zwetschgen cobbler

My German teacher spent at least five minutes trying to explain what a "zwetschge" was before I finally looked it up in my dictionary: it's a plum. Back in CA, plums were usually round, juicy, and either light or dark purple. Zwetschgen are oval, tiny, dry, black on the outside and decidedly green on the inside. So you can see why I was confused. I later learned that there are about 20 plum varieties regularly available commercially and in the US, we generally consume Japanese varieties which have a clingstone pit and are juicier than the "European" plum.

Anyway... people go crazy for zwetschgen here, or any fruit really . In Zurich, you can tell the month by the type of fruit cake on the menu. So now every restaurant has a Zwetschgenkuchen, replacing August's Pfirsichkuchen and July's Aprikosenkuchen. Seasonal eating is fun but makes me panic - I'm afraid the season will end before I get my fill. So despite my better judgment, I made another dessert that will primarily end up in my own tummy. I really need more friends so I don't have to eat everything myself.

So here's the anatomy of my plum cobbler...
an admittedly humble offering compared to the fancy plum treats I've seen on various food blogs this month.

Prepare the filling
Preheat oven to 425F(220C). Pit and quarter one kilo plums.
Lovingly blanket them with 1.25cups sugar.
Drizzle 2TB of lemon juice and dot with 4TB of butter.

Make the bisquit dough
Mix 1 cup flour, 2TB sugar, 1/4tsp salt, 2tsp baking powder. Cut in 4TB butter. Lightly add 6TB cold milk. Knead on lightly floured counter 8-12 times until cohesive ball. Pat gently into pan shape and place over fruit. Tuck into sides, covering all the fruit. The recipe calls for an 8x8 pan. I doubled the dough to fit my oval dish.

Bake 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream. Reheat leftovers for breakfast.(from Fannie Farmer's Baking Book)

empanadas

About once a year, my husband tries to make an authentic empanada, which he fondly remembers from his years living in Argentina. Although delicious, they are never “just right”, suffering from some indescribable error in the dough or filling. But this time, we discovered at least one secret: lard! It turns out, not only is lard critical in the dough itself, but also in the filling. According to my husband, a real empanada should drip fat down your arms when you eat it.

In San Francisco, I would get my lard at the Mexican markets. But in Zurich, we had to settle for Schweinefett at the Jelmoli’s gourmet factory. I’m not quite sure it’s the same thing. The Schweinefett was bright white, while I think lard is more translucent and yellowy. Regardless, it creates a much more authentic flavor. I have a little leftover so I see some refried beans in my future. Yum yum.

Empanada Dough, from Joy of Cooking
I tried my favorite sour cream turnover dough, which was very good but maybe too fancy for this classic street food. This dough uses lard, which gives a more hearty flavor.

Place in a large bowl or food processor:
3 cups flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Mix with a fork or pulse until combined. Add:
10 tbsp (5oz) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
½ cup lard or shortening, cut into small pieces

Cut the butter and lard into the flour mixture using a pastry blender or pulse in a food processor until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. If using food processor, transfer to a large bowl. Drizzle over the top:
11-13 tbsp ice water

Mix gently with a fork until the flour mixture is dampened enough to gather into a ball. Shape into a flat disk, wrap tightly in plastic, and refrigerate for a least an hour. (My counter can’t accommodate rolling out the whole thing, so I divide the dough in half and wrap each half separately).

Filling
After reading many empanada recipes, my husband threw the filling together from a general outline. I tried to capture what he did in this recipe, but I suspect there’s some magic in his method that I’m missing. Warning: this makes much more than the above dough can accommodate. Use your best judgment.

Heat in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat: ½ cup lard

Add: ¾ kilo onions, diced

Cook, stirring, until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in:
2 carrots, chopped
2 medium potatoes, chopped
~800 grams ground beef
1 TB salt
1 TB caldo or bouillon

“Slow cook” for maybe 30 minutes. Meanwhile, hard boil 3 eggs

Take off heat. Stir in:
½ TB paprika
1 TB cumin
2 TB sugar
1 cup raisins

Cool mixture. Stir in:
3 hardboiled eggs, chopped
~1/2 cup green olives, chopped

Refrigerate until ready to use.

Assemble & Cook
Preheat oven to 400F. Roll out the dough 1/8 inch thick on a lightly floured surface. Cut 6-inch rounds. Re-roll scraps as necessary. Spoon ¼ cup of filling onto one side of each round. Moisten the edges of the edges together to completely enclose the filling. Roll the edges for a decorative edge. Place 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. Optionally brush tops with egg wash. Bake until nicely browned 15-25 minutes (depending on the size of the empanadas), till golden brown.

knödeling

r
Germknödel

It's fun how different food is just three hours away. Here's some of the food we ate in Fussen, Germany...

My strategy is two-fold. First, I like to order local specialities. Second, I like to order anything I can't translate. This dish met both criteria. It's called Allgäuer Krautkrapfen, which obviously contains sauerkraut. But I actually ordered a different special that I couldn't translate. Since I didn't know what I had ordered, I just ate this one and figured it out later. I didn't think I liked sauerkraut, but it was delicious! So much so that I ordered it again later in this next dish, Knödel mit Kraut.

This was also very delicious, the knödel being made of potato and speck, I think. Both meals were served at the top of different gondolas, which is where I've been getting all my good meals lately. I see more hiking in my future.

inside the Germknödel ... breakfast

Lastly, the sweet stuff. The first is the inside of the Germknödel, pictured at the top. The name didn't sound very appetizing. But I had seen it on every menu during our trip so it had to be tried. It was good, if not great. It was a steamed bun filled with a plum paste (so weird, I expected chocolate or custard), surrounded by a vanilla custard sauce, topped with Mohn, which translates to "poppy" but it wasn't quite poppy seeds.

The second is fresh apple strudel with ice cream. You can get this in lots of places but it gets special billing because it was served as the main dish in an elaborate breakfast spread done by our hotel. Being on vacation means ice cream for breakfast - yum yum!

fraisage it

plum and raspberry free-form tart

In my opinion, the best thing about late summer stone fruit desserts is the dough: buttery pastries, nutty crisps, flaky bisquits, luscious dumplings - anything made with flour, butter, and sugar that can soak up those sweet fruit juices and still deliver a crunch. This free form tart is one of my favorites, using the "fraisage" technique, which practically guarantees fabulous flakiness in any butter dough. Once the dough is combined, you dump it onto the counter and smear it in sections with the heel of one hand. This changes the butter configuration into layers, instead of little bits. The recipe below from Cook's Illustrated introduced me to the technique, but now I use this on lots of my other pastry doughs, for pies, turnovers, etc,. with excellent results. Try it, you'll love it.

before, during, and after

Free Form Tart Recipe
Source: Cook's Illustrated, view full article & illustrations

Dough
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (7 1/2 ounces), plus additional for work surface
1/2 teaspoon table salt
10 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/4 sticks), cold, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 - 6 tablespoons water (ice cold)

Fruit Filling
1 pound peaches , nectarines, apricots, or plums (I used Zwetschgen plums and raspberries)
1 cup berries (about 1/2 dry pint)
3-5 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon granulated sugar for sprinkling

Note: The amount of water that the dough will require depends on the ambient humidity; in a dry environment, it may need more water, in a humid environment, less. The dough can be made ahead and refrigerated overnight or tightly wrapped in two sheets of plastic wrap and frozen for up to one week. If at any point the dough becomes soft, sticky, and dificult to work with during rolling, chill it until it becomes workable.

1. For the dough: In food processor, pulse flour and salt to combine, about three 1-second pulses. Scatter butter pieces over flour, then pulse until texture resembles coarse bread crumbs and butter pieces about the size of small peas remain, ten to twelve 1-second pulses. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon water over mixture and process 1 second; repeat until dough begins to form small curds and holds together when pinched with fingers. Empty dough onto work surface; dough will be crumbly (if dough has large dry areas, sprinkle additional 2 teaspoons water over dry areas and incorporate by gently fluffing entire amount of dough with fingers). Using bench scraper, gather dough into rough mound about 12 inches long and 4 inches wide (mound should be perpendicular to edge of counter). Beginning from farthest end, use heel of a hand to smear about one sixth of dough against work surface away from you. Repeat until all dough has been worked. Using bench scraper, gather dough again and repeat. Dough should now be cohesive. Form dough into 4-inch disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until cold and firm but malleable, about 1 hour.

2. For the filling: During last 30 minutes of chilling, prepare fruit. Halve and pit stone fruit and cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges. Gently wash and dry berries. Combine fruit in medium bowl (you should have about 3 cups); set aside. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees.

3. To assemble and bake: (If dough has chilled longer than 1 hour and is cold and hard, let stand at room temperature 15 to 20 minutes before proceeding.) On large sheet of parchment paper lightly dusted with flour, roll dough to 12-inch round about 3/16 inch thick, dusting with flour as needed. (If dough sticks to parchment, gently loosen and lift sticky area with bench scraper and dust parchment with additional flour.) Slide parchment and dough onto baking sheet and refrigerate until cool and firm yet pliant, 15 to 30 minutes (if refrigerated longer and dough is hard and brittle, let stand at room temperature until pliant).

4. Sprinkle fruit with sugar and toss gently to combine. Remove baking sheet with dough from refrigerator. Mound fruit in center of dough, leaving 2 1/2-inch border around edge. Carefully grasp one edge of dough and fold up outer 2 inches over fruit, leaving 1/2-inch area of dough just inside of fold free of fruit. Repeat around circumference of tart, overlapping dough every 2 to 3 inches; gently pinch pleated dough to secure, but do not press dough into fruit. Working quickly, brush dough with water and sprinkle evenly with 1 tablespoon sugar. Bake until crust is deep golden brown and fruit is bubbling, 50 to 55 minutes. Cool tart on baking sheet on wire rack 10 minutes. Using offset or wide metal spatula, loosen tart from parchment and carefully slide tart off parchment onto wire rack; cool until warm, about 30 minutes, or to room temperature, about 1 hour. Cut into wedges and serve.