Zwetschgendatschi

I tried my hand at making a 'German cookie' as M. would say.

This took awhile to make as the recipe was all in German and there were some mystery words for me. I had to send an email to Christina to figure out how to measure in metric and that resulted in a new kitchen gadget for me. I love new kitchen gadgets. The dough is a yeast dough so rising time was needed.



I went to the stand to get some zwetschgen and the guy there was laughing at me - you try saying 'Ich haette gerne zwei kilo zwetschgen' and you will see what I mean. He said, 'Machen sie datschi?" Indeed, my Bavarian friend, indeed. He cut up one on the spot for me to try, smiling at my reaction.



For those who don't know what zwetschgen are*, they are basically plums, but smaller and firmer. This makes them ideal for baking with since they hold their texture under heat.

In the end, I think it was all worth it but I need my taste tester here to confirm authenticity. A couple of notes on the recipe though...

It seems that 1 kilo is more than enough zwetschgen. Fine for me as I will eat the other kilo this weekend. Yum! I wonder if Mom and Dad remember last year when they were here and M. sent us on our way to Vienna with a couple kilo of zwetschgen that we toted and ate for 4 days straight. There were still a kilo left when we got back.

Also, it would have been better if I didn't roll the dough so thin. It ended up more like a pizza with crust than an evenly distributed cake.

Other than that I think I need to invite the neighbors over for Kaffee and Kuechen to make a dent in this!

Before:


After:


*I was summoned at work recently by a friend of a reader of this blog who said he was being asked what a dirndl was (prompted by a previous post of mine). You know who you are ;-) I will try to be better about explaining German things to the Americans in the future.

Posted from Munich

Rhubarb

Tis the season for strawberries and rhubarb. M. came home from shopping yesterday and informed me he had bought a couple of kilos of rhubarb and could I please make something nice with it. Absolutely!

I was browsing around the internet when I coincidentally saw Unswiss Miss's suggestion for compote. M. had requested that we use half the rhubarb for compote so he was in charge of that recipe. I was thinking more something like rhubarb crumble or rhubarb pie. After some deliberation, I settled on this strawberry-rhubarb crumb pie from Allrecipes (what can I say, seemed like the perfect mix of all options).







As we were baking, the first thunderstorm of the season blew in and it got all dark. We lit some candles, fired up the country music and sat out on the porch watching the wind, rain and lightning. I love a big thunderstorm in the afternoon. For a moment, I felt like I was back in Virginia. The pie was fantastic.



Posted from Munich