Ingredients for Linzer Schnitten: spiced prune bars
- 2 eggs
- 1-1/2 cups brown sugar
- 3/4 cup butter or oil
- 3-1/2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp cloves
- 1/4 tsp salt
- rind and juice of 1 lemon
- thick Hungarian-style plum (prune) jam
- 1 egg beaten with 3/4 cup sugar
Preparation of Linzer Schnitten: spiced prune bars
Beat eggs until light. Beat in sugar. Melt and add butter. Sift together the dry ingredients. Blend with egg mix. Add lemon rind and juice. Turn onto a board and knead until smooth. Let stand for 1 hour.
Roll 1/2″ thick. Cut into strips 1-1/2″ x 10″. Mark a groove lengthwise down the center of each strip with the handle of a wooden spoon. Fill grooves with jam.
Place on greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 F for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and immediately brush tops with egg/sugar mixture to glaze. Cut diagonally into bars and cool.
A dense, yummy dessert that will fill your kitchen with old-world fragrance.
Ingredients for Loretta’s German Honey Cake
- 1-1/2 cups honey
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 4 T butter, softened
- 2 t lemon juice
- 1 T kirsch or rum (optional)
- 4-1/2 cups flour
- 2 cups ground almonds
- 1 t baking powder
- 1 t cloves
- 1/2 t nutmeg
- 4 T chopped candied lemon peel
- 4 T chopped candied orange peel
- (or 1/2 cups chopped mixed candied fruit in place of above)
For Icing:
- 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
- 2 T kirsch , rum, or lemon juice
Preparing Loretta’s German Honey Cake
Warm honey and sugar. Mix with eggs, butter, lemon juice and kirsch. Combine dry ingredients. Add to honey mixture with candied fruit. Press into a large, buttered and floured cookie sheet, or roll out and cut as desired. Bake at 350F until firm and browned.
Icing: Mix sugar with kirsch, rum, or lemon juice. Pour onto cake while still hot from oven so it will soak in.
Spatzle is one of the simplest types of noodles to make, basically a free-form cut or pressed egg dough dropped into boiling water. They just beg to be drowned in thick gravy.
- 4 cups flour
- 1 t salt
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup water
Mix dry ingredients. Whisk together eggs, milk and water. Stir into dry ingredients. Beat with a wooden spoon, then let rest. Push through a spatzle maker (a metal pan with round holes in the bottom) or cut into salted boiling water.
Cook 8 minutes. Drain and place in bowl of cold water. Dry on paper towels and saute with butter.
Pflaumenkuchen
- 2 T butter
- 1 T sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 t lemon rind
- 1 t baking powder
- 1/4 t salt
- 1 cup wholewheat flour
- 3 cup halved prune plums
Cream butter and sugar. Add egg. Stir in milk and lemon rind. Sift together baking powder, salt and flour. Combine with butter mix. Spread in a greased pan.
Cover with halved plums and bake at 325 F for 20 minutes. Cut into squares.
Another Lecso … also spelled Letscho.
- 8 oz. tomatoes
- 1 lb. green peppers
- 1 large onion
- 1-1/2 oz. bacon fat or drippings
- salt and pepper
Slice the onion into thin rings and cook in the hot fat till they shrivel, but do not turn brown. Wash the green peppers, take out the seed cases and the inside veins. Slice them into rings and add them to the onion in the saucepan. Fry lightly and then add the quartered tomatoes. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Put the lid on and cook very slowly till the tomatoes get – mushy and the peppers are tender. Serve hot.
Although this has no meat in it, to make it truly vegetarian and vegan friendly, substitute vegetable oil for the bacon fat or drippings! Add a sprinkle of smoked paprika for extra flavor.
Annals of family culinary diversity
