About this blog

I am travelled enough to know that German cuisine is not exactly renowned – nowadays this is true even in Germany itself, where Italian eateries, Greek restaurants, Turkish places, et cetera, are the most popular. Having lived in the UK for almost as long as I have lived in Germany I don't particularly miss German food. There is only one exception: baked goods and particularly German bread! If you have ever visited Germany you might have been in a traditional bakery. These sell a multitude of different breads ranging from familiar sliced white to sourdough  loaves and rolls in all kinds of shapes and forms. In addition to savoury breads and rolls there are, of course, the cakes, tarts and pastries. Having been to a few countries near and far, I think it is true to say that not many others offer the variety you can find in a German bakery.

When I was still in high school a considerable number of years ago, I remember telling a teacher asking us about our future plans that I wanted to open a German bakery in Ireland. Today I live in England. I do not have a bakery and a career that has nothing to do with food (it does, however, involve mentioning the war on an almost daily basis). But I still love baking and eating the results. Maybe - just maybe - one day when I am rich and in early retirement (I can but dream) I will open that bakery. But for now it is mainly my friends and family who eat my stuff. My baking will probably remain just a hobby but I decided to share some of my recipes and pictures in this blog – there might be someone out there who will enjoy them. All recipes are favourites and I tried, tested and improved them many times. The focus of my baking is on bread and cakes from the south-west of Germany (the region of Swabia - Schwaben, not to be confused with Bavaria - where I grew up). As with all cooking I believe that good quality ingredients are the key to tasty food so I use organic, regional and natural ingredients whenever possible. 

If you have tried one of my recipes and you liked it, if you have questions or suggestions and also if something went wrong - I would love to hear your comments and I promise to respond!  Comments can be left by anybody underneath each recipe. You can also follow my blog - I didn't realise that this function exists and was disabled until fairly recently! It now works and the function is located on the left under the blog archive.

Texts and photographs by Betty R.
Artwork by www.julianepieper.com