Kaiserschmarm

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Today’s recipe comes from Austria! Hurray! Austria is so pretty and beautiful. Since I <3 it so much I will be posting the recipe for what is probably the most famous sweets in Austria. Today you get Kaiserschmarm! It’s delicious. Of course, Austria is known for its sweets so this is a really sweet recipe. If you don’t like sickly sweet things, I don’t recommend eating it. That being said, if you make it for a Holiday Party it will be the hit of the party. So enjoy!

Ingredients

·         ½ cup of unbleached flour

·         5 tablespoons of vanilla sugar

·         ½ teaspoons of sea salt

·         1 cup of heavy milk

·         5 eggs that are separated

·         2 tablespoons of butter

·         Confectioners’ sugar

Directions

·         Sift flour, sugar, and salt together in a mixing bowl

·         Pour the milk slowly into the dry mixture while stirring

·         Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating until well blended before adding the next egg yolk

·         Place the egg whites in a separate bowl

·         Beat until egg whites form stiff peaks

·         Gently stir 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter

·         Fold in the remaining egg whites.

·         Melt 1 tablespoon butter in an 8 inch skillet over moderate heat

·         Pour in half the batter and cook about 4 minutes or until browned on the bottom

·         Loosen edges and slide pancake onto a plate using spatula

·         Invert the pancake back into the skillet and cook until both sides are brown (Takes about 2 minutes)

·         Remove to a warm platter and keep warm

·         Repeat with the rest of the batter

·          Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve

Wiener Backhendl

Happy day before Labor Day everyone! Today I am going to give you all a recipe for fried chicken. Now, I know what you are thinking. Everyone has a recipe for fried chicken. This is different than most though. This is a fried chicken that is breaded. It’s really good and, going along with what seems to be an international food theme of this blog, it is a recipe from Austria! Huzzah! I <3 Austria. It’s really pretty there. Anyways, I will give you the traditional way of making this recipe instead of the American version of it. Don’t get me wrong, I love my country, but we royaly screw up 90% of international recipes when we try to “Americanize” them. Oh, and the dish is actually called Wiener Backhendl if you are wondering. It isn’t just breaded fried chicken.

Ingredients

·         1 skinless 3-pound chicken for frying cut into 4 pieces

·         1 tablespoon of sea salt

·         ½ cup of flour, preferably non-bleached flour. (Seriously, why bleach flour? That’s retarded)

·         1 egg that has been lightly beaten

·         1 ½ cups of bread crumbs

·         ½ pound of lard, you can use a lard substitute if you want to

·         Lemon wedges

Directions

·         Dry chicken

·         Lightly salt each piece

·         Dip the chicken in the flour

·         Dip in the egg

·         Roll each piece in the bread crumbs, making sure that it is coated thoroughly

·         Preheat oven to 250 degrees F

·         In a heavy skillet heat lard until it is slightly hazy

·         Add the chicken

·         When the chicken is dark golden brown, but not burnt, turn to the other side

·         Put each piece of chicken into a baking dish and set in the oven

·         Bake for 10 to 15 minutes

·         Garnish with the lemon wedges

There you have it. A recipe from Austria-Hungary. Hope you enjoy it. Until next time!

Raspberry Torte

Well, it has been a super busy month since I posted last. I got publish, which is why I have not put anything new up for a bit. Huzzah! If you are all interested in knowing more about the book, please hop on over to my German language blog and translate the post about it there. 

Anyways, this is a recipe for a Raspberry Torte that I was given a few years ago. It's pretty tasty. One of my friends made it on St. Valentine's Day and it turned out well for her. So, here is the recipe for you all! Hope you all enjoy it as much as everyone else has! Fair warning though, this cake takes a great deal of work to make and it is very touchy to humidity. If it is too humid the cake will have a greater chance of falling and if it is too dry it will crack and not go together right.

Ingredients for Cake

• 5 eggs, separated
• 1/2 cup of shortening
• 1/2 cup of butter, softened
• 2 cups of sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 2 cups of cake flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 cup of buttermilk
• 1 cup of toasted pecans, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup of flaked coconut
• 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar

Ingredients for Filling/Frosting

• 1 cup of raspberry preserves, warmed
• 11 ounces of cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup of butter, softened
• 6 1/2 cups of confectioners' sugar
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup of chopped pecans

Directions

• Let eggs stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. In a large mixing bowl, cream the shortening, butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour and baking soda; add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Stir in pecans and coconut.
• In another mixing bowl and with clean beaters, beat egg whites and cream of tartar on high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold a fourth of egg whites into the batter, then fold in remaining whites.
• Pour into three greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 28-30 minutes or top springs back lightly when touched. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
• Spread raspberry preserves over the top of two cake layers. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and confectioners' sugar until fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Place one raspberry topped cake layer on a serving plate. Spread with some of the frosting. Repeat with second raspberry topped cake layer. Top with plain cake layer. Spread remaining frosting over the top and sides of cake. Sprinkle with nuts.

Well, there you have it! Hope you enjoy! It is definitely worth the trouble. Also, if you replace the plain sugar in the cake with vanilla sugar it give the cake a bit more flavour. Also, you can put some frosting between the layers in additions to the preserves. If you choose to do that though keep in mind that you will need to frost the cake before putting the preserves on.