Note: Now that you eat dairy, I suggest you spread a heap of butter over while it’s still blazing. That’ll put this bread over the top!
Thomasplitzchen Buns
Mom always said these could make your enemies your friends or your friends your enemies. I put on five pounds every St. Thomas Day because of them, so I’d say they’re my friendly enemies. Too good to eat just one.
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter
½ cup sugar or brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ cup milk
Filling
3 teaspoons melted butter
1 cup currants, raisins, cranberries, or whatever small, dried fruit you have on hand
¼ cup sugar
Icing
3 tablespoons melted butter
Few drops vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar
Mix up all the ingredients for the buns. Get a rolling pin and press out the dough to one-eighth-inch thick on a floured board. Mix together the filling: butter, dried fruit, and sugar. Spread it on the dough. Roll it up like a fat sausage, and make one-inch slices. Put them pinwheel side up on a greased cookie sheet and bake off in a pre-heated 350°F oven until barely suntanned on top. For me, that’s about 12 minutes on a hot day and 15 on a cold one. To make the icing, mix together butter, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar. When the buns are out of the oven, give them a good sugar smothering and let cool.
Lebkuchen Hearts
These puppies will keep for months in the freezer and still taste like heaven! Shh—don’t tell the customers.
½ cup honey
½ cup dark molasses
¾ cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons almond oil
1 large egg
2¾ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
½ teaspoon ground ginger
In a pan, boil honey and molasses. Let it cool, then add brown sugar, almond oil, and egg. In another bowl, mix flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cardamom, and ginger. Pour wet into dry ingredients. Make sure it’s good and mixed. (Sometimes we add chopped hazelnuts or almonds, but Mom likes them the plain old-fashioned way.) Cover dough, and chill in refrigerator overnight.
In the morning, roll out the dough and cut into heart shapes—or spread in a pan for squares. Bake until it springs back to the touch. Careful not to burn yourself! Usually takes about 15 minutes at 350°F. Glaze top with icing (recipe below). Let cool until it doesn’t drip. Cut into squares if you’re making them that way, and decorate with almond slices or colored icing or really anything you fancy.
Lebkuchen Icing
1 cup white sugar
½ cup water
½ cup powdered sugar
Boil the white sugar and water for a good 5 minutes, so the sugar is dissolved. Take off the stove and mix in powdered sugar. Brush on warm lebkuchen.
Brötchen
There’s nothing more German than this recipe. A staple for all true Schmidt bakers. These are best hot out of the oven with butter or cherry jam. That’s the way Mom did it. Here, I’ll give you Oma’s cherry jam recipe too.
2½ to 3 cups all-purpose flour
1 packet active dry yeast (rapid)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg white
Put 2½ cups flour into a large bowl and make a well in the middle. Pour yeast, sugar, and two tablespoons of warm water (the water comes from the 1 cup) into the well. Mix yeast, sugar, and water in the well, but don’t mix in the flour yet. Cover the bowl with a cloth and set it in a warm place for 15 minutes until it proofs. Add the rest of the water and oil, and beat in the salt and flour good. Turn out the dough on a floured wooden board, and knead. Add the remaining ½ cup flour as needed to make it smooth. Put dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let it rise until it doubles in size. About an hour in that same warm spot.
Punch down, then split it into 12 pieces. Shape into rolls and place 3 inches apart on a greased and floured baking tray. Cover and let rise one more time until they double again.
Cut a cross on top of each. Beat egg white and 1 teaspoon water with a fork until frothy and brush the rolls. (Oh, I forgot—should have preheated the oven to 450°F already.) Then you bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the tops are golden.
Oma’s Cherry Jam
Mom would’ve insisted that you eat this on brötchen to cut the sweet and sour.
She claimed it could rot your teeth otherwise. But I used to sneak spoonfuls right out of the jar as a kid, and I still got a full set of chompers.
2 lbs (6 cups) pitted cherries, chop them up or keep them whole according to your preference
5 cups white sugar
½ teaspoon butter
A splash or two of Kirschwasser (German cherry liquor—very good!)
Note: Some recipes use lemon juice, but Oma didn’t often have a lemon hanging around. You can make this without the butter and Kirschwasser, too, if need be. The jam is just as tasty.
Place cherries in a large, heavy-duty pot. Stir in sugar. Let this sit together for 2 to 4 hours. Add the butter now (if using). Bring it all to a rolling boil, being sure to stir it good, until it gels on the back of a spoon. Then take it off the heat and skim away the foam. Add the Kirschwasser to taste. Spoon the cherry preserves into one-pint steilized jamming jars. Screw on the lids as tight as you can. Let stand inverted for 5 minutes then turn over. These will keep for as long as you like.
Schnecken Sticky German Snails (Cinnamon Rolls)
These are similar to Thomasplitzchen buns, only the ingredients are more expensive with messier results. Their decadence borders on sinful. They make a person want to gobble without a care for who’s watching! And Mom never discouraged folks from doing just that.
Dough
3⅓ cups bread flour
3 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
¼ ounce fast rise yeast or 1 tablespoon fresh yeast
⅓ cup unsalted butter
½ cup milk, plus 2 tablespoons
2 eggs
Syrup
½ cup unsalted butter, plus 1 tablespoon
2 tablespoons white sugar
½ cup maple syrup
1 cup nuts (walnuts or pecans or whatever you got in the pantry)
Glaze
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon cinnamon
Filling
3 tablespoons white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
Grease a 13- x 9-inch pan. Mix flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in a large bowl. Melt butter in the ½ cup milk over very low heat and beat in eggs. Stir the milk-n-butter mixture into the dry ingredients to make the dough. Knead for 10 minutes. When it’s soft but springy, form a ball and put in a greased bowl. Turn to coat and cover. Leave in a warm place for an hour until it doubles in size. While that’s rising, go ahead and make the syrup.