I baked a dozen Americans

[moribundman]

The "Amerikaner" (American) is a large (ca 3.5" diameter), soft cookie that was first made by German bakeries after WWW when the stationed and homesick American troops wanted an American style cookie. It's really more of a small cake. The top is rounded, the bottom is flat and has usually a sugar glaze. The sugar glaze is flavored with either arak or lemon. A cocoa or chocolate glaze is of course possible, even a multicultural black&white glaze is doable.

A typical recipe for Amerikaner that should work -- use BabbleFish

Another recipe for Amerikaner in English (The recipe for the glaze/icing calls for too much liquid)

The dough is a mix between a regular cake dough and a sponge cake dough. The baked cookie is fairly dense and a tiny bit sticky to the touch. Every German bakery has their own Amerikaner.

 

[crinkles]

wonder if Elvis had some when he was stationed in germany?

 

[moribundman]

Definitely.

 

[NYEngineer]

Those look like they came out perfect. I did not know that was the history of those cookies. Thanks for the lesson...

I'm not sure if this is part of that history, but my whole life, those have been covered in half chocolate and half white icing and called black and whites. I love em.

 

[moribundman]

The typical black&white cookie (as seen on Seinfeld) is much thinner and flat on both sides, though. Otherwise those two kinds of cookies are very similar (drop cake like dough).

 

[Brett Miller]

Get me a glass of milk!

 

[moribundman]

Make sure it's QUALITY CHEKD.

 

[Oldmoparguy1]

Yum!

 

[Pablo]

It's like deja vu all over again.

 

[mpvue]

Originally Posted By: NYEngineer
Those look like they came out perfect. I did not know that was the history of those cookies. Thanks for the lesson...

I'm not sure if this is part of that history, but my whole life, those have been covered in half chocolate and half white icing and called black and whites. I love em.


exactly. in NY (I grew up on LI) our local bakery had B&W's, about 3-4" dia, 1/2"-3/4" thick, fantastic.
I recently found a recipe in an old gourmet mag for them, along w/ the tri color Italian cookies (don't know what they are called, as a kid I called them rainbow cookies).

 

[NYEngineer]

Yeah... Rainbow cookies, Italian Rainbow cookies... My wife tried makin' them once. Lots of work. Now we just buy em if we want them.

 

[mpvue]

I've been getting bold w/ my cooking/baking lately, so I might try em. it did look like a lot of work, I agree.

 

[AcuraTech]

Re: "I baked a dozen Americans"

Made me think of the cross joint from from the movie 'Pineapple Express'!

 

[tdi-rick]

They look a little bit like a Neenish Tart, except obviously a tart has a filling, in this case either jam or cream.

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/9522/neenish+tarts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neenish_tart