Category: german
Turnip the Heat with Alsatian Lentil Soup
December 31, 2018
I don’t know about you, but this winter’s been hitting me pretty hard. It started early, and while there haven’t been any REALLY freezing days yet, the cold (and the dryness) are pretty relentless. All I really want to do is curl up under the covers with a nice warm bowl of soup. (What, you […]
Theodore Herzl’s Christmas Cookies: Spiced Chocolate Hazelnut Krokerle
December 24, 2018
Ever have ambivalent feelings about Christmas? So did the Jews of nineteenth-century Germany. While you might have though Chrismukkah is a modern invention, it actually wasn’t dreamed up by the writers of The O.C.—its history is much longer and, arguably, more distinguished than that. Prewar German and Austrian Jews were well known for having been […]
The Unexpected Origins of the Common Marble Cake
October 22, 2018
Originating in early nineteenth-century Germany, the marble cake is a relative newcomer to the Jewish baking pantheon (at least compared to such venerable sweets as honey cake). But it turns out that marble cake as we know it is even newer than that: rather than the familiar chocolate and vanilla, the earliest variants consisted of […]
Potatoes Are the New Chestnuts: German Chestnut Crème from The German-Jewish Cookbook
October 15, 2018
Orange is the new black. Thursday is the new Friday. 30 is the new 20. Potatoes are the new… chestnuts?! Yes, while our sad Eastern European forefathers and mothers were busy chowing down on, like, black radishes and parsley root, their Southern and Central European brethren were living the (comparative) good life on a chestnut-based […]
Blueberry Pie: Remembering Gideon’s, the Last Kosher Bakery in Washington Heights
July 30, 2018
When I first moved to Washington Heights some years back, I was entranced at the idea of living in a real live Jewish neighborhood. There was something faintly mythical about it all—nostalgic, even, for some Disney-fied ancestral past, so unlike the suburban California of my childhood. The wholesome-looking families out on their Shabbos walks. The […]
Bremer Kürbisbrot (Roasted Squash Bread)
March 10, 2018
So this is a little bit of a cheat, in that there’s really nothing Jewish about it. But I thought this delicious roasted squash bread was too delicious not to share here. Plus, baking bread is also a great way to use up flour before Passover, if that’s something you do.
World Shabbat Breads: Berches, the First Braided Challah
December 26, 2017
Berches, a German Shabbat bread, is both like and unlike the challah we know and love in America today. Like challah, it’s braided. Unlike most contemporary American challah, it’s made with an eggless dough—and, in place of egg, often contains mashed potato for a softer texture. The resulting loaf is pleasingly light and chewy, with […]