
German Heritage Baking
Cookbook By: Heidrun Metzler

“My vision is that when new bakers open this book and start reading, they will think, I can bake this recipe!,” Heidrun Metzler from German Heritage Baking: Time-Honored Recipes, Traditional Techniques, and Culinary Secrets.
I was gifted this cookbook and am happy to add it to my collection. German Heritage Baking: Time-Honored Recipes, Traditional Techniques, and Culinary Secrets is a great cookbook to have on your shelf. Heidurn takes the traditional German recipes she grew up making with her family and translates them to make them accessible for any home baker.
The biggest problem I had was deciding which two recipes to test out as there were so many that I wanted to try immediately. Read on to see what I made and how each recipe turned out.

Butter Cookies
Finding the perfect cookie recipe for cut out cookies is on my to do list. In the never ending search I found this recipe for butter cookies. After reading through the recipe I realized that I have never come across a similar cookie recipe. This made it a super easy decision to try these butter cookies.
The recipe was very straightforward, although it seemed odd to me that you use 1/2 cup cornstarch, but it works. All of the recipes in this cookbook are tested using Gold Medal flour and if you don’t know every flour in the U.S.A. absorbs water and liquids in different capacities. Make sure you read the detailed information Heidrun has in the cookbook’s beginning to help you choose your flour. I’ll be honest – I totally missed it – and panicked a little bit when my cookie dough didn’t come together as my local grocery store doesn’t carry Gold Medal flour. Instead, I picked up the Publix brand and needed to add a little more butter and water for my dough to be perfect. Thank you to Heidrun for answering my DM quickly!
Once the dough came together it was super simple to cut out all the cookies and get them in the oven. I didn’t feel like decorating with frosting so I used colored sprinkles, just remember to add them on before baking.
These cookies were so tasty and they didn’t spread at all! It’s been so long since I’ve made cutout cookies of any type that didn’t spread and it was so nice to pull them out and they still looked perfect. The butter cookies were perfect with just the egg wash but even better with the sprinkles! This recipe is going to on my list of best cookie recipes and I will be making them again. Next time I am going to hunt down some Gold Medal flour to use!

Cherry Turnovers
When looking for a fruit-based dessert I tend to gravitate to apple dishes, instead of sticking to my normal I wanted to try to make something new, so I chose these cherry turnovers. I am so glad that I did.
The recipe calls for premade frozen puff pastry sheets making the cherry turnovers easier to make. I was surprised by how quick it was to make these. It took longer for the puff pastry to defrost than to make up the cherry filling. I omitted the cherry brandy from the recipe – this is just a personal decision as I am not a fan of alcohol in any baking recipe. For making the squares I didn’t have a cutter, but I did roll out the puff pastry on my silicone pastry mat and it has measurements on the edges making it easy to use a sharp knife and make the cuts for the squares. I was a little conservative in how much filling to put in each pastry, putting one heaping tablespoon, so I was able to make more than nine cherry turnovers. The recipe has an optional sugar glaze and I tried some with and some without the sugar glaze – I preferred the ones with the glaze!
The cherry turnovers were heavenly – I was shocked by how much I liked them. Everyone else who ate them also loved them and they were just as good heated up the next day. These are a great thing to make any time of the year – especially if you are having guests over.

I would recommend home bakers pick up a copy of German Heritage Baking: Time-Honored Recipes, Traditional Techniques, and Culinary Secrets. It offers any home baker the chance to bring these delicious German treats easily to your own kitchen.
The list of recipes I want to try is so long but here are a few that I am excited to try soon: Strawberry Yogurt Cream Torte, Cinnamon Stars, Pear Frangipane Tart, and Mixed Berry Pie. Which recipe do you want to try first?


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