I’m getting a site upgrade, so I’m hoping there will soon be a solution to my periodic email problems, whereby I lose a whole slew of reader questions at one go. Until then, please keep after me if you’ve sent me a question and haven’t heard anything back. I’m not ignoring you, I’m just technologically […]
READ ONReader Dianne writes: Dear Joe, I hope you can solve my mystery. I have been making World Peace Cookies successfully for several years, until now. Suddenly my cookies are coming out flat. And the edges are sometimes bubbled, kind of like Florentines. I am using the same recipe and the same oven and the same […]
READ ONReader Joe writes: I saw that Rick Rogers has an entry on Rehruchen in his Kaffeehaus book. He mentions that “Rehruchen is always made with cake crumbs, never flour and is gently spiced.” I also found this on Wikipedia in Spanish and translated: The Rehrücken Baden-Baden is a traditional dish of the region of Baden-Baden, […]
READ ONReader Tom writes in from Vienna: The Rehrücken is traditionally part of the Austrian confection of pastry, like Sacher Torte. Yet I have no evidence to prove it except it is really traditional. [Your recipe] is kind of strange because of the ginger, which is definetly not part of any Rehrücken-recipe here. Same goes for […]
READ ONAlright. All you men out there, take a knee. Gentlemen, let’s face it, it can be hard to hold your head up high when you tell people you make cakes for fun. Pastry has certain pantywaist associations that can be hard to live down. But right here is a cake that any man would be […]
READ ONThis is one of those components that’s so simple that it almost doesn’t need a tutorial. However I remember the first time I ever read a recipe that called for it, I thought: what the heck is that? It was never explained. Now me, I’d rather err on the side of too much information, so […]
READ ONAs distinctive as a rehrücken is, there isn’t much history associated with it. Or at least not much that I was able to find. My assumption was that it was Austrian, however one source I came across claimed that it hails from Swabia in extreme southern Germany. I found nothing at all to back that […]
READ ONI say this a lot, but it bears repeating: the biggest secret to making great pastry is leaving yourself plenty of time to perform all the tasks involved. Trying to cram everything into one afternoon on the day of your dinner party is a recipe for disaster. Which is why a conscientious baker takes care […]
READ ONThat from reader Rose, and it’s a good question. Deer hunters and/or their families know the reason why: because venison is very lean meat. A cut like a tenderloin is particularly so. It doesn’t have much connective tissue in it, so it isn’t tough, but even when it’s properly roasted, it’s dry. So in-the-know venison […]
READ ONThere are lots of recipes out there for rehrücken if you start hunting around a bit. Most are simple bundt-style, extra-moist chocolate cakes that just happen to be made in a rehrücken mold. I prefer this formula by Austrian pastry chef Stephan Franz since it’s a spongecake, which makes it closer in spirit to the […]
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