It's All About the Food

Best birthday present ever

The older I get, the fewer things I want. I am very, very lucky to have everything I need and much of what I want. With age also comes the knowledge that much of what I have I neither need nor want. Granted, much of the stuff isn't actually mine, and I have no real use for a two-foot high stack of ham radio magazines.

This made it difficult for my friends and family when I recently turned 40. What I really wanted was to take to dinner the people who had made the last 40 years so good. They very nicely let me, and we all had a wonderful, lovely time.

Some people weren't able to travel nearly 4,000 miles just to have dinner with. Instead, my beloved aunt Heide, who taught me to bake like a German during my internship in Stuttgart, mailed me a notebook of her baking recipes.

She divided the book into sweets, Christmas and savory baking. Old favorites like Schokoladekirschkuchen (chocolate almond cherry cake) are there, along with recipes I've wanted for years, like rhubarb cake and Swabian apple cake.

There are nearly fifty recipes in the book, many things I've had at Heide and Ernst's dining room table, or in their back yard next to the River Aich (more of a big stream), or in my aunt Emma's Stube, or in cousin Christel's garden. Not-so-sweet cakes with fresh or jarred fruit; spicy and nutty Christmas cookies; German quiches that make winter vegetables yummy. It is truly the best birthday present ever, representing decades of fond memories.

(I must qualify here -- it's the best birthday present that is a thing. I also received a surprise visit from a friend that is like a son. Both presents made me cry.)

I'll have to tell my produce store to keep some rhubarb and fresh currants for me.

One recipe I've meant to try for years is "Käsefüssle" which literally translates as cheesey feet, and will not surprise you is an idiom for stinky feet. They are a rich, flakey, cheesey foot-shaped "cookie" that makes a great appetizer. The recipe is very simple (combine, knead), and lots of fun for even small children to make. Obviously, you could make cheesey squares, or cheesey triangles, or cheesey strips if you don't have a foot-shaped cookie cutter.

Käsefüssle

1 2/3 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
pinch of hot paprika
1 egg
9 Tbs butter (1 stick plus 1 Tbs), cold, cut into 18 pieces
7 oz gouda or emmental, finely shredded
1 egg yolk
2 Tbs sesame seeds or poppy seeds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, mix all ingredients except yolk and seeds until it looks like crumbly, streusel topping. Turn onto counter and knead just until dough comes together into a uniform dough.

Alternately, by hand, knead all ingredients except yolk and seeds just until dough comes together into a uniform dough.

Roll out to 1/4-inch thick. Cut out using a foot-shaped cutter and lay on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Brush with yolk and sprinkle with seeds. Re-roll scraps and cut out more feet. Bake 12 to 15 minutes until just a bit brown around the edges.