Recipe Weekend / Cookbook Review: Classic German Cooking by Luisa Weiss

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this product, free of charge,from Ten Speed press, via Netgalley,for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it,  all opinions are my own.


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Ah Fall....

It's officially here! 

And before you know it it will be Octoberfest time! So this new cookbook coming out next month, is perfect timing!

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Synopsis:

A collection of 100 quintessential German recipes for sweets and breads from the creator of The Wednesday Chef blog and author of the memoir, My Berlin Kitchen, including stories from the author's experience of living and baking in Berlinn. 

German baking is legendary and informs baking traditions the world over: Christmas cookies, coffee cakes, delicate tortes, soft seeded rolls, and hearty dumplings all have their origins in Germany (and Austria). In Classic German Baking, blogger and author Luisa Weiss--who was born in Berlin to an Italian mother and American father, and married into a family of bakers with roots in Saxony--has collected and mastered the recipes most essential to every good baker's repertoire. In addition to the pillars of the German baking tradition, like Christmas stollen, lebkuchen, and apple strudel, Weiss includes overlooked gems, like eisenbahner--an almond macaroon paste piped onto jam-topped shortbread--and rosinenbrötchen--the raisin-studded whole wheat buns that please a child's palate and a parent's conscience--to create the resource that bakers across the world have long wanted.

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Review:

This is an AMAZING German cookbook! 

Luisa is American/Italian, but married into a German family, after spending a childhood in Germany. So she approaches her subject as we would, as an outsider. She gives SO much informaition about the different German dishes, that you are really getting a course in German culture, besides Geran baking! In this book you'll find out how to properly prounounce "Struedel", find out just how many traditional 'American' baked desserts are really based on German recipes, and how to take your baking to a new level, using old old old recipes, that haven't changed over the last century! 

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Punctuated with amazing pictures of German cities and the 'you can just smell it' baked goods from the recipes, this is a jewel of a cookbook that hides underneath it's plain cover. If you love to bake, you NEED to add this cookbook to your collection, for it's divine recipes, that may require some more effort, but are SO SO SO much more worth the basic ones you make now! Luisa covers baking year round, but her holiday section is truly impecable in bringing childhood memories back to life with some amazing cookies and desserts (some of which require you to start the dough NOW!).

This is a book to give, and to cherish, especially if your family's German recipes have been lost! This is a greta way to get them back! Now if we can convince Luisa to do a book on German meals...

Check this book out- it's perfect for your holiday baking needs!

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About the Author:

LUISA WEISS is a Berlin-born, American-Italian food writer who grew up eating warm Streuselschnecken on her way to school and believes dark winter days are best enjoyed whilst sharing Lebkuchen and Zimtsterne with family and friends. Luisa is the creator of the blog The Wednesday Chef and author of the lauded memoir, My Berlin Kitchen. Her work has been featured on Design*Sponge and National Public Radio and in Food&Wine, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, and Harper’s Bazaar Germany, among many others. She lives in Berlin with her husband and son.

Mohnkuchen

Recipe:

Picking ONE recipe to showcase is pretty difficult from this great book! But I decided to go with one that says FALL to me, but is not pumpkin or apple spiced! This is a great 'take a break' from American styled Fall recipes, and return to simplicity!

Mohnkuchen

Mohnkuchen recipe 1

Mohnkuchen recipe 2

Mohnkuchen recipe 3


Notes: 
1. Instead of having fresh poppy seeds, I had the small ones found in the supermarket aisle. They were too small to use with the coffee grinder, so instead I used a zester, rubbing them on it, before adding to the pot. It really made a HUGE taste difference!

2. I tested the recipe, using a variation on flavoring, and cooked in an Angel Food style pan. Because it was of a larger size, I went 50 minutes, but my bundt pan would definitely have been done at 45 minutes. So DO carefully check if you are using a bundt pan!

3. Due to having a kid in the house, I added a simple confectioner sugar lemon glaze on top instead of dusting. It added a bit of sweetness, and using the last of the Summer lemons added a great flavor combination!

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