Crème Fraîche Bars

For my first baking adventure in Germany I decided to look for something simple. I didn't know my oven yet, nor did I want to have to spend a lot of money on baking pans and utensils for my pathetically bare kitchen. I got two German baking books out of the public library, because I already have a few in the United States and didn't want to buy more that I would then have to bring home. I highly recommend this if you are living in a new place for a lengthly, but possibly not permanent, period of time. I know that there are a million recipes online, and I use them constantly myself, but there's something I do love about a recipe book. Especially for European recipes, as I don't know much about the European cooking/baking blog community. Something to discover, I guess!

Anyway, I found these bars listed as "einfach" in my Dr. Oetker "Grund Backbuch," or Basic Baking Book, meaning that they should be "easy." The other book that I got out of the library (Das Grosse GU Familien Backbuch, or The Large GU Family Bakebook) is similarly helpful, as it has two tables of contents. The first tells you what type of dessert is contained in each chapter, and the second is divided into categories such as "when it should go especially quickly," "when it should be especially cheap," and "when it should be easy to transport." How helpful! It also lists what fruits are in season when, and whether it is particularly important to bake with that fruit when it is fresh, rather than frozen. On top of each recipe it also helpfully tells you how quickly it bakes, how much time it takes to prepare, and how pricey it is - so useful! As is probably clear, I'm pretty obsessed with these two books.

To make my bars, the first thing I needed was something that I've needed for a long time - a way to measure in grams rather than american cups. Because I'm only here for a year, I don't want to invest in a food scale, so I found a very handy device at Kaufland that lets you measure flour, sugar, oil, cocoa, and liquid by reading the correct scale on the side.

Using this device it was pretty easy to make these delicious bars. I'll give the recipe below, with some of my own photos. The translation is my own, so I apologize if it's a little awkward.

*One more note is that there are certain baking items available in Germany that are complicated to translate into American recipes. I encountered these problems first when trying to make German recipes at home. This recipe calls for a package of vanilla-sugar, which can be substituted for by adding a little more sugar and a little vanilla extract. It also calls for a package of baking powder, which is 15 grams, and a package of lemon zest, which is 6 grams of zest, but that includes some lemon aroma and the kind of sugar used in preserving fruits. I would just add the zest of a small lemon and a pinch of sugar, but you can experiment depending on how much lemon flavor you like. Apparently Germans prefer to use these little packages rather than measuring out the substance themselves, something which became a problem when I attempted to make The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever. That recipe calls for baking soda, which is not often used for anything other than household tasks, and used to be sold only in pharmacies. After some googling, I discovered that this packet called "Natron" was actually baking soda, and so was able to (mostly) successfully make the cookies.

 

I digress, however. Without further ado:

Crème Fraîche Becherkuchen

Ingredients:

450g Crème Fraîche

125g Butter

300g Sugar

1 Package Vanilla-Sugar

300g Flour

1 Package Baking Powder
1 Package Fine Lemon Zest
3 Eggs
100g sliced almonds
50g Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate
1 tsp Oil

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

For the coating, put 150g of Crème Fraîche in a small pot, with the butter, 150g of sugar, and the vanilla sugar. Turn the burner to low heat, and melt these ingredients together. When all is combined, remove the pot from the heat.

For the dough, sift the flour and the backing powder, and mix them with the remaining sugar and the lemon zest. Add the eggs and the remaining Crème Fraîche. Mix well, until the ingredients are thoroughly combined. Pour the dough into a greased pan, 30 x 40 cm, and smooth the top. Put this into the oven for 10 minutes.

Take the dough out of the oven, and smooth the coating over it. Sprinkle the almonds on top, and put back in the oven for another 15 minutes.

Remove and let cool. When cool, melt the chocolate with the oil, and sprinkle it over the almonds. Let cool until the chocolate is hardened, and then enjoy!