Franziska Hagedorn and Gerhard Schlaudraff have been in Canada since 2018. They are sharing the job of Deputy Head of Mission at the German Embassy in Ottawa: until now Franziska has been in the office at the Embassy and Gerhard has been looking after the family with their three children. In January 2021, they will switch places and Gerhard will take over the job at the Embassy.
Hello everyone,
My name is Gerhard and I think it’s great you found your way to this webpage! If you made it here through the label on one of the bags of our homemade cookies, consider yourself lucky! We only managed to make about 100 of them.
If you didn’t get any cookies, you’ll find all you need to make them yourself, right here!
At present, I am a stay-at-home dad and this crazy COVID year was the perfect time to go all in on Christmas cookies. Making cookies for Christmas is a big thing in Germany and there are numerous traditions in various regions across the country. Families also develop their own traditions.
Gerhard’s Grandmother Karoline
Our family has a healthy (and tasty) rivalry going on. Being at home this year gave me an edge, of course, and the cookies you’ll taste and bake go back to my late grandma Karoline (pictured above). Actually, we are using her cookbook, a 1957 edition of a cookbook first printed in 1911, referred to as “Badisches Kochbuch” or “The Cookbook of Baden.” The book was falling apart when I inherited it and my mom had it rebound for me. All the recipes you find below are from that book, sometimes with alterations that my grandma made in her own writing. (To be fair, I was also able to reference the much-used Bavarian cookbook from my wife’s family, originally from 1958 and also rebound, so as to give my wife a fair chance in our family cookie competition…)
Can I do this, too?
Absolutely, if I can do it, you can do it!
Of course, I had the opportunity to consult with my mom (she bakes using these recipes, too). But you’ll get help from us: We updated the recipes a little bit since the old recipes are sometimes a bit difficult to work with. For example, there are no precise temperatures given, simply because people were using ovens heated by fire or gas that showed no temperature. So, the cookbook will only say “bake at a moderate temperature until slightly browned” or something like that. Grandma Karoline had already added some temperatures and durations.
For our cookies, we worked with Phil Cameron, the chef at the German Ambassador’s residence as we were reaching our capacity at home. We made something to the order of 1500 cookies! I’d like to acknowledge the help of Food For Thought Café, a non-profit organisation in Ottawa, who let Chef Phil use their kitchen! And, Phil made videos for you that you’ll find on below.
We would love to hear from you and know what you think of the cookies! Please let us know if you made some yourself using the contact form below! And, perhaps next year we’ll take this to the next level with a friendly Ottawa cookie contest! I already have an idea for my own Canada-inspired cookie that will remind us, no matter where we are, of the time we were allowed to spend in Canada: a maple-syrup walnut macaroon!
Stay safe and happy holidays!
Gerhard
Recipes
For many in Germany, the Christmas season would not be festive without traditional Weihnachtsplätzchen (Christmas cookies). Here are four treasured recipes from the staff at the Embassy in Ottawa.
Share your German cookie adventures with us here.