When I first joined The Natick Nest at the beginning of my Junior year, I wrote my first ever article about rating Italian pastries. For my final Nest article, I’m writing about another family heritage. The recipes passed down from my grandmother, from her mother-in-law, from her mother-in-law, and so on and so forth allow me to share this assortment of quintessential German desserts.

Black Forest Cake (Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte)

Everyone knows the Black Forest is known for its chocolate, so why not bake a cake out of it? A Black Forest Cake, or if you want to get fancy and call it its true German name, Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, is a basic chocolate cake base with a cherry liqueur syrup and whipped cream frosting. If you really want to go crazy, adding extra dark chocolate is always a delicious choice. I can’t tell you how much Southern Germans (where the Black Forest is located) love their cherries, but I can say for sure, my family sure does. 

A Black Forest Cake is equal to a chocolate overload, with a little bit of cherry. And I’m down for that. 

8/10. Gotta love a good cherry flavored dessert.

Cheesecake (Käsekuchen)

Did you know cheesecakes were German? No? Well that’s too bad. A traditional cheesecake is light, airy, and really doesn’t use dairy aside from baker’s choice of yogurt or cottage cheese (traditionally you would use quark) and butter. Vanilla sugar is another strange ingredient in traditional cheesecake—one that most people nowadays skip over—but you could just add equal parts vanilla extract to sugar. 

I was never a huge fan of modern, American cheesecakes, but I might give käsekuchen a try. 6/10.

Linzer Cookies (Auge)

If you search online for just “Linzer cookies,” it’ll show you the Austrian version. While also good and delicious, the Austrian version does not have the same dusting that the German one does. The German version is dusted with ground cinnamon and cloves, whereas the Austrian one is dusted with powdered sugar—although you can dust the German one with powdered sugar too. Both contain jam as the filling, and the top pastry often has a cut out to see the type of jam within the pastry, usually raspberry or apricot, although I do grape or strawberry because it’s easier to come by.

Linzer cookies are a family favorite, and I’ve made them a couple of times, so for the dual nationality cookies I give a 9/10.

Pfeffernüsse

Literally “pepper nuts”, Pfeffernüsse is my favorite German cookie to make. Every beloved German spice is in there: cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, and black pepper (and anise extract). It’s a fairly hard recipe, but mine is a family one, and I’m never giving up those secrets. The recipes online are decent, though, and will make good cookies. Pfeffernüsse are enjoyed around Christmas, and they’re very similar to gingerbread, but the anise makes them a little bit different.

I love Pfeffernüsse. I don’t even remember who turned me onto it (probably my grandfather), but I make it pretty much every year now. 9/10.

Snowballs (Schneeballen)

A staple of the town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, schneeballen are extremely difficult to make. The dough needs to be shaped into the snowballs (almost like knitting) and fried. The beauty of schneeballen, though, is that they can be in any flavor you would like to make them in. If I had one recommendation to you about this absolute heavenly desert, it would be to not make it at all, and instead go to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and just eat all the schneeballen you so please. They’re delicious, and I would like nothing more than to go back and have as many as I want.

I haven’t had a schneeballen in years—the only time I had it was when we were in Rothenberg about 8 years ago—but it was heavenly and we loved it. 9/10.

Christmas Stollen (Christstollen/Weihnachtsstollen)

Another Christmas holiday dessert, stollen is a German staple. Stollen contains all the good spices: cardamom, nutmeg/mace—depending on how real you want to get—, cinnamon. It also contains the most fruit out of all of the German desserts: candied lemon, candied orange, and another candied citrus of the baker’s choice. And like any good dessert—as some people in my family would want to tell you—it contains rum, like Italian Rum Cake. 

Stollen is a classic, and at any Weihnachtsmarkt, a staple. 9/10.

Bundt Cakes (Gugelhupf)

A beautiful thing about bundt cakes is that they can be made however you want. Don’t like almonds, as the traditional recipe calls for? Just don’t add them. A bundt cake is fairly simple to make, and I think that’s the beauty of it. All you need is the pan and some basic baking ingredients. Some recipes may use different words for different ingredients (caster sugar = granulated, icing = confectioners). You just need yeast!

Bundt cakes are delicious, easy to make, and an easy recipe to configure, but not my favorite. 7/10.

Carrot Cake (Karottenkuchen)

Carrot Cake was another dessert that I was surprised was German. It makes sense I guess; it’s a dessert with a crop highly prevalent in Germany. In other words, a German recipe for Carrot Cake is pretty much the same as ones you could find here. They use rapeseed oil or sunflower oil, though, but you could trade it for any other cooking oil. 

I was never a huge fan of carrot cake. 5/10.

Apple Strudel (Apfelstrudel)

Apple Strudel is the second hardest recipe on this list. I love strudel, and it’s the most delicious thing I have ever tasted (I am totally not biased whatsoever because I have a great family recipe), but it’s definitely difficult to get the perfect strudel. Although its ingredients are basic—some apples, lemon juice, cinnamon, sugar, and vanilla for the filling—it's still delicious. Apple Strudel on a cool fall or winter day is hands down the greatest thing about a cooler day, especially if they’re fresh out of the oven.

I love strudel. 10/10.