Besides the Frankfurt Bethmännchen, Brenten have been an integral part of Frankfurt Christmas life for generations. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe counted Brenten as one of his absolute favorite foods and the poet Eduard Mörike even wrote a Brenten recipe in verse. We shall refrain from that here for lack of poetic finesse, but of course we would not want to deprive you of the recipe for Frankfurter Brenten.
Ingredients
You will need (for four servings):
- 500 g raw marzipan
- 150 g fine icing sugar
- A few drops of rose water (you can get it at any pharmacy)
- 1 unsprayed lemon (of this, however, only the grated peel)
- And of course you still need the appropriate cookie cutters or wooden models (you can find these in any case at the Frankfurt Christmas market)
Preparation:
First mix the marzipan with the icing sugar. During the kneading you give then still some rose water and lemon peel in addition.
The now resulting marzipan mass you roll out then about 1 cm thick on a surface dusted with flour. Now also dust the cookie cutters or wooden models with flour and press them onto the marzipan. In the case of the wooden model, pull it off again afterwards and then cut the shape of the model with a knife. Leave the resulting brents to dry overnight (or throughout the day, depending on what you start baking!). Then bake at 150 degrees in a preheated oven until the brents are light brown. Then let them cool down and the delicious frankfurter brenten are ready!