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A BEGINNER'S GUIDE
TO THE REAL BAVARIAN HEART
AN INFORMATION DESIGN PROJECT BY NINA KRUG
I bet you have already heard of Munich's famous Oktoberfest.
Maybe you have already been to it. Either way, you have come across the colourful gingerbread hearts. Now it's time to unravel the ongoing mysteries that rank around the Bavarian Hearts. I'll teach you how to make your own.
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= 1000 hearts sold at the Oktoberfest each year
FAMOUS OKTOBERFEST HEARTS
MUNICH OKTOBERFEST
NEUSCHWANSTEIN CASTLE
HOFBRÄUHAUS MUNICH
CHRISTMAS MARKET NUREMBERG
2,49
MILLION
Instagram shares via hashtags (2018)
SIGHT SEEING IN BAVARIA
In 2018, the most shared attraction in Bavaria was the Oktoberfest,
according to the social networks. There is a huge difference between the most famous sights, and it is not only related to drinking german beer.
Well, there is a broad range of people interested in purchasing a Bavarian Heart - and all of them buy it for the same reasons: As a sweet treat, as souvenir or as a gift for a special someone.
WHO BUYS A GINGERBREAD HEART?
COUPLES
SENIORS
CHILDREN
TOURISTS
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50 cm: 49,95€
45 cm: 34,00€
36 cm: 24,95€
23 cm: 12,90€
23 cm: 12,90€
33 cm: 12,00€
23 cm: 12,90€
33 cm: 12,00€
23 cm: 12,90€
33 cm: 12,00€
23 cm: 12,90€
14 cm: 6,95€
13 cm: 4,99€
23 cm: 12,90€
16 cm: 2,75€
23 cm: 12,90€
24 cm: 4,85€
23 cm: 12,90€
20 cm: 3,35€
2016/17 Plastic Pollution per Person (in KG)
DIY! BUT WHY EXACTLY?
23,9
58,4
IRE
38,5
DE
SWE
PLASTIC POLLUTION
In Germany, there are more than 30 kg of plastic collected by person in average per year. Only Estonia and Ireland waste more.
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Why is this important? Because gingerbread hearts are also wrapped in plastic, and you can't buy one without contributing to the plastic problem in all our lives.
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WHAT YOU NEED FOR BAKING
HONEY
COOKER/HOTPLATE
COCOA
ROLLING PIN
GINGERBREAD SPICE
KITCHEN SIEVE
BAKING PAPER
SALT
BOWL
BAKING SODA
KITCHEN TOWEL
BAKING SHEET
SUGAR
POT
EGGS
PIPING BAG
BUTTER
ELECTRIC STIRRER
OVEN
FOOD COLOURING
KNIFE
FLOUR
CARDBOARD HEART
POWDERED SUGAR
550 G
A PINCH
A PINCH
ONE OR TWO
A PINCH
250 G
3 PCS
200 G
1200 G
150 G
Honey is probably the most important ingredient of the recipe.
It helps sweetening the dough and makes it stick together very well.
You need the hotplate for heating up some ingredients, such as honey and sugar.
Just a little bit of Cocoa adds a lot of spice. Maybe you already have some at home?
Just make sure it is not one to make hot chocolate with.
It is part of almost every household:
A rolling pin is not only necessary when you're making biscuits in the winter time.
It is a helping hand at many occasions.
Gingerbread spice is a mixture of different spices, including ginger, anise, cinnamon, nutmeg and piment.
You can either make it yourself or buy it in a store.
A sieve should be a part of every household as well.
In this recipe, it is only used to make sure the ingredients are free of lumps when mixing them together.
The baking paper protects the hearts from sticking to the baking sheets after pulling them out of the oven.
Sweetness is best in combination with a little salt. This also works the other way around:
You can put a little sugar in your salad dressing to add a special taste.
You should prepare a bowl big enough to it all of the flour and the honey inside. So don't choose a really small one.
If you like, you can use the same or a different bowl for the decoration.
You only need a real small amount of baking soda., because of the carbonate sodium.
This way, we add some volume (and air) to the dough.
A kitchen towel is a little helper if you don't want to use plastic to wrap the bowl in. This is also more friendly to the environment.
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Just don't use the same towel that you clean your hands with in between the steps.
You can use an infinite number of baking sheets. Just arrange the cut-out gingerbread hearts in a nice way - they should not touch each other.
If you only own one baking sheet, you can bake the hearts after each other.
Baking without sugar is almost impossible.
In this recipe, sugar is needed as well.
For heating up the ingredients, you don't only need a hotplate, a pot would be nice.
The three eggs you need are not all for creating the dough. One egg is part of the sugar cream decoration.
You can put it aside before starting, so you don't forget about it in the process.
Generally, you can use as many piping bags as you want.
I would advise to use one for each colour that you want to decorate your heart with.
Heated butter adds the typical flavour to the recipe.
You may already have some at home, but buying a new pack would be nice, since you will need almost all of it.
If you like, you can also use a manual stirrer. This way you can also workout one arm pretty well.
There is not much to say about this. Since it is called baking, we all knew that an oven would be necessary at some point.
The use of food colouring is not necessary, but optional.
Don't you think it looks nice, when your heart is just as colourful as a real one from the Oktoberfest?
An important thing about the knife you'll be using is its sharpness.
Remember, you'll have to cut a heart out of the rolled dough.
That sounds like a lot of flour. But re.member: You can make a lot of hearts from that - and who does not like getting one as a present?
Be sure that you cut a heart out of cardboard as your reference for size and shape of your hearts.
This should be ready before you start with making the dough.
The last thing you need is the powdered sugar for the decoration.
The easiest way is to buy this at a store - but you could make it yourself, too.
DOUGH
DECORATION
KITCHEN AID
THE ANATOMY OF A BAVARIAN HEART
Before we start with the recipe, we need to understand the anatomy of the Bavarian Heart. Other than a biscuit, a gingerbread heart consists out of 5 different layers.
1
RIBBON
2
To hang your hearts around your head or up on your wall.
GINGERBREAD BASE
A solid baked heart shaped piece of gingerbread, where everything else builds onto.
3
CHOCOLATE GLAZE
An optional layer of thin chocolate glaze, not traditional but extra sweet.
4
DECORATIVE EDGING
It marks the border of the heart: The sweet and colourful sugar icing - in every colour you'd imagine.
5
SUGAR WRITING
Either funny, sweet or full of love. Everything is possible here, but in Bavaria, we like to write in dialect!
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TAKE YOUR TIME
2:00
11:40
6:20
10h
3h
Shares of time in a total of 20 hours
Inactive time
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THE RECIPE: HOW TO
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We start easy: Put Butter, Honey, Sugar and the gingerbread spice into a pot and slowly heat it up.
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As soon as the ingredients make a smooth mass, you can cool it down to room temperature.
Here's a tip for you: Mix the ingredients steadily, so nothing burns into the pot.
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In a next step, you sieve baking soda and flour into a bowl.
![Web-neu [Wiederhergestellt]-25.png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e85dd3_24e1829168ed4a83b12c01622ecdfd99~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_316,h_316,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/Web-neu%20%5BWiederhergestellt%5D-25.png)
4
9
7
8
6
5
2
10
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In a next step you need to sift baking soda and flour through a kitchen sieve into an empty bowl.
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Add salt, eggs and the cooled down honey butter mix.
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Now take your (electric) stirrer and mix the ingredients together, until it makes a nice dough.
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Grab a kitchen towel and put it over the bowl. Then put the dough aside for at least ten to twelve hours.
After this rather long break, we start with rolling the dough out onto a table or a countertop.
Another tip for you: If you put flour on the countertop or table, the dough won't stick to the rolling pin.
After rolling out, put some baking paper pn the baking sheets.
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Then, put the cut-out cardboard heart on top of the rolled out dough. Take a knife and cut hearts out of the dough.
Arrange them on the baking sheets and let them bake at 200°C/392°F for 12 to 14 minutes total.
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12
13
1
PREPARING THE DECORATION
THE RECIPE
After we finished baking the bare hearts, we continue with creating the decoration.
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Therefore, we have to separate the yellow from the egg white, which we will use in the recipe.
Into the bowl, you add the powdered sugar - and, if you like, some food colouring.
You want to use more than one colour?
Just prepare different bowls and add each colour to one of them.
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Afterwards, start mixing the ingredients, until the liquid becomes thick.
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THE WRITING ON YOUR HEART
7
1
2
3
4
5
6
The perfect lettering for the Bavarian Heart is inspired by historic brush script fonts.
Since that can be difficult, the manual above should be of help with getting the lines
right and creating a real german lettering.
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I MOG DI translates to I LIKE YOU. (Yes, that's dialect.)
Move your mouse to the podium to find out more about the most famous sayings on hearts!
Oktoberfest 2019
#4
It's great that you're here
#5
Schee, dass es
Di gibt
I like you
#3
Prinzessin
Princess
#1
Ich liebe dich
I love you
#2
I mog di
Oktoberfest 2019
PIPING BAGS AND NOZZLES
STAR-SHAPED NOZZLE
The star-shaped nozzle makes for a textured decoration with high contrast in depth. The more edges the star, the smaller and less visible does the contrast get.
NOZZLE WITH A LOT OF EDGES
Similar to the star-shaped one, this nozzle adds some texture to the decoration. Due to the smaller edges, the contrast in depth remains as low as possible.
PLAIN NOZZLE
The plain nozzle offers a way of simple decoration for your Heart. It is also best used for lettering on them.
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DECORATING ON THE EDGE
2
4
Then we continue with the most difficult part: The lettering. Take your time!
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This way, you have all the room to place the words in the right space, without being afraid of ruining previous decoration.
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THE LETTERING
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1
3
Before the real decorating part begins, don't forget to cut two holes into the bare heart.
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This way you will be able to add a ribbon to hang your heart up on the wall.
CUT THE HOLES
After letting the decoration dry out for at least 2 hours, you can add a ribbon to your heart.
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Therefore, you can thread the ribbon through the holes and knot the ends.
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THE RIBBON
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Now, let's take a look at a more easy and fun part.
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When decorating the border of the heart, always start from the bottom and only go up one side to the top!
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This makes the edging look even nicer and more even.
And it also eases the movement of your hand.
There are different ways to decorate the borders.
Have you ever considered a dotted or zig-zag line instead of an easy straight one?
THE EDGING
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You have finished your first real Bavarian Heart! How are you feeling? Happy? Exhausted?
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Feel free to send me your thoughts per mail!
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