Sweet Treats

Treat yourself to a refreshing ice cold coffee on a hot summer day. is perfect for hot summer days! This chilled coffee drinks only requires two (or three) ingredients and is super easy to make.

The strawberry season in Switzerland lasts from May to July. Far too short! Because I love the sweet fruit more than anything. So that I can still enjoy strawberries in the fall and winter, I cook them down into jam. You only need two ingredients: Strawberries and gelling sugar.

Elderflowers bloom from the end of May to the end of June. The bushy growing plant can be found on forest edges, in hedges, forest glades or in the garden. The pretty, fragrant flowers can easily be used to make a sweet syrup, which can be used pure with mineral water for a sparkling soda or in combination with other ingredients for a fizzy drink (e.g. Hugo). You only need four ingredients and a little time and patience to make elderflower syrup.

Lassi is a popular yogurt-based beverage, primarily enjoyed in the Indian subcontinent, particularly in the Punjab region. It's a creamy, smoothie-like drink made by blending yogurt with milk or water. Sweet lassi is typically flavored with sugar and/or fruit. Lassi is rich in probiotics, calcium, and other nutrients that offer numerous health benefits, including aiding digestion, boosting immunity, and potentially aiding in weight management. Mango Lassi can easily be made at home with only four ingredients.

“Totenbeinli” are - despite their macabre name - a very delicious traditional Swiss Christmas Cookie that may also be enjoyed during the year with a cup of steaming coffee or hot tea. “Totenebeinli” means “bones of the death”. Their shape and their crunchiness gave these hazlenut cookies their name. They are not very pretty to look at but their taste with a touch of cinnamon and roasted hazlenut is fantastic. 

Since the 16th centuries grifters in German speaking countries were called «Spitzbuben». The cookie with the same name is usually a circular cookie consisting of a base and a lid, filled with jam and a funny face formed by the holes pierced in the top cookie. Outside Switzerland, this cute Christmas cookie is also known as “Linzer Augen” or “Hildabrötchen”. There are countless different Spitzbuben recipes: with and without ground almonds, with whole eggs or just egg whites, filled with jelly or jam. I make my Spitzbuben according to the following recipe.

I love chocolate in every possible way – cream, cake or cookies. Therefore, every Christmas I bake these super yummy chocolate ball cookies, that are made with chocolate powder and ground nuts. They turn out nice when sticking to the recipe, monitoring them through the baking process (just around 3 min) and using enough cornstarch as a binding agent.

“Mailänderli” is a very popular Christmas cookie in Switzerland. These buttery-mellow cookies are very easy to bake with only a few ingredients. They are perfect to use up leftover yolk. I usually bake Cinnamon Stars and Mailänderli at the same time because for the former just the eggwhite is needed while the latter turns out better with just the yolks.

Cinnamon star cookies are a very traditional European Christmas cookie. Those sweet stars do not only look very pretty but are also super tasty. I personally bake the cinnamon star cookies without icing because baking might give the icing a yellowish color which I do not like. I love my icing snow-white.

Christmas is cookie baking time! I love to bake these sweeet little treats and give them as gifts, but also eat them myself. I particularly like vanilla crescents cookies or “Vanillekipferl”, as we call them in Switzerland. These cookies are easy to roll by hand without using cookie cutters. I will also show you two variations of this delicious cookie.

Amaretti is an Italian almond biscuit that goes perfectly with a cup of steaming coffee or a nice glass of Marsala. For these lovely cookies you need ground almonds, sugar, flour, bitter almond extract, eggs, salt and powedered sugar.

This chocolate pear cake will compliment your coffee table during the autumn months or at any time of the year when using tinned pears instead of fresh pears. This cake contains hazelnuts, another tasty blessing of the fall. Both hazelnuts and pears are harvested during the fall months.

With this easy recipe you can create a variety of different cakes: with fruit, berries, chocolate chips or raisin, with fillings and toppings as you like. This simple sponge cake recipe only requires five ingredients that most will have at home already and is so simple that you can memorize it in less than 30 seconds.