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FijiFlavors · Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Ball of strips of shortcrust pastry, fried and dusted with confectioners’ sugar, resembling a snowball. Rothenburg ob der Tauber tourism presents it as the city’s regional specialty.
Traditional sweet from Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Baviera
Also known as: Schneeballen, Schneeball, Rothenburger Schneeball
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Rothenburger Schneeballen — Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany
The Schneeball, “snowball” in German, is the typical sweet of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, the walled medieval town in Franconia. The shortcrust pastry—made from flour, eggs, butter and sugar—is rolled out and cut into strips. The strips are loosely wound, without order, until they form a ball, which is placed in a special mold and fried in hot fat.
After frying and cooling, the ball is dusted with confectioners’ sugar, hence the name. Rothenburg’s official tourism presents the Schneeballen as the city’s regional specialty, made by traditional recipe, and suggests taking them as an edible souvenir. Today there are also versions coated in chocolate, cinnamon sugar, caramel or filled, alongside the traditional one.
The sweet is old in Franconia and neighboring regions, where it appeared at weddings and celebrations. Pastry shops in the town say it was also made during fasting periods.
In Rothenburg, Schneeballen are displayed in the windows of bakeries and cafés in the old town year-round, stacked in various flavors. At the city’s Christmas market, the Reiterlesmarkt, they share space with grilled sausages and mulled wine. Because they are large and crumbly, people often buy one to share, or take the smaller sizes in boxes.
Rothenburg ob der Tauber , Baviera
Rothenburg ob der Tauber’s official tourism presents the Schneeballen as the city’s regional specialty.
Shortcrust pastry of wheat flour, eggs, butter and sugar, fried in fat; confectioners’ sugar on top. Variations with chocolate, cinnamon sugar, caramel, nuts or fillings.
With your hands, breaking pieces off the ball, preferably with coffee. It’s large and crumbly: many prefer to share one or buy the smaller sizes.
All year; much sought after at Rothenburg’s Christmas market during Advent.
Your questions
Of shortcrust pastry made from flour, eggs, butter and sugar, cut into strips, rolled into a ball, fried and dusted with confectioners’ sugar.
Because of its round shape and the confectioners’ sugar on top, which resembles snow.
The sweet is traditional in Franconia and neighboring regions, but Rothenburg ob der Tauber’s tourism presents it as the city’s regional specialty, where it is sold year-round.
Flavors of Germany
Aachen spice cookie, sweetened with syrup and with small pieces of brown candi sugar that crackle when you bite them. It can be hard or soft, plain, with almonds or coated in chocolate. It has a protected geographical indication from the European Union.
Fresh pasta dough filled with ground meat, spinach, soaked bread, onion and herbs, served in broth, browned with onions, or sliced and fried with egg. A Swabian dish with protected geographical indication since 2009, traditional at Easter week.
Layered chocolate sponge cake soaked in Kirschwasser, the cherry brandy of the Black Forest, with cherries and whipped cream, topped with chocolate shavings. Black Forest tourism presents it as the region’s most famous sweet specialty.
Dark beer with a smoky flavor, made with malt dried in the smoke of beech firewood. Bamberg tourism presents it as part of the city’s identity, and the traditional preparation is listed in the Slow Food Ark of Taste.
Paste of camembert or brie cheese mashed with butter, paprika and, depending on the recipe, onion, cumin or beer; eaten with bread or a pretzel. A beer‑garden dish from Bavaria, with protected geographical indication since 2015.
Sausage sliced into rounds, topped with tomato sauce and curry powder, served with french fries or bread. The creation of the sauce is attributed to Herta Heuwer, who sold it in Berlin in 1949.
Kale slowly cooked with bacon, served with the smoked sausage Pinkel, smoked pork and potatoes. Bremen’s official portal presents it as the city’s best-known specialty, a winter dish of the Kohlfahrt.
Light, pale beer with top fermentation, served in a thin cylindrical 0.2‑liter glass by the breweries’ waiter, the Köbes. It is a protected geographical indication and may only be made in Cologne and in a few breweries in the region.
Sweet Christmas bread with raisins, candied orange and lemon peel, almonds and plenty of butter, coated with powdered sugar. Mentioned in Dresden since 1474, it has had protected geographical indication status since 2010.
Amber-colored beer, top-fermented with a pronounced bitterness, brewed in Düsseldorf’s brewery-taverns from a mid-19th-century recipe. The city’s tourism promotion presents it as the typical drink of the Altstadt.
Cold sauce of seven chopped fresh herbs with sour cream, served with hard‑boiled eggs and potatoes. The mixture of the seven herbs, grown largely in the Oberrad neighborhood, has protected geographical indication.
Sweet made from fermented, laminated dough with butter, sugar and cinnamon, rolled and pressed until it takes its characteristic flattened shape. Hamburg’s official portal presents it as a specialty of the city.
Dry, acidic apple wine, fully fermented, served in the Bembel ceramic jug and in the diamond-patterned glass called the Gerippte. It is a protected geographical indication of Hesse, and the apple wine culture of the state is listed in the German inventory of intangible heritage.
Little tart of shortcrust pastry filled with marzipan, almonds and a touch of jam or a cherry, with two strips of pastry crossed on top. It replaced the roasted lark, a Leipzig dish until the hunting ban in 1876.
White veal sausage with bacon and parsley, warmed in hot water and served with sweet mustard and a pretzel, traditionally before midday. It is one of Munich’s best-known specialties.
Honey cake with spices, walnuts and almonds, often baked on a thin wafer and covered with chocolate or icing. It has a protected geographical indication since 1996 and may only be made within Nuremberg.
Pork sausages 7 to 9 centimeters long, seasoned with marjoram and grilled, served by the dozen with sauerkraut or inside a roll. They have protected geographical indication since 2003 and may only be made in Nuremberg.
Cake baked in thin layers on a spit that turns in front of a fire; when sliced it shows rings like those of a tree trunk. Made in Salzwedel since the early 19th century, it has been a protected geographical indication since 2010.
Long, thin pork sausage, 15 to 20 centimeters long, seasoned with marjoram, cumin and garlic, grilled over charcoal and eaten in a small roll with mustard. The earliest known mention dates from 1404, and the name has protected geographical indication status since 2004.
