When visiting Germany, forget that low-carb diet. Famous not only for its dark bread, but also its baked goods, the variety of bread types in Germany is huge. German cookies and cakes are also known all over the world, with German Christmas specialties popular especially. Compared to American cookies and cakes, German baked goods are usually less sweet. Seasonal baked goods include the ubiquitous Stollen (yeast sweet bread with dried fruits and nuts) and gingerbread (Lebkuchen).
But you don’t have to actually get out of the house to enjoy a taste of Germany. For those of us still testing the waters when it comes to international travel, Luisa Weiss’ cookbook will do just fine. Dedicated to the rich baking traditions from German-speaking countries, her second cookbook, Classic German Baking, includes more than 100 rigorously researched and tested recipes.
There’s also an emphasis on holiday specialties, with an entire chapter dedicated to the best recipes for Christmas cookies, sweetbreads, and other holiday confections.
One such delicacy is the lebkuchen-powidltatschkerln (plum-filled gingerbread pockets), which Weiss counts as a favorite of hers. “They’re little rye cookies that you fill with plum paste and pull together and crimp,” she shared in an interview with AFAR. “They’re delicious and chewy and fruity.”
Another favorite of hers is the biberle, described as “a really thin gingerbread dough rolled around a log of almond paste. They look like [the snack food] Combos, and they’re spicy, gingerbread-y, rich from the almond paste, and just such a delight.”
According to Weiss, German baking has influenced baking traditions around the world for generations and is a source of great nostalgia for those of German and Central European heritage. In fact, the origins of some of America’s most familiar baked goods including doughnuts, Danish, bagels, pretzels, and coffee cake, have come from Germany.
“With the enormous immigration of Germans into the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries, many German baking traditions were infused into American ones,” Weiss shared in another interview with Bake from Scratch. “That’s why so many American baked goods are direct descendants of traditional German desserts.”
