Some German Holiday Traditions

Happy New Year Everyone. WOW! Can you believe it’s now 2024?

As I have mentioned many times in the past, Larry is almost 100% German. We don’t have a lot of traditions that we keep, German or otherwise, though I am trying to get some established. They’re fun and they represent a bit of our ancestry and past. This year, we have a couple of German holiday traditions going on. Oddly enough though, as German as Larry is, none of his family have ever heard of these traditions. 

The first is the German pickle on the tree. Neither Larry nor I had ever heard of this until our friends Milos and Maureen brought it to our attention by giving us a pickle for our tree. 

The history behind the German pickle on the tree comes from a German-American soldier who was taken prisoner during the Civil War. Starving, he begged a guard to give him one last pickle before he died. The pity pickle gave him the mental and physical strength to live on. It has been a German tradition ever since. The tradition is an ornamental pickle is the last ornament placed on a Christmas tree as one of the Christmas decorations. On Christmas morning, the first person to find the pickle on the tree would receive an extra present from Santa Claus or would be said to have a year of good fortune. As the Weihnachtsgurke tradition goes, the first child to find the pickle ornament on the Christmas tree is assured of good luck in the coming year and a special gift. The pickle is seen as a symbol of hope, reminding people that even in the darkest of times, there is always a glimmer of light. So, from here on out, we will have a Christmas pickle on out tree too.

The second German holiday tradition we are holding is to eat soft pretzels on New Year’s Day. We have been honoring this tradition ever since I learned about it a few years ago. Yesterday, I made my pretzels. We ate some last night, and will enjoy them again today. Hopefully we will have an abundant year, filled with good luck, good health and prosperity.

Pretzels were often distributed to the poor as symbols of good luck for both physical and spiritual sustenance. By the seventeenth century, loops became symbols of undying love too. German children would wear pretzel necklaces on New Year’s to symbolize good luck and prosperity in the next year as well. The breaking of a “Good-Luck” New Year’s Pretzel (Grosse Neujahrsbrezel) is a long time German tradition, thought to bring good luck and prosperity in the New Year when eaten at midnight or by breakfast on New Year’s Day.

Sourdough Pretzels

These delicious pretzels are definitely a labor of love and require a lot of time to make them. Don’t even start if you are in a hurry for them. You need to start with a sourdough starter or mother culture first. There is NO yeast in these pretzels at all. They rise by time and fermentation alone.

Theoretically, once you start a sourdough starter or “mother culture” you only have to start it once, and then it becomes the gift that just keeps on giving.  Believe it or not, some mother cultures are over 150 years old and are still thriving. Maureen brought her starter for me from Canada when they came to visit.

The Starter or Mother Culture

Day 1 : 1/4 cup organic whole wheat flour, 2 tsp rye flour, 3 TBSP non-chlorinated water. Mix and loosely cover and set in a warm location.

Day 2: Mix another 1/4 cup of organic whole wheat flour, 2 tsp organic rye flour and 3 TBSP non-chlorinated water to the mix, and once again, loosely cover and keep in a warm location.

Day 3: Mix another 1/2 cup organic wheat flour and 1/3 cup non-chlorinated water to the mix, and again, loosely cover and keep in a warm location.

Day 4: Your starter should be ready to go from this day forward. You can cover it and place it in a container and store it in the refrigerator for about 1 week before needing to refresh it again. You can keep refreshing your starter indefinitely, with each refresher taking about 12-16 hours to mature to the point when it is ready to leaven your bread. 

About 12 hours before you want to start baking, remove the mother culture from the fridge. Mix in about 3/4 cup +2 TBSP of water, 1/4 cup mature mother culture and 1 2/3 cups bread flour. Tap water is fine from this point on. Let it ferment for an additional 12-16 hours. You can use this same starter for pancakes, pretzels, waffles, bread or crackers. As you can see, I chose to make pretzels.

The Pretzels

5 cups bread flour

1 2/3 cups water at about 75*F

1 1/3 cups mature sourdough starter – save the rest for something else later

1 TBSP sea salt

1/3 cup softened butter

1/2 cup baking soda

kosher salt for sprinkling on top

Mix everything together with a dough hook on the first speed for about 3 minutes, then increase the speed to the second speed and mix again for about 6 minutes.

Once the dough has formed into a soft dough, lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and cover loosely with a plate.

Let the dough ferment for an hour, then stretch it by pulling one corner just until you feel the gluten tighten, before it tears. Rotate the dough and repeat on all the corners of the dough. 

Cover with the plate once again, and let it continue to ferment for another 2 1/2 hours. Once the dough is ready, cut it into 10-12 equal portions. 

On a lightly floured surface, roll these out to logs that are bout 10-12 inches long. Cover them once more and let them rest for about 20 minutes.

When they are ready, roll them out again, stretching them out to about 16 inches long. Take the 2 ends of the dough and shape them into a round and twist the ends two times, then attach the ends to the base. You may have to dab a little water on the dough to help them stick.

Cover loosely and refrigerate for 12-16 hours to slow the fermentation process.

When the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 350*F or 180*C.

Bring a large pot with 2 qts of water and 1/2 cup of baking soda to a boil. Place one pretzel at a time in the mixture and boil at a medium boil for about 20 seconds. Remove the pretzel and place it on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat until all the pretzels are done. 

Sprinkle the kosher salt on top of the pretzels.

Then bake for about 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow the pretzels to cool a bit before eating. 

You can eat them as is, or with a little Dijon mustard, or with a little melted cheese on top. You can enjoy these delicious soft pretzels anytime you like, but you definitely want to make sure you enjoy them on New Year’s Day in order to have good luck throughout the year. :)

Happy New Year Everyone. I hope 2024 is a good year for all. Stay safe and stay well. ’Til next time.