By: Sarah A. Chase 

Life this year has taken me to Frankfurt, Germany.  In my previous incarnation, you may have known me as the rural broad  abroad, bringing the good folks at RFD-TV stories from the countryside of England.  Whilst England is a lovely bit of land plopped, as they say, in a shining sea … I’ve always been more of a continental.  Hey, I’m an American after all.

Anyway, the German’s have to deal with me now.  Oh, don’t worry … we’re getting along famously!  Now, the one barrier at the moment is that I don’t speak German.  BUT, I’m learning!  In fact, today, I translated the dials on the washing machine.  “Schleudergang” is spin cycle.  I think what I’ll do is put some tape by each of the dials and write the English translation next to them – that way I’ll see the original and the translation each time I go to do my wash.  I did something similar to this with the oven.  All ovens over here in Celsius and I can never remember the math for Celsius to Fahrenheit, so I always leave myself a little “Conversion” guide in the kitchen.

Speaking of conversions … I’ve been working on a recipe for you!  Most of the cook books here are in German and use the metric system, so it takes me a little bit of fiddling around in the kitchen to “translate” a recipe properly for you.  I tried this one a few times and since both the husband and I are still alive, I figure it’s good enough to pass along. 

Plums are at peak season here in Frankfurt (part of Hesse) in Germany, so I wanted to try and make the traditional “Quetschekuche” or Plum Sheet Cake that I’ve been enjoying in the cafes.  Here’s how to do it:

1.  Get yourself a good flat baking sheet (9x13 is fine) and butter it up.  Place it aside. 

2. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.

3. You will need for the Dough:

3 ½ cups white, all purpose flour

1 ½ oz of dry yeast

2 eggs (room temp)

½ tsp. salt

1 cup of milk

zest of 1 lemon

For the Prune topping (and please note you can use just about any fruit in substitution, I tried one with blackberries and 1 with peaches – any seasonal fruit is good) … Mix together (then refrigerate until needed):

1 ½ lbs. of plums (cleaned, pitted and sliced in quarters – lengthwise)

½ cup sugar

Cinnamon and nutmeg to taste

To prepare the mixture:

Place the flour in a large bowel and make a well in the center.  Bring the milk to a lukewarm temp on the stove and stir in the yeast.  Pour the yeast and milk into the flour well and then cover it with a tablespoon or two of flour.  Set it aside to rise in a warm place for about 15 minutes.  Go watch some RFD-TV ….

OK, 15 minutes are up …

Melt the butter and add in the remaining lukewarm milk, beaten eggs, salt and lemon zest.  Grab yourself a big wood spoon and stir this mixture into flour – when it starts to pull away from the edge of the bowel, it’s ready.  Place the dough in a warm place, cover it with a hot, moist towel and leave it set for another 15 minutes.  Go watch the rest of the RFD-TV program you had on.

OK, the next 15 minutes are up … remember that buttered pan?  Good, go fetch it!

Roll the dough out with a light bit of flour (not too much, you want it sticky) … and spread it over the baking sheet. 

Take your plum mix out of the fridge and spread that (diagonally overlapping the fruit) over the dough. 

Bake at 425 F for about 45 minutes.  When the dough is golden, the plums are brown and bubbly and you can smell it good ---take it of the oven and lightly sprinkle with some more sugar and cinnamon.