Calling All German-Speaking Mefites/Cooks!

November 7, 2007 11:01 PM

I recently purchased several boxes of magazines at a garage sale, including copies of a German magazine called "Lisa." It's a typical "woman's magazine" (i.e. fashion, celebrity news, recipes, human interest stories). It's been fun to peruse through it since we don't get much exposure to "foreign" stuff here in the sticks, and one of the recipes caught my eye: Luftige Joghurt-Aprikosen-Torte.

From the various translation sites available on the web, I understand that it's an "Airy Yogurt Apricot Pie" but the instructions are too long and complicated to get an accurate translation of the whole thing. It looks delicious, however, and I'm curious if any German-speaking Mefites might have the recipe for this heavenly-looking dessert.

posted by amyms to food & drink (20 comments total)

If you post the recipe I could translate it for you.

Torte is more likely to be a cake than a pie.
posted by creasy boy at 11:13 PM on November 7, 2007

Okay, creasy boy, thanks. Bear with me, it's a long recipe and I will need to type it out... (Recipe coming soon)...
posted by amyms at 11:17 PM on November 7, 2007

Might be faster if you scanned the page.
posted by Webbster at 11:28 PM on November 7, 2007

Here's the full recipe, in German...

Luftige Joghurt-Aprikosen-Torte

Zutaten fur ca. 12 Stucke

Fur den Ruhrteug:
125g butter
125g Zucker
1 Pck. Vanille-zucker
3 Eier (Grobe M)
180g Mehl

Fur Creme und Verziwerung:

8 Blatt Gelatine
500g Naturjoghurt
Saft und abger. Schale einer unbehandelten Zitrone
50g Zucker
250ml Sahne
1 Dose Aprikosen (425 ml)
1 Pck. klarer Tortenguss
75g weibe Kuventure
1 EL gehackte Pistazien

Zubereitung

1. Ofen auf 180 Grad (Umluft 160 Grad) vorheizen. Butter mit Zucker und Vanillezucker schaumig aufschlagen. Eier einzein unterruhren, Mehl daruberseibenm unterheben. Teig in eine mit Backpapier ausgelegte Springform (24 cm) fullen, glatt streichen, im Ofen 30-35 Min. backen. Boden herausnehmen, auskuhlen lassen und aus der Form losen.

2. Gelatine einweichen. Joghurt mit Zitronensaft undschale sowie Zucker so lange verruhren, bis sich der Zucker sufgelost hat. Gelatine ausdrucken, auflosen, darunterziehen. Creme ca. 30 Min. kuhlen. Sahne steif schlagen und unterziehen, wenn die Masse zu gelieren beginnt.

3. Den Boden auf eine Tortenplatte setzen. Tortenring darumschlieBen. Creme auf den Tortenboden geben, glatt streichen. 4 Std. kuhlen.

4. Tortenring losen. Aprikosen abgieBen, abtropfen lassen, dabei den Saft auffangen. Torte mit den Fruchthalften verzieren. Guss mit Fruchtsaft und Wasser nach Angabe zubereiten, uber die Fruchte geben und fest werden laseen. Kuverture in Spanen abziehen, ringsum auf die Torte setzen. Oberseite mit Pistazien bestreuen.
posted by amyms at 11:33 PM on November 7, 2007

Airy Yoghurt Apricot Cake

Ingredients for c. 12 pieces

For the basic dough:

125 g butter
125 g sugar
1 package of vanilla sugar
3 eggs (medium size)
180 g flour
posted by creasy boy at 11:42 PM on November 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

I'm not sure what a standard package of vanilla sugar is. Anyway here's the rest:
posted by creasy boy at 11:43 PM on November 7, 2007

For the cream and decoration:

8 sheets of gelatine
500 g natural yoghurt (plain)
The juice and uh..."zest?" ... of one lemon...you know, you scrape the surface off. Is that called "zest"?
50 g sugar
250 ml cream
1 can of apricots (425 ml)
1 package of clear cake glaze
75 g white couverture chocolate
1 tablespoon chopped pistachios

Again, I don't know what exactly a "sheet" of gelatine is or a package of glaze.
posted by creasy boy at 11:51 PM on November 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

Thanks so much, creasy boy! That gives me a good start.
posted by amyms at 11:54 PM on November 7, 2007

How to make:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 c. Whip together the butter with sugar and vanilla sugar till foamy. Mix in the eggs individually and sift/fold in the flour (something's wrong with your transcription here. "sieben" would mean sift. "unterheben" is a different verb meaning "fold in". Is there a comma between them?) Put the dough into a springform pan (24 cm) covered with baking paper, smooth it out, bake it in the oven 30-35 min. Take out the cake bottom, let it cool, remove it from the form.

2. Soften (steep?) the gelatine. Stir together the yoghurt, lemon juice, lemon rind and sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Press out the gelatine (don't know what this means, I've never worked with sheets of gelatine), dissolve it and fold it in. Let the cream cool c. 30 minutes. Whisk the cream until it's stiff, fold it in when the mass begins to gel. (Sorry -- I really have a hard time imagining what's going on here, I hope you have a better understanding of how to bake with gelatine sheets than I do).

3. Put the cake bottom on a cake plate. Put the cake ring around it (I think the ring is from the 2-part springform). Put the cream on the cake bottom, smooth it out. Cool it for 4 hours.

4. Remove the cake ring. Pour out the apricots and catch the liquid. Decorate the cake with the apricot halves. Prepare the glaze with the fruit-liquid and water according to instructions, pour it over the fruit and let it harden. (It sounds like you're now supposed to melt the courverture and make decorative circles on the cake). Strew the pistachio pieces on the top.
posted by creasy boy at 12:10 AM on November 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

Grated lemon peel
posted by chillmost at 12:14 AM on November 8, 2007

My girlfriend says you put the sheet of gelatine in cold water to soften it, then take it out and dissolve it in hot water. I have no idea how much water. This repice seems really unclear to me.
posted by creasy boy at 12:16 AM on November 8, 2007

Thanks again, creasy boy. It doesn't totally make sense (in terms of the literal translation), but it makes enough sense that I think I can give it a try :) *thumbs up and fingers crossed*.
posted by amyms at 12:19 AM on November 8, 2007

The German standard pack of "Vanillezucker" is about 3 teaspoons of vanilla sugar.
posted by The Toad at 12:40 AM on November 8, 2007

Four sheets of gelatin corresponds to one 1/4 oz. envelope of powdered gelatin (like Knox brand, for instance). So you're going to need two envelopes to make this cake if you don't want to deal with gelatin sheets. You can follow the directions on the box to dissolve it properly.
posted by adiabat at 1:45 AM on November 8, 2007

Oops. That link didn't work right at all. Baking substitutions.
posted by adiabat at 1:49 AM on November 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

"sift/fold" sounds like you're sifting flour onto the butter/egg mixture, then folding it in, bit by bit, to preserve the emulsion and keep things airy. Just a guess.

This sounds interesting and yummy. What year was this magazine issue published?
posted by amtho at 4:31 AM on November 8, 2007

Regarding the vanilla sugar, I know I can get packets of vanilla sugar in the "international" section of my local grocery store, so you might try there.
posted by cabingirl at 7:45 AM on November 8, 2007

Thanks for the additional information, everyone. It's especially helpful to know that I can use powdered gelatin (I figured that I could, and that will be so much easier).

amtho, this recipe appeared in the "2.3.2005" issue of the magazine. I don't know if German dates are written month-first or day-first, so it's either February 3 or March 2 of 2005.
posted by amyms at 8:06 AM on November 8, 2007

That would be the 2nd of March, 2005 edition. In Germany it's date first, month second.
posted by amf at 12:32 PM on November 8, 2007

Oh, I just checked out the ingredient substitutions. A sheet of gelatin in Germany is much smaller than 4 x 9 inches, unless that is supposed to be the total area of the four sheets together. A sheet of gelatin in Germany would be more like 2 x 4.5 inches.

It looks like six sheets of gelatin are enough for half a litre (about two cups) of liquid, so eight sheets are enough for about 2 and 2/3 cups.

Tortenguss/glaze is sold in small bags for 250 ml or about one cup of liquid.

There should be some information on the packaging of gelatin and glaze stating how much liquid it can "solidify". Look for the info and you should be able to find out the right amount to use.
posted by amf at 12:57 PM on November 8, 2007