made of wood, felt, porcelain and cotton - no plastic,
but most are paper (just use paper doilies, they fill up the tree nicely and are so pretty and inexpensive) and
white sugar decorations, once again made with rolling icing (fondant).
Click here and here for instructions to make your own.

Lots of reindeers, hearts and stars.

Click here for more homemade Xmas ideas from past years.

This is the sweet table, all white and gold. Christmas decorations which have not been used on the tree are piled in crystal bowl and glasses around the house.  The doilies are real (not paper) come from Italy, some where made by my Mum.

There are cookies made by the kids

Carrot Christmas pastries (so yummy, I'll try to post the recipe for these tomorrow)

Homemade Panforte (recipe here)

And the sweet things that didn't fit in the other plates!

But of course the cutest display of all is the cookie house!

The pattern is my own and comes from my book Party Food for Girls. I call it cookie house because it is not a gingerbread house, but much easier, made with frozen sweet crust pastry. 

Of course I made it with Arantxa (more fun!) and with a few variations: we cut holes for the door
 and windows, and in each window we put a little mint (Golia active plus - blue Italian mints)
 to make the glass. The mints melt while the biscuits bake, and then harden again.
Arantxa also wanted to sprinkle some cinnamon on the biscuit for a sweet smell and rustic look.

The house was assembled and decorated with royal icing made with egg white, hot sugar syrup,
vanilla icing sugar and cornstarch. Max made the snowman with white fondant.

The back of the house

Merry Christmas to all!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©