For better or worse, cookbook photos often have a big influence on me; they can be the impetus behind decisions to make (or not make) a particular recipe. I really like Classic German Baking by Luisa Weiss, but it doesn't have many photos of finished baked goods. However, Weiss is taking on a project that I truly appreciate -- she has committed to posting photos online of each of the recipes from the cookbook. It's an ongoing project, but you can see it in progress here, on her blog.
As I was browsing the photo collection I noticed the picture of "Blitzkuchen" and decided to try the recipe. I hadn't paid attention to these cookies when I browsed through the cookbook, but it's because I hadn't read through the entire recipe and didn't realize that the cookies are baked in a single sheet and cut apart afterwards. I wanted to try the technique.
Weiss describes these as "thin, crisp sugar- and almond-spangled cookies that come together at lightning speed." You don't even need a mixer. You make the dough by putting flour, sugar, grated lemon zest, and salt into a mixing bowl; adding egg yolks and softened high-fat European butter; and kneading with your hands until you get a smooth dough. I used a mix of Finlandia and Kerrygold butters (the only reason for the mix was practical -- I had one block of each and neither alone was sufficient for the double batch of cookies I was making).
The recipe instructs you to roll out the dough on a sheet of parchment that has been cut to fit a baking sheet. But the recipe doesn't say what size baking sheet. I used half-sheet pans and rolled out the dough to cover as much of the paper as I could. Before baking, you brush the dough with egg white and sprinkle on a mixture of ground almonds, sugar, and salt. There was a lot of almond-sugar topping, but I used all of it and pressed it gently into the dough as directed before putting the cookies in the oven.
I baked the sheet until it was fragrant and the edges were golden. Immediately after taking the cookies out of the oven, I cut them into squares, about two and a half inches in size. While the recipe instructs you to cut the cookies on the diagonal to end up with diamonds, I just cut them parallel to the pan edges to minimize waste.
Even though it was the photo of these cookies that spurred me to make them, my cookies didn't look much like Weiss' photo. It wasn't just the square vs. diamond shape difference. Because I had so much almond-sugar topping, my cookies were completely covered in a substantial layer of blond ground almonds that didn't darken during baking. Weiss' cookies look like they have much less topping and they are significantly darker since you can see the color of the cookie dough showing through and not just the topping.
These cookies are fantastic. I loved everything about them -- their thin and neat appearance, their firm and crisp texture, and their buttery and bright lemon flavor. The headnote says that the lemon zest doesn't flavor the cookies outright, but I thought that the lemon flavor was at least as prominent as the almond flavor. And I didn't mind, although this could be remedied by the addition of some almond extract to the batter. I also didn't mind the bits of ground almonds that fell off the cookies since there was so much topping that it wasn't all attached. I would happily make and eat these cookies over and over and over again.
Recipe: "Blitzkuchen (Almond-Sugar Cookies)" from Classic German Baking by Luisa Weiss.
As I was browsing the photo collection I noticed the picture of "Blitzkuchen" and decided to try the recipe. I hadn't paid attention to these cookies when I browsed through the cookbook, but it's because I hadn't read through the entire recipe and didn't realize that the cookies are baked in a single sheet and cut apart afterwards. I wanted to try the technique.
Weiss describes these as "thin, crisp sugar- and almond-spangled cookies that come together at lightning speed." You don't even need a mixer. You make the dough by putting flour, sugar, grated lemon zest, and salt into a mixing bowl; adding egg yolks and softened high-fat European butter; and kneading with your hands until you get a smooth dough. I used a mix of Finlandia and Kerrygold butters (the only reason for the mix was practical -- I had one block of each and neither alone was sufficient for the double batch of cookies I was making).
The recipe instructs you to roll out the dough on a sheet of parchment that has been cut to fit a baking sheet. But the recipe doesn't say what size baking sheet. I used half-sheet pans and rolled out the dough to cover as much of the paper as I could. Before baking, you brush the dough with egg white and sprinkle on a mixture of ground almonds, sugar, and salt. There was a lot of almond-sugar topping, but I used all of it and pressed it gently into the dough as directed before putting the cookies in the oven.
Even though it was the photo of these cookies that spurred me to make them, my cookies didn't look much like Weiss' photo. It wasn't just the square vs. diamond shape difference. Because I had so much almond-sugar topping, my cookies were completely covered in a substantial layer of blond ground almonds that didn't darken during baking. Weiss' cookies look like they have much less topping and they are significantly darker since you can see the color of the cookie dough showing through and not just the topping.
These cookies are fantastic. I loved everything about them -- their thin and neat appearance, their firm and crisp texture, and their buttery and bright lemon flavor. The headnote says that the lemon zest doesn't flavor the cookies outright, but I thought that the lemon flavor was at least as prominent as the almond flavor. And I didn't mind, although this could be remedied by the addition of some almond extract to the batter. I also didn't mind the bits of ground almonds that fell off the cookies since there was so much topping that it wasn't all attached. I would happily make and eat these cookies over and over and over again.
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