The Germans have given us numerous holiday traditions—the Christmas tree, Santa Claus (from St. Nicholas), nutcrackers, gingerbread houses, and the beautiful “Silent Night” (“Stille Nacht”). Then, of course, there are the myriad wonderful Christmas cookies, full of nuts and spices and addictive good taste. One who carries on that tradition is Susan Sandholm-Petersen of West Des Moines. Her love affair with all things German is long-standing. She studied German in college and had her first teaching job in Germany, where she lived with a German family. She has returned to visit the country many times. Plus, she lives it daily as a world languages teacher in Waukee, where she teaches German to students in middle school.
For the holidays, Susan starts early on a number of specialty German items, from stollen, the spice-filled, melt-in-your-mouth coffeecake, to a variety of yummy cookies. Needless to say, family and friends consider the German treats part of their
holiday traditions.
“I come by the love of baking naturally from my mother and grandmother,” Susan says. “In fact, when I was 10 or 11, I had to earn some money to help pay my way to Girl Scout camp. I sold small loaves of oatmeal bread on Saturdays.”
She really got hooked on a great treasure trove of German recipes in the late 1970s and early ’80s, when a friend gave her a subscription to Cuisine magazine, previously known as Sphere. “I have made them and tweaked them over the years.” All this time later, she still handles the fragile pages with gentle care.
The recipes reflect favorite German ingredients, Susan says, with the high use of nuts, spices, and fruits. Many of the recipes that call for ground nuts instead of flour are gluten-free. Through trial and error, she makes the classics each year. There are Little Wheat Cookies and Chocolate Sticks. There are subtle Lemon Hearts and luscious Cinnamon Stars. Bavarian Almond Cookies, Lebkuchen (gingerbread cutouts), and Christmas Cutouts, adapted from The Joy of Cooking. Making cutouts is reserved for when her family members come home at the holidays because they enjoy making and decorating the sugar cookies.
Other recipes have come from friends. One, for Vanilla Crescents, came from her Austrian friend Violeta. She only has the recipe in German. Susan also makes Dutch letters for each family member with his or her initial for St. Nicholas Day. She explains that the classic “S” is for the Dutch Sinterklaas (Santa Claus). Her family includes husband Roger, and children Chris and wife Sarah and baby Sylvia of Evanston, Illinois; Andy of West Des Moines; and Jan-Marie of Washington, D.C.
The real labor of love is German stollen, the wonderful nut- and spice-filled coffeecake that takes patience and time to create. “With its lemon peel, nuts, cardamom, golden raisins, and other spices, it is our Christmas morning special treat,” Susan says. “I learned from living in Germany and living in a room in the home of Frau Dahl that the freshest ingredients make the best stollen.”
Diane Stephany of West Des Moines enjoys the Petersens’ invitation during the holidays. “It has become a wonderful tradition for our family over the past 25 years. Our friendship developed when our two sons were friends of the Petersen boys. Those in attendance get to pick out Christmas carols for the group to sing.” She relates that one of her sons once said, “Mom, don’t keep adding more songs. That just puts off enjoying all those cookies.”
Susan puts on holiday music and starts baking in October, hoping to be done by Thanksgiving, so she can host parties for friends. One trick she has learned is to use very small cookie cutters to get more cookies. “Plus, as guests, you don’t feel so guilty trying more of the cookies when they are tiny,” Diane says with a chuckle.
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