- Joined
- Jun 2, 2003
- Messages
- 23,587
Here is a popular small German cake, the so called "Amerikaner" (American). The origin of the Amerikaner is unclear and there are a couple apocryphal tales, all of which remain unsubstantiated. The most interesting story is that the GIs stationed in Germany after WW2 had a hankering for soft American style cookies. You must know that German cookies are usually of the crunchy variety. Anyway, the "Amerikaner" was created and has been popular since and can be found in any German bakery among a variety of small cakes, muffins and cookies.
It's very easy recipe, and since it's not mine I'll gladly share it. The recipe is sufficient for seven or eight 3.5 inch Amerikaner:
Mix 60 g softened butter (margarine okay, if you prefer) with 90 g sugar and 2 eggs. Add a pinch salt (if you use unsalted butter like I do), four tablespoons milk, a little vanilla flavor, 250 g flour (white) and two teaspoons baking powder. Mix all those ingredients quickly. For each Amerikaner, put about 3 tablespoons of batter on a floured and greased baking sheet or baking stone. Leave a few inches space around your little batter droppings (
). Bake the Amerikaner at 200°C (~390°F) for about 20 minutes or until golden.
At this point you will get this:
The flat bottom will look like this:
Sugar-glaze the flat bottom (or is that now the top? I'm really not sure!): mix powdered sugar with a little alcohol and a tiny bit hot water, so that you can brush the glaze on. The glaze will be dry to the touch within a couple hours. Arak is good, because it won't discolor the sugar glaze, but I use brown Jamaican rum, because it's the poison of my choice. I don't care that the glaze is a little tan. For variety, use a chocolate glaze as alternative, or maybe even make black and white Amerikaner!
And that's what you get in the end:
Enjoy making, baking and eating Amerikaner!
It's very easy recipe, and since it's not mine I'll gladly share it. The recipe is sufficient for seven or eight 3.5 inch Amerikaner:
Mix 60 g softened butter (margarine okay, if you prefer) with 90 g sugar and 2 eggs. Add a pinch salt (if you use unsalted butter like I do), four tablespoons milk, a little vanilla flavor, 250 g flour (white) and two teaspoons baking powder. Mix all those ingredients quickly. For each Amerikaner, put about 3 tablespoons of batter on a floured and greased baking sheet or baking stone. Leave a few inches space around your little batter droppings (
At this point you will get this:
The flat bottom will look like this:
Sugar-glaze the flat bottom (or is that now the top? I'm really not sure!): mix powdered sugar with a little alcohol and a tiny bit hot water, so that you can brush the glaze on. The glaze will be dry to the touch within a couple hours. Arak is good, because it won't discolor the sugar glaze, but I use brown Jamaican rum, because it's the poison of my choice. I don't care that the glaze is a little tan. For variety, use a chocolate glaze as alternative, or maybe even make black and white Amerikaner!
And that's what you get in the end:
Enjoy making, baking and eating Amerikaner!
Last edited:
