This delectable soup comes to us by way of Ms. Susanne Servin of Herzerl Tours. (See Ms Servin’s past recipes on Traveling Boy.) Her heartwarming Viennese soup is easy to prepare, and proves to be the ideal component for battling a cold winter’s day. I know.  I just made it. — Audrey

Ms. Susanne Servin Sharing Another Recipe With You

This is now many years ago — I was sitting and watching a cooking show on television with my daughter. And it was about French cuisine. I remember saying to her “I am so sick and tired that Americans only know about Italian and French Cuisine. Nobody knows anything about the great Viennese Cuisine.” Where upon my daughter calmly said “So why don’t you take them to Vienna and show them how good the Viennese cuisine is.”

The Viennese Cuisine, which has been around for 1000 years, is a result of the many countries united in the Austrian monarchy; and of the pleasure-loving lifestyle of the Viennese. They take eating very seriously and that is why they cook so well.

I rose to my daughter’s challenge — I started a travel company called Herzerl Tours. I created my first tour to Vienna “A Taste Of Vienna” where travelers got a chance to attend a famous Viennese cooking school. There they would learn how to cook Viennese style.

I even convinced Robin Leach and the Cooking Channel to come on one of my tours and film it — the result was a show called “Gourmet Getaways with Robin Leach to Vienna” on the Cooking Channel (I still have a video).

So one of the things we cooked — as Viennese like soups — is the recipe I am bringing you here: Viennese Potato Soup.

Viennese Potato Soup (Wiener Erdäpfel Suppe)

Four portions if served as main course, 8 if served as soup before main dish:

• 1 lt. chicken stock or 2 cans of chicken stock (add one cup of water)
• 1 oz = 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 oz = 2 Tbsp flour
• 2 oz = 1/4 cup bacon, cubed
• 2 – 3 cups of root vegetables, cubed — carrots, parsnips, etc.
• 3 cups potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• 2 Tbsp dried Porcini mushrooms, soaked in lukewarm water
• 2 tsp salt, pepper
• 1 tsp dried marjoram
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

Instructions:

1. Cut onion, vegetables and bacon into small cubes
2. Melt butter and brown the cubed onion, vegetables and bacon in a pot
3. Add flour, brown it but not too long.
4. Fill pot with the stock, add spices and drained mushrooms,
5. Stir until soup starts to boil, reduce heat and let it simmer for about 10 minutes,
6. Add potato cubes, let soup simmer again for about 15 minutes — potatoes should be soft
7. Now the soup is ready — if necessary, add more spices
8. Serve and garnish with chopped parsley

Guten Appetit or as we say in Vienna “Gesegnete Mahlzeit!”

The post Viennese Potato Soup (Wiener Erdäpfel Suppe) appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Susanne Servin of Herzerl Tours has just returned from Vienna and the festive Advent Markets. While Ms. Servin was in Vienna she revisited two great Viennese holiday cookies, Vanillekipferl (vanilla moon/crescent shaped) and Engel Augen (Angel Eyes), in which she has generously shared the recipes with our readers.

History and Recipes

Vanillekipferl are sugar cookies in the shape of crescents that originated in Vienna. Kipferl means “moon/crescent shaped.” History tells us that in 1683, the Ottoman Empire besieged Vienna. The town was nearing the end of its ability to resist, but a Polish army came to its rescue. On September 12th, in an open battle before the gates of Vienna, the Ottoman army was defeated, and the city escaped pillage and destruction. Vanillekipferl was invented by a baker in Vienna approximately 400 years ago to commemorate the victory.  Kipferl was inspired by the Ottoman banner, which includes a crescent shaped moon. The Ottomans, though, introduced the Viennese to pure vanilla and coffee. Thanks to the failed Ottoman invasion, Vienna became synonymous with coffee house culture.  The crescent shaped Kipferl later traveled to France where the name was changed to croissant. The French also altered the recipe by eliminating sugar, almonds and vanilla, making the croissant a breakfast item. Some sources suggest it was the Habsburg Viennese princess, Marie Antoinette (Maria Antonia) who brought Kipfer to Versailles, at the time of her arranged marriage to the heir of the king of France, dauphin Louis-Auguste.

Vanillekipferl

Ingredients

• 150 grams soft Butter or 5.3oz or ⅔ cup
• 70 grams powdered Sugar 2.5oz or ⅓ of a cup
• 8 grams Vanilla sugar ‘homemade or store bought mixed with some regular powdered sugar or 2 Teaspoons
• 100 grams meal or 3.5oz or almost ½ cup
• 200 grams all purpose Flour or 7oz or almost 1 cup

For the Coating: Vanilla Sugar

Preparation:

1. Start by mixing the soft butter, powdered sugar and vanilla sugar smooth.
2. Then add sieved white flour and almond flour to the mixture and incorporate the ingredients with your hands to a smooth pastry. For example there shouldn’t be any visible butter pieces, that’s when you know you have mixed it enough. Don’t work it out anymore or the dough won’t hold together later.
3. Keep it to rest minimum 1 hr. in the fridge or in a cool place. I keep mine always over night, so that the flavor in my cookies turn more intense.
4. Once ready to be used, form the dough into a sausage shape with a 2 cm thickness. Cut thick slices so, that each should be around 20 grams (0.7oz) heavy.
5. Preheat the oven to 200 Celsius or 392 Fahrenheit. Roll each “sausage” pastry slice into a smaller sausage with pointed ends and shape it into a half moon/crescent form. Place them onto a baking tray, each with enough space around to rise a bit, and bake them for 10 minutes a 200 Celsius to a light yellow shade.
6. While the cookies are baking, prepare a plate with the home made vanilla sugar.
7. Add the cookies to the vanilla sugar in the plate, once they are finished baked and they have cooled down for at least 1-2 minutes, roll and coat them well with the sugar.
8. Best stored in a metal cookie boxed with baking paper (butter paper) and apple slices on top.
9. Note that the Vanillakipferl cookies are very fragile and might break when coming out of the oven, so give them 1-2 minutes to rest. During that time they harden when they make contact with air. It’s important to roll them into the homemade Vanilla sugar when they are still hot, so that the sugar sticks on the cookies.

Engel Augen (Angel Eyes)

Ingredients for 55 cookies

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 oz butter (room temp)
• 1 tsp instant coffee,
• 9 oz flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 pinch of salt
• 5 oz sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 oz each: orange marmalade, raspberry jam, blueberry jam
• 3 soup spoon powdered sugar (stir until smooth).

Preparation:

Mix butter and coffee powder; then add flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and egg yolks, kneed speedyly until it is a smooth dough. Wrap in foil and let it rest in the fridge for 60 minutes. Preheat oven for 350F. Make 1 1/2 in. balls and place on baking sheet covered with parchment paper 1 inch apart. Make a hollow in the middle of each ball with the handle of a cooking spoon. Fill each hole with a different jam. Bake cookies for 15 minutes, take out of the oven, place cookies with paper on cooling rack, let them cool, dust with powdered sugar – AND THEN ENJOY!

Seasons Greetings,

Susanne Servin

Phone: 800-684-8488, 914-771-8558
Website: www.herzerltours.com
Email: 

sm*@he**********.com

The post New Year’s Viennese Holiday Cookies appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Susanne Servin of Herzerl Tours shares her Apfelstrudel family recipe. Says Susanne: “It may seem overwhelming but believe me, it’s not. In a two hour session I taught a group of my German students how to make it.”

Check out her video below:

This classic recipe is usually made with freshly homemade strudel dough, but frozen phyllo dough works well too and is much quicker. You’ll need: 1 pkg. frozen phyllo dough – take out of freezer and defrost for 2 hrs. – one roll of dough will give you approx eight small strudels. For the filling: 2 1/2 lb. apples (McIntosh or Golden Delicious work well), 6 oz granulated sugar, 1 tea spoon vanilla sugar, 1 teaspoon dark rum or Weinbrand, 6 oz dry raisins, 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 lemon (for zest and juice), 8 oz bread crumbs (unseasoned), 12 oz unsalted butter, sweet cream (one container) and powdered sugar.

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Peel, core & slice apples thin; as you slice them put peeled apples in a bowl of water with a squirt of lemon juice to avoid browning.
3. Mix sliced apples with sugar, vanilla sugar, cinnamon, lemon zest, juice from one lemon, and rum in a bowl & blend together well.
4. While doing this, roast bread crumbs with a little butter in a pan.
5. When brown, take off flame and mix with raisins; then add to apple mix.
6. Melt butter over low flame.
7. Put five layers of Philo on white flour-dusted sheet.
8. Coat each layer of dough well with melted butter using a pastry brush.
9. Cover 1/3 of the buttered top dough sheet with the apple mixture (not too close to edges), fold edges in.
10. Use pastry brush and melted butter like glue to tape edges.
11. By picking up the two ends lift the white sheet (tablecloth) to gingerly roll the dough into a big “sausage.”
12. Brush top of strudel well with melted butter.
13. Pick-up strudel carefully and place strudel on a well-oiled cookie sheet and bake in oven for about 30 to 40 minutes at 375 degrees F.
14. While baking whip cream to “SCHLAG” – whipped cream.
15. Place finished strudel to cool before dusting with powdered sugar.

And now that you have made this wonderful Apfelstrudel I suggest you fix yourself a Hugo cocktail – a drink I just discovered in Berlin – to go with your strudel. This is how: Pour a dry Prosecco in a glass and add a glug of elderflower syrup (you can now buy this in the US). If you have fresh mint you can add a few leaves – a delicious drink!

View the list of travel recipes here.

View the list of past travel recipes at our old site here.

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