How to Plan an Austrian Christmas Menu
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A number of key ingredients are important when preparing Austrian foods.honey image by Maria Brzostowska from Fotolia.com
To create Austrian recipes, you will need several of the following ingredients:
A variety of nuts and seeds
Various fruits
Sugars
Assorted flours
Vegetables
Milk and different cheeses
An assortment of meats
Other baking ingredients, such as baking powder, yeast and spices - 2
Appetizers often consist of open-faced sandwiches.appetizers image by StephenD from Fotolia.com
Hors d'oeuvres
Traditional Austrian appetizers consist of open-faced sandwiches, made with bread and slices of cheese, ham, sausages, or boiled eggs, along with small cornichon pickles (dill, sweet, and sweet and sour). Breads in Austria are made fresh daily. Pumpernickel and rye breads are popular, along with Wiener Hornchen (like croissants), and sourdough (like French baguettes). - 3
Gebackener Karpfen (fried carp) is popular in many Austrian homes during the holidays.fried fish image by Alexey Kuznetsov from Fotolia.com
The Christmas Eve Meal
Austrians traditionally celebrate Christmas Eve with a feast of Gebackener Karpfen (fried carp) or Weihnachtsganz (roast goose). Wiener Schnitzel is a popular dish any time of year. - 4
Soups before a meal are a cultural norm in Austria.Steaming pumpkin soup ready to serve. image by Brett Mulcahy from Fotolia.com
Side Dishes
Austrians have historically added cooked seasonal vegetables, such as boiled potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, cabbage, and winter peas to their meals throughout the winter months. Soups are also characteristically eaten before meals and consist of classic soups such as pumpkin, tomato, garlic, and potato.
Two other standard Christmas side dishes are Rotkraut (red cabbage) and Servietten-knodel (dumplings). - 5
Delicious Krapfen (or donuts) can be filled with almost anything or nothing at all.krapfen image by Silvia Bogdanski from Fotolia.com
Desserts
Povitica (sweet bread) is a yeast sweet bread common in Austria, Hungary, Poland, Croatia, and other regions of Eastern Europe. It is typically served on special occasions, such as Christmas, and it is often given as a gift as a sign of respect.
Sachertorte (chocolate-apricot cake) is a soft, fluffy chocolate cake with apricot jam spread thinly beneath a dark chocolate icing. It has become one of the most famous cakes in Europe.
Krapfen (donuts) or fried dough has a lot of variations in Austria and Germany. Fillings can include jams (raspberry, rose hip, plum or apricot), poppy seeds, hazelnut, chocolate or vanilla cream, apple paste, eggnog custard, champagne custard---or nothing at all.
Weihnachtsbaeckerei (Christmas cookies) are sugar cookies seen in almost every Austrian home at Christmastime.
The streets of Salzburg at Christmastime are filled with the scents of roasted almonds and chestnuts, hot spiced punch, baked apples, and gingerbread.
Heart-shaped Lebkuchen (gingerbread cookies) are popular in Germany and Austria, but they're not your usual gingerbread. Vary the spices in these cookies with ginger, anise, cloves, pimento, coriander, and cardamom. - 6
Gluhwein (mulled wine) is on many Christmas beverage menus in Austria.bier image by Dron from Fotolia.com
Beverages
Gluhwein (mulled wine) is a winter holiday wine drunk warm, often after a day of skiing in the Alps. Nonalcoholic punch is also commonly served to children in lieu of Gluhwein. It consists of a warm fruit juice (orange or apple) with the same spices contained in Gluhwein. And, of course, hot cocoa, tea and coffee are also readily served in Austrian homes over the holidays.
