Bavarian cuisine: The 8 best Oktoberfest recipes for cooking at home

Whether savory food, sweet dessert or little treats to go – the Wiesn is a true gourmet’s paradise. Unfortunately, this year the popular Oktoberfest won’t take place. Nevertheless, you don’t have to miss out on the delicacies from the Munich Wiesn. Be inspired by our 8 recipes and bring the dishes to your home. The Bavarian cuisine offers an extensive range of delights, especially for meat fans, but vegetarians and dessert lovers will also find plenty recipes to enjoy. We wish “an Guadn” (Bavarian expression for “bon appétit”)!

 

1. Bavarian „Weißwurst“ breakfast

 

Ingredients for 4 persons:

• 4 – 8 pairs of „Weißwürste“ (depending on appetite)
• 8 pretzels
• sweet mustard
• enough wheat beer

For a traditional Weißwurst breakfast you first invite a few good friends. You then go to a good butcher to buy Weißwurst and to a good baker to purchase fresh pretzels.  Once you are all at your house, put a pot of water on the stove and boil it with some salt or broth. Reduce the heat and add the Weißwürste and let them heat up slowly. They should not be completely boiling, because they will burst open! It is recommendet to leave the sausages in the almost boiling water for about 10 minutes. Lastly, put the pot with the sausages on the table. The day can only start well with warm Weißwürste, pretzels, mustard and wheat beer.

Traditionally, the Weißwurst is “being nibbled” (bavarian expression: “zuzeln”) instead of being cut. To do this, let it cool down a little. Afterwards, (cross-) slit the end of the sausage. Dip the end into the sweet mustard, take approx. 3-4 cm of the sausage into your mouth and suck out the insides of the sausage.

 

Why are Bavarian Weißwürste traditionally eaten only until the clock strikes noon?

It is an important Bavarian tradition from old times: The Weißwurst breakfast should be over before the church bells ring at noon. Since there were no refrigerators in the past, the sausages ran the risk of going bad after just a few hours in warm temperatures, due to their ingredients. Therefore, the sausages could only be eaten in the morning to prevent someone from getting food poisoning.

 

2. The roasted pork (“Schweinebraten”) with beer sauce for people who are experienced in the kitchen

 It takes about 2 hours to prepare.

Ingredients for 4-6 persons:

• 2 kg pork (shoulder or belly) with rind but without bones
• 1 bottle of dark beer to pour
• 1 stick of leek
• 1 thick carrot
• 1 medium sized onion
• 1 celery (this is optional)
• salt, black ground pepper, sweet paprika powder and whole caraway seeds

Cut onion, leek, carrot and celery first. Before the first roasting session the rind is deeply cut and seasoned on all sides with salt, pepper, paprika and caraway seeds. The roast pork is placed in a casserole with the rind facing upwards in the preheated oven (175°C, top and bottom heat). Add the vegetables after 10 minutes and after that, pour in the dark beer. Ideally, the liquid should be about 1.5 cm high in the casserole. For the next 1.5 hours, the Bavarian roast pork will roast uncovered (!) in the oven. This is how the typical juicy crust is formed. Shortly before the Bavarian roast pork is taken out of the oven, the bottom heat should be switched off and the crust grilled for a few minutes at 200°C top heat.

For the sauce, pour the remaining liquid in a pot together with the vegetables and boil it shortly.

 

3. Bread dumplings as a delicious side dish

 

Bread dumplings are often served as a typical side dish with roast pork or other meat dishes.

Ingredients for 4-6 persons:

• 5 stale bread rolls (approx. 300 g)
• 250 ml milk
• 3 eggs
• 5 stems of parsley
• salt, pepper & grated nutmeg
• 2 small onions
• 2 tablespoons butter

Cut the bread rolls by about 1×1 cm and put them in a bowl. Then heat the milk and pour it over the bread cubes, stir and let it soak for at least 10 minutes. In the meantime, peel and finely dice the onions, heat the butter in a pot and fry the onions until they are glassy. Then chop the parsley and put it in a bowl with the eggs. Whisk. After that, add all the ingredients to the bread roll-milk-mix and knead it well with your hands. Season the mixture with salt, pepper and nutmeg. With slightly moist hands, form 8-10 dumplings and put them in boiling water. Let them simmer at low heat for 15-20 minutes until the dumplings rise to the surface. Then take them out of the water and arrange them in a bowl.

 

4. Bavarian coleslaw

Ingredients for 4-6 persons:

• 1 kg white cabbage
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 150 g of streaky bacon (this can be skipped for vegetarians)
• 1 ½ small onions
• 4 ½ tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 ½ teaspoons spicy mustard
• 6 tablespoons of oil
• 200ml vegetable broth
• 1 tablespoon caraway, whole or ground
• Black pepper

This Bavarian coleslaw, made of white cabbage, goes perfectly with roast pork and dumplings. Cut the cabbage into quarters, wash it and then cut it into fine strips. Mix it with salt and cover it until the other ingredients are prepared. Finely chop the onions and fry them until they are glassy. If you like you can also dice bacon and fry it. Then add vinegar and stock, boil it and stir in caraway. Take it off the stove and let it cool for a bit. Mix in the cabbage, add mustard and oil. Cover the salad and leave it untouched at room temperature for about 3 hours. Finally, season the coleslaw with plenty of salt and pepper.

 

5.    Vegetarian „Käsespätzle“ (cheese noodles)

Ingredients for 4 persons:

• 1 kg Spätzle, fresh from the fridge or homemade (below you will find a recipe for the homemade version)
• 400 ml cream
• 200 g grated cheese (Emmental or other cheese that melts well)
• ½ bunch of chopped parsley
• 1 onion
• butter
• salt and pepper

In a cast-iron frying pan or well-greased casserole dish, one after another put Spätzle and a layer of cheese. Put some pepper, nutmeg and salt on each layer. Add a few flakes of butter and lightly glazed onions. The last layer is a layer of cheese.

Finally, top the hot spaetzle with fried onions and a little chopped parsley.

 

Homemade Spätzle:

For this you need a special spaetzle board or press, which gives the spätzle its typical shape.

Ingredients for 4 persons:

• 500 g flour
• 6 eggs
• 200 ml sparkling water
• a pinch of salt

First sift the flour into a bowl and press a mould. Then place eggs in this mould and add sparkling water and salt. Then mix the dough with your hands or a wooden spoon until the consistency is sticky. The finished dough must rest for 10 minutes. In the meantime, bring salted water to the boil.

When the water boils, press or scrape the dough into the water using the spaetzle board. When the spaetzle float on the water, they are ready. It is best not to put all of the dough into the water at the same time. To avoid it sticking together, try boiling the speatzles in turns. Before serving, shortly rinse them under cold water.

 

6. Obatzda: a light Bavarian meal

Fresh bread, pretzels, thinly sliced Emmental cheese and bacon are a must for a typical Bavarian meal. Obatzda as a spread is also very popular.

 

Recipe Obatzda:

• 200 g ripe camembert
• 1 large onion
• 100 g cream cheese (extra creamy)
• 40 g soft butter
• black pepper, salt
• 1 tsp paprika, sweet
• 1 bunch of chives to arrange

Finely chop onion and squash ripe camembert with a fork. Mix in cream cheese, butter and onion. Then season with paprika, salt and pepper. To serve, leave to soak for about 30 minutes and season to taste again before serving. Then sprinkle with onion rings and chive rolls and enjoy on fresh bread!

 

 

7. For sweet teeth: Kaiserschmarrn

Typically Austrian or Bavarian: The fluffy, delicious Kaiserschmarrn, which is served with apple sauce and powdered sugar.

Ingredients for 4 persons:

• 200 g flour
• 4 eggs
• 30 g sugar
• 300 ml milk
• 40 g butter (for the pan)
• 30 g raisins
• 1 pinch of salt
• powdered sugar to sprinkle

First mix flour, sugar, salt and egg yolk with the milk in a bowl to a smooth, thick dough. Whip the egg whites in a different bowl and then add it to the thick dough. After that carefully (!!) stir the dough and fry it in a flat, slightly greased pan. Then put the pan in the preheated oven at moderate heat (hot air approx. 180°C) for 10-12 minutes – until the Kaiserschmarrn is slightly golden brown. Finally, rip it into irregular pieces with two forks. Some people do this even when the Kaiserschmarrn is still in the pan and then put the small pieces back in the oven to heat them again. Shortly before the Kaiserschmarrn is ready, raisins are added and the whole thing is warmed up again briefly. Arrange the Kaiserschmarrn on plates, sprinkle with sugar and serve with any kind of compote or apple sauce. Almond flakes or berries also go well with it.

 

8. Apple strudel with vanilla sauce

 

There are many regional variations and recipes for apple strudel. For example, there are apple strudels as a casserole dish or prepared on a baking tray, with or without nuts, made of puff pastry or quark dough.

In the following, we will present to you a recipe for apple strudel on the baking tray

Ingredients for 4 persons:

For the dough:

• 250 g flour
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 egg
• 1 pinch of salt
• 100 ml lukewarm water

For the filling:

• 1 kg firm, sour apples (e.g. Elstar)
• 1 organic lemon, its grated peel
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons pine nuts, sliced almonds or chopped nuts
• 100 g raisins (soaked in some water or rum)
• 70 g sugar
• ½ tsp cinnamon

For the dough: heap the flour on the baking board, make a mould, add 2 tablespoons of melted butter, egg and a pinch of salt. Then knead to form a smooth dough. Gradually add 100 ml of water and form into a ball. It is important to brush the dough with oil and let it rest for 30 minutes under a kitchen towel.

 

For the filling:

Peel apples and cut them into thin slices, remove the core. Then mix with grated lemon peel, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and add nuts or almonds, sugar and cinnamon. Raisins can also be added.

 

After the dough has rested, dust a large kitchen towel with flour. Flatten the dough on it and then either roll it out with the rolling pin or pull it with your hands until the dough is so thin that the kitchen towel shines through. Then brush with melted butter, sprinkle with breadcrumbs if necessary and put the apple mixture on top. It is important that you leave out 2-3 cm at the edges. Fold in the narrow sides up to the filling and roll up the dough quickly with the help of the kitchen towel. Put it on a baking tray with the seam facing down and brush it with plenty of butter. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees top and bottom heat for about 1 hour.

Serve the apple strudel classically dusted with powdered sugar and whipped cream or vanilla sauce.

Optional: The raisins can optionally be soaked in rum beforehand. The breadcrumbs can be roasted golden brown beforehand, to ensure an even better taste. The apple strudel can be cut crosswise before baking to give it an appealing appearance.

 

______________________________

 

Mmmmmmh, if you are hungry now, make these Wiesn specialties at home and enjoy with friends and family! We hope we were able to make the Oktoberfest cancellation 2020 & 2021 a little bit more bearable for you with our recipes. In our online store you can already make table reservations for the year 2023. We look forward to seeing you again in 2023 as happy and healthy as ever.