Authentic German Snack Bar.

I lived in Germany for a year and a half and learned a lot about the German culture. I was immersed in it and learned to speak German fluently.

I loved the people whom I got to really know well. I loved visiting the historical sites, seeing the beautiful scenery, and eating delicious German food.

German food on the whole is very good. I love the hearty meals they serve with Sauerkraut or Rotkohl, meat, a sauce and veggies.

The chocolate is creamy, deep, and flavorful (as is the ice cream).

The candy was so fun to try with its diverse flavors, textures, and fun themes.

I enjoyed trying new foods whenever we went to ALDI or other local grocery stores. However, my favorite was when we were invited to enjoy a meal with a German.

While living in Germany, I was serving as a missionary for, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; I was invited in to many homes to chat.

My coworker and I were often invited to eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner with the German people we knew.

Trying the authentic food was such a fun experience.

When I offered to host book club and review the book our group choose, “Yearning for the Living God“, by Enzio Busche, I decided it would be a lot of fun to have a German snack bar or German dessert table.

I wanted my friends and neighbors to be able to sample the delicious German cuisine I have come to love.

There were so many different kinds of food that I wanted to serve, but I limited what I served to what I could easily find, what I knew I could bake or make, easy finger foods, and my-favorite-yet-perhaps-lesser-known German foods.

Here is what I featured on this Authentic German Snack Bar…

Ferrero Rocher Chocolates- I bought both boxes on Amazon this one and

this Golden Gallery Collection.

I made Rote Grutze topped with a sweet vanilla cream sauce.

Rote Grütze is a homemade berry gelatin pudding with fresh berries topped with a sweet vanilla cream sauce its amazing! If you want to try it out, here is the Rote Grütze recipe; it is pretty easy to make.

Fred Ferkel gummy pigs were one of my favorite gummy Bonbons I had in Germany. I wanted to let everyone else try their mild deliciousness.

What I learned the night of the book club is that these may also be a British candy as well.

My friend, who happens to be married to a Brit, told me that these are a British candy as well.

I went on amazon and read reviews. Sure enough, they are also a traditional British Bonbon.

They can be found at World Market (sometimes), I saw them at an international candy store once, and I got these ones from Amazon.

Haribo Party or Super mix… in case you didn’t know, Haribo is a German candy company.

Most of the Haribo candies are still made in Germany although they have moved some production to the US and other countries.

You can find bags of Haribo gummy candies in most grocery stores, World Market, and Amazon.

German Bee Sting Cake the recipe can be found here.

German Bee Sting cake aka Beinenstich Kuchen is an almond-topped vanilla pudding sponge cake. It’s traditional German. It’s also very delicious.

Leibniz butter biscuits and

Choco Leibniz biscuits. The chocolate dipped ones are so good!

I wanted to feature both the chocolate biscuits and the plain butter crackers on the table so guests could try each.

So, on one side of the dessert bar there were chocolate butter crackers and on the other side of the table, I had a plate of plain Leibniz.

You can find these in most grocery stores, World Market, and Amazon.

German Dill Cucumber Salad (recipe here).

While this isn’t the prettiest salad, it is very delicious!

I love the mixture of the cucumber, dill, and lemon. It is slightly creamy, tangy and sweet. It’s a must-try in my opinion.

I have a 3 Buffet Hot Plate that I used on this table. I bought it for about $10 at a garage sale years ago.

So, in the first tray, I served cheese filled pretzels.

I found these Pretzilla pretzel bites with and without cheese at Walmart.

They are the same pretzel bites served at Culver’s (as of 2022).

I had them there and they were so good, they reminded me of the soft pretzels I ate in Germany.

I researched the company who made them and found Pretzilla does. Walmart and other stores sell the exact same product for much less than Culver’s does. So, I bought a few bags to serve in my warmer.

In the second tray on the warming plate, I served Vienna Sausages or Mini Wini’s (aka small canned hot dogs).

This was about the only thing on the table I don’t like, but it is a very traditional German food, so I added it.

In the third tray, I made German pretzel and brat bites.

I’ll be doing a quick recipe/video on how to make these soon. They are delicious and sooo easy to make. I think they were well-liked at the party because quite a few were eaten.

My family loves them as well. I got the pretzel bites (Annie’s) and Brats (Johnson’s) at Target. My daughter and I used toothpicks to put these together. They were sprinkled with a little pretzel salt and were so delicious—especially served warm.

You can’t have brats, dogs, and pretzels without mustard!

Most Germans do not eat the American mustard we are accustomed to. They like the more flavorful stuff.

So, I set out a Dijon mustard and a stone ground mustard —which can be found in almost any grocery store.

Not surprisingly, no one touched it!

No one really ate the pickles either. I chalked that one up to the fact that most everyone know what pickles taste like and they likely wanted room on their plate for the more unfamiliar German foods.

Pickles of course can be found in grocery stores as well.

I also served Ritter Sport mini bars. You can find these at World Market or on Amazon. The larger Ritter Sport bars are a lot easier to find. I just had the mini ones given to me so often in Germany that I wanted to share them with others.

Picco Balla Haribo candies—so yummy! These are my kids favorite Haribo candy. I found them on Amazon, because they were out at World Market.

Kinder Bueno Mini’s. These mini chocolate wafter things are the small version of the bars.

Many are familiar with the Kinder Egg which have toys in them and chocolate. Well, the same company, Kinder, makes these Bueno candies.

They can be found at Amazon, World Market, and Walmart.

Are you seeing a theme here? There is so much chocolate because German chocolate incredibly delicious!! It is comparable to Swiss and Belgian chocolate.

I wish I lived near an Aldi grocery store in the US, because Moser Roth is my favorite German chocolate and they sell it there at unbelievably fair prices. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get my hands on any Moser Roth for this party.

The German people were typically very polite and always offered drink and a treat of some kind upon entering their homes or apartments. Hans Freitag Wafers (or similar) were served to me ALL the time upon entering someone’s home.

They are the best wafers I’ve ever tasted.

I was so happy to find them here in the United States a few years after returning home.

Oddly enough, I first spotted them at a local Walgreens. They are available at World Market, Amazon, and other stores.

These Schär graham crackers are not my favorite. However, my kids and many others like them. I kind of tucked the plate of them towards the back because, while yummy, they are not as tasty as most everything else on the table, in my opinion.

I decided to serve them because I could find a few packages at a local grocery store and its a German equivalent of our popular graham crackers.

They can be found in many grocery stores, Amazon, World Market, and Walmart.

You can’t have an Authentic German Snack Bar without highlighting Haribo gummy bears.

I’m so glad these gummy bears were such a huge hit in America because I assume that its the gummy bear that opened the door for the lesser-known Haribo candies to find spots in grocery stores and gas stations.

And last, but certainly not least (there are just so many amazing German foods you could choose to serve on an Authentic German Snack Bar), I added these Hermann the German hard candies.

These are packed with a mixture of weird to wonderful flavors. Some, like black licorice, or cinnamon covered berry (at least that is what I named it), aren’t for everyone, but the less interesting flavors like raspberry and lemon are usually well-liked.

This is the type of dish filled with similar candies that you’d see in an older German Frau’s sitting room. It brings back memories of the wonderful women I met there.

What to Drink?

We don’t drink alcohol so beer was out. haha… So, for drink, I made Apfelschorle; which is simply carbonated apple juice.

To make Apfelschorle you will mix equal parts club soda and apple juice and that is it. Easy huh? We drank this almost anytime we were invited into a German’s home. Just make sure to serve it warm (as the Europeans do).

You could also serve fruit tea which is also very frequently served and consumed in Germany.

That’s about it.

Well, that’s what we sampled for our German book club evening.

It was a lot of food—especially because there were only 20 of us and it was later in the evening when we held book club.

I did let everyone know that they should have a light dinner so they could sample the German food and I think many were excited, but probably not as excited as I was to share it with them.

While it took awhile to track down and/or make the food, my friends and neighbors said they were grateful for the opportunity to try so many different types of German food.

I had a great evening and it was wonderful to discuss such an amazing book and author!