German Recipes Archives - Jenny is baking

Traditional Gingerbread Heart for the Oktoberfest

For the beginning of the Oktoberfest I decided to introduce gingerbread hearts, they are a staple during this time, decorated with royal icing, often in blue and white for the Bavarian colors and showing the edelweiss flower common in the mountains. These gingerbread hearts, however, don’t necessarily need to be served for the Oktoberfest only, you can also give them as a gift for a special occasion such as a wedding, baptism, or as another sweet giveaway. Essentially, I went for my beloved recipe for gingerbread, which has been on my blog for a while. You can very easily make a vegan version of this recipe as it does not contain eggs. Please see details in the recipe below.

I asked several experts who have eaten hearts from the Oktoberfest and they did tell me that yes, you usually make it with the traditional gingerbread spices. You don’t necessarily have to, but it is pretty common. So folks, if you are in for some decorating, for having fun, this recipe is for you!

16/09/2022

Simple Cherry Cake for a Picnic

This simple cherry cake has a little embarassing backstory. I once baked this cake many years ago when I was going to college. I remember, it was during one of these horrible times when there were like tons of exams and I was studying like there was no tomorrow. It felt like my brain was a hardware drive and had to be fully deleted and swiped clean just to be crammed again with data and facts for the next exam. It was during this time that my roommate asked for the recipe because she enjoyed it the first time around. She had planned to make it for her family visiting. And I simply didn’t remember anymore where I got it from, my brain, my hard drive had gone blank. However, I was too ashamed to admit to not knowing, so I simply did some research and gave her a recipe I found. Unfortunately, the recipe I had passed on to her was not nearly as good. But I kept quiet, I was too embarassed. Years later when I flipped through the very old cookbook my mom had given to me from the famous German brand Dr. Oetker, I realized that actually this was the recipe I had used back then. So, Susann, if you are reading this, it had nothing to do with your baking abilities, I simply had passed on the wrong recipe to you! Sorry for that.

08/07/2022

Eierschecke from Dresden

Today I am going to introduce an extremely nostalgic recipe, it is called Dresdner Eierschecke, which loosely translates as a cheesecake from the city Dresden. You will find a lot of different varieties of this delicious cake. It may come along as a sheetcake, it may be a traditional round cake like in my case. Some are prepared with yeast dough, some with a pie crust. The word “Schecke” apprently comes from the late Middle Ages and would decribe a tunic with three parts: upper part, belt, and lower part. Thus, typically an Eierschecke would have three layers, the base (yeast dough, pie crust or a pound cake), the cheesecake or quark layer, and the top, which is like a custard.

10/06/2022

Fifth Blog Birthday and a Raspberry Chocolate Cake

In four days on February 15th, this blog will turn five. That’s reason to celebrate! That’s why I am offering this super delicious raspberry chocolate cake. Why I am doing it four days in advance and why this is the second chocolate raspberry cake on the blog, I will let you know below.

I don’t remember distinctly why I hit “publish” on a Thursday, which was February 15th, 2017. I believe I had made this French lemon tart for Valentine’s. My hubby loves anything with citrus fruits. At the beginning of this blog I thought I wouldn’t publish anything other than cookie recipes and recipes my husband requested. It may sound stupid, but it also holds true in baking. Practice makes perfect. I baked, and baked, and baked. I would simply pick recipes I liked on the Internet. If I happened to make the recipe again, I would usually tweak it a bit. At the beginning I followed recipes as much as I could, tried to understand the basics. At some point I would start creating my own recipes. I would probably use a cake based I used in recipe X, but liked the filling of recipe Y better and would happily mix and match. In 2019 a good friend of mine asked me whether I would be willing to bake her wedding cake with 100 guests. I agreed as I believed to have one full year to practice. Due to COVID one year turned into two, so I practiced layer cake after layer cake. There is a reason that I published some many cake recipes in 2020 and 2021. Many of those were trial runs for the wedding cake. Among these was my first chocolate raspberry cake. Very soon I learned that this was super popular. You guys made that recipe your number 2 in 2020 as well as 2021, I just checked. I am so happy every time somebody bakes it again.

11/02/2022

Simple Lemon Loaf or Lemon Pound Cake

Today you will get a simple, yet extra moist and very lemony lemon loaf or lemon pound cake. If my hubby were to decide, I am sure I would be making cakes with citrus fruits all the time. It is by no accident that my first published recipe is a French tarte au citron oder lemon tart. I made it for Valentine’s Day and published it shortly afterwards. My list can go on and on, I do have double lemon cupcakes, blueberry lemon cake, American lemon pie and (key) lime pie on the blog, I think it is endless. All of these baked goods were for him, of course. He just loves this tart flavor and I won’t say no to lemons and limes either. Especially in winter when fruits are harder to get and the options limited. So I decided to make a simple lemon loaf. The recipe I found used tons of lemons so I gave it a go and the result is full of lemon flavor.

04/02/2022

Vegan German Mole Cake

Veganer Maulwurfkuchen mit einfachen Zutaten

Did you have a wonderful New Year’s Eve? Did you make any New Year’s resolutions? I am somebody who usually doesn’t start with many ambitious resolutions. In my opinion it does not take long for those ambitious dreams to crash, the very latest in February. They don’t last very long. However, this year I decided to eat a bit healthier during January. Especially after the very decadent December it feels good. For that reason the recipes of January 2022 are going to be healthier. I am saying “healthier” as “healthy” is too strong of a word and also depends on what you consider this to be. I am going to post only vegan recipes in January. They are still going to be sweet and some people consider sugar to be bad. It has gotten a pretty bad reputation. I will start with the German mole cake as pictured.

07/01/2022

Classic Frisian Cookies

If you are looking for a plain cookie that goes well all year round, look no further, these Frisian cookies are for you. They are prepared with a simple dough, containing constarch to make them extra tender. They go well with a nice cup of tea (normally black in the north of Germany). The cookies remind me of the Argentinian or Uruguayan cookies called alfajores as they also contain cornstarch. Classic Frisian cookies are also related to Heidesand cookies, which are also rolled first and then sliced into cookies and are also from the north of Germany from the region Lüneburger Heide.

12/11/2021

Apple Turnovers with Rough Puff Pastry

Buttrige Apfeltaschen mit Blitzblätterteig

Today I am offering buttery apple turnovers, which we will make with rough puff pastry. Yes, you read right, we will make the rough puff pastry ourselves, but I believe it is so worth it. It does require a bit of work, but definitely not as much as real puff pastry. Of course you are free to buy puff pastry if you believe it is too much work. I filled mine with buttered apples, which were spiced up with a few spices. Are you interested in the recipe?

31/07/2021

Snow White Cake with Strawberries

We finally need another German recipe on the blog, for that reason you will get the typical Snow White Cake aka Donauwelle. But I am serving this classic with a twist, you will get it with strawberries instead of cherries. This cake contains a marbled cake base (another super German recipe) into which you press some cherries (normally), followed by a layer of German buttercream and topped off with a chocolate layer. Beside the Black Forest Cake this Snow White Cake is super German for me. But since I was not in the mood for canned cherries, I decided to use a lot of fresh strawberries, so my buttercream contains chunks of strawberry. The chocolate layer also has some strawberries tucked inside. Because why not? Continue Reading…

21/05/2021

The Fluffiest Braided Bread

This fluffy and soft braided bread is traditionally served for breakfast on Easter in Germany. I made it the first time last year in 2020 when Europe was in heavy lockdown due to COVID19 and it was hard to get flour and yeast. I was grateful I always have active-dry yeast on hand, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to make this delicious bread. I have tried many different types of this bread, but this one is by far the fluffiest and softest and for that reason I am confident to present it here.

06/03/2021

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