A love letter to Europe… and not just the EU
I am a German living in Luxembourg with a British husband. My kids grow up quadrilingual (if you’re not from here: not a humble brag, the day-to-day realities can be a pain and we continue to fail the PISA test with all this language learning).
What I am trying to say: Europe is a small place, but homogeneous it is not. In 2025, I baked things that I love baking, that I have made for years and years, and/or that are very traditional where I grew up (see here). This edition I want to turn it on its head a little and go travelling around the continent (in spirit). I have chosen 12 countries (and yes UK you ARE part of Europe whether you think so or not)* out of 50 with a random number generator (I did exclude the Vatican- what would one bake? A rice wafer?). We will explore the Christmas (mostly) baking traditions of these 12 countries with one recipe per country. You will receive a newsletter every day but last year I thought that one recipe a day was a lot. So this is a slightly more relaxed pace. There will be sprinkles. There will no doubt be accidents. But I can’t wait to head off.
*However, deciding on the list is non-trivial: UN says 44, Council of Europe has 46 members, and the most inclusive geographical definition brings it up to 51 (and since we’re already here talking numbers, the EU has 27 members) (Can you tell I’m a mathematician? (sorry)).
Why am I doing this?
Number one: I simply love doing it.
Last year I made an email biscuit advent calendar. I wasn’t sure whether I could pull it off: 24 recipes in 24 days seemed like a lot. And it was! But despite the effort involved, I loved it. I baked more than I ever had during a Christmas season (what an excellent excuse!), made sprinkle art with my kids, and finally got all those recipes I’d been making for years written down (win win win). But perhaps the nicest part was hearing back from people. I loved landing in someone’s mailbox every morning, sharing a little bit of my life and occasionally getting a little bit of yours in return.
2026 was not an easy year for me. Things have been happening at an environmental, technological, geopolitical but also personal level that have somewhat shaken my sense of security. That’s part of life. But I do feel like we are living through momentous times. There’s a sense of things hanging in the balance. And momentous times call for acts of kindness, moments of shared experience, and not letting your curiosity get buried under a lack of stability.
The one baking rule I follow
As someone who once ate her feelings for sport and now knows better (hah, mostly), I follow one simple rule:
“Nutritionally questionable food is absolutely allowed and even encouraged… but it has to be worth it.”
Last year I made recipes tested by yours truly and her retinue on many occasions. This year’s recipes have something rather more impressive going for them: generations of bakers who have made, shared and loved them. They come with cultural validation, if not yet my personal seal of approval (and who do you trust more?!). I am not writing this as a total expert. I am here to explore with you. Like I said: curiosity and shared experience. I’ll do the research, bake and write about it.
What’s inside
- Biscuit recipes twelve of them and actually not exclusively biscuits (like last year)
- Simple swaps (I’ll endeavour to point out substitute ingredients as of course we don’t all have access to the same ingredients).
- Tips for planning + freezing + storing
- Cultural and food scientific notes because the nerd in me never shuts up (and please do tell me how wrong I am if you catch something)
- Unit conversion, scaling and a printable version hosted on my website
- A returning Wichtel guest star(?) He said he would show up again but we haven’t heard anything yet.
So come and let’s share three lovely rituals: advent calendars, baking and backseat travel this year. Sign up below.
