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!”

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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

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Gingerbread houses, Christmas trees, caroling and concerts on board ships add extra spice to cruises on Europe’s rivers during the month of December. But the biggest incentive to don winter coats and hats is the Christmas markets in ports along the way. Almost every city has at least one filling municipal and cathedral squares in the weeks leading up to December 25 and almost every river cruise line operating in Europe extends it cruise season into December to take advantage of the holiday glow. I was aboard Viking River Cruises on its Danube Waltz itinerary cruising from Budapest, Hungary to Passau, Germany with stops in Bratislava, Slovakia, Vienna and Linz, Austria.

Each city’s Christmas markets embraced the festive season by selling decorations, holiday novelties, food and mulled wine to warm heart and soul under twinkling lights on cold December evenings. Some added musical entertainment and carnival rides. Can one be too old to climb aboard a carousel?

An infectious holiday cheer brought smiles to passengers and crew on board. One afternoon crew members donned Santa hats and reindeer headbands to lead passengers in a sing-along that ended with a conga line winding through the lounge. An advent choir boarded the ship after dinner in Bratislava for an a cappella performance. In Austria, costumed singers and musicians presented songs from “The Sound of Music” and ended the evening with Christmas carols — “Silent Night” in three languages.

Passengers participated in trimming Christmas trees, personalizing globe ornaments with markers. The pastry chef patiently taught us the art of gingerbread house-making and to my envious eyes some structures turned out quite good.

The kitchen crew made an extra effort to warm us up with a holiday glow. After a shore excursion one chilly afternoon the chef welcomed returning passengers in the reception area with cheese fondue spread on slices of fresh bread plus cups of hot chocolate with an optional splash of rum or amaretto.

Have holiday gifts to buy for family and friends back home? Bring an extra suitcase. Cities along the Danube offer shopping districts with brand-name stores as well as cute boutiques. And, of course, the Christmas markets present a bounty of items, some handmade.

Christmas markets bring out residents, especially after work and on weekends. If you’re game, you might interact over a glass of gluhwein. After visiting two or three markets, the next few might seem just the same, but be on the lookout for one-of-a-kind finds and local food specialties.

In Budapest, crowds filled two Christmas markets within walking distance of our ship. A Nativity scene with large, colorful figures stood in front of St. Stephen’s Basilica where a Christmas tree towered over an ice rink. Vendors in wooden huts sold Christmas ornaments, marzipan, Hungarian fried bread and steaming cups of mulled wine.

In Slovakia, sausages and potato pancakes simmered on stoves in a small market outside Bratislava Castle perched 300 feet above the Danube. Our excursion stopped for a view from the windy terrace then descended to the Old Town for a walk on cobblestones past warmly lit cafes to a Christmas market where cloth dolls in folk dress caught my eye.

In Vienna, I strolled past Rolex, Dior and Tiffany stores on Kohlmarkt Street on my way to Café Central where a glass case overflowed with pastries. A reindeer head made from gingerbread mousse and baked apple called out to me.

Christmas markets were scattered across Vienna, one by city hall, another at Am Hof where raclette oozed onto plates and flutes of Champagne bubbled on a wooden bar. Outside Hofburg Palace, a few vendors sold high-end goods. I couldn’t resist a jaunty made-in-Austria woolen hat. At my favorite market, outside St. Stephen’s Cathedral where Mozart married in 1782, I had to have two wooden toy trains in letters spelling my grandsons’ names.

That night, we boarded a motor coach to travel along city streets lit with holiday decorations to a small theater for a Mozart and Strauss concert just for Viking guests.

In Linz, Austria, streetcars streamed past Christmas market stalls on the Hauptplatz, one of the largest squares in Europe, but shoppers seemed so engrossed in the goods they barely noticed. My search for an authentic Austrian gift for someone back home yielded only apparel from distant lands — Peru, Nepal, China — so I left, disappointed.

In Passau, Germany, our tour group went to Café Simon for a demonstration of gingerbread making with samples of three flavors washed down with an orange and rum punch. Refortified, I made my way to the plaza outside St. Stephen’s Cathedral where bells sounding the hour reverberated around more than 70 rustic wooden Christmas market kiosks. Patrons stood around high tables snarfing down foot-long wurst sandwiches. I resisted the temptation of gluhwein stands to seek out something German-made for that someone still on my gift list. I found it inside a make-shift shop where a young woman was selling woolen hats and cute head wraps made by her German grandmother.

Just when passengers think they have seen their last Christmas market, those departing from the Munich airport find one more under a canopy between terminals. More than 40 market stalls and 450 Christmas trees set up here along with an ice-skating rink with skate rentals for those who want to do a few spins before their flight departs.

For once, I was glad mine was delayed.

Viking River Cruises: 800-304-9616

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