6. door: St Nicholas is coming to town

When I was a small kid in Germany we used to have a parade with lanterns for St Nicholas and at the end we were given little 'Stutenkerle' made of a kind of bread dough. So now I am a mum myself and I tried to continue with this tradition. So I made these little 'Stutenkerle' for my family (and half a forest too). I also made a paper lantern for the table. It's just a paper sandwich bag which I cut little holes and stars into. Then I placed a glass with a tealight inside.

Here is the recipe for the 'Stutenkerle':

For the dough (makes 4 big santa men or a dozen smaller ones):

500 g  plain white flour
7 g dried yeast
75 g  Granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg (medium size)
1 egg white
150 ml  milk
100 g  butter

For the decoration:
raisins and white (peeled) almonds
2 tablespoons milk
1 egg yolk

Mix the flour with the yeast then add all the other ingredients (room temperature). Mix thoroughly. Then let the dough rest in a warm environment until it has doubled in size.

Roll the dough with a rolling pin until it's 1 cm thick. Use a cookie cutter or cut the dough with a knife to achieve the desired shape. Cover a baking tray with baking paper and put the shapes on the tray. Use raisins or almonds for the eyes and buttons.

Mix the egg yolk with the milk and spread it evenly on  the little men. Let the men rest for 20 more minutes and meanwhile start preheating the oven at 160 degrees. Bake for 20 min.