Growing up, Luisa Weiss admits to feeling somewhat displaced. Born in Berlin, Germany to an Italian mother and an American father, she grew up in a multilingual family, commuting back and forth between Boston and Berlin, with yearly trips to her mother’s house in a small village near Urbino. She admits to often feeling a yearning to Berlin, but it was only after launching a career in publishing in New York (where she also maintained her successful food blog, titled The Wednesday Chef), that she decided to return to where it all began.
“All I can say is that I’ve felt believing and feeling deep in my soul that this is where I belong,” said Weiss in an interview with AFAR where she described her emotional return to Berlin. “It feels like home on such a deep, profound, personal level and I can’t really imagine calling anywhere else home.”
Back in Berlin, Weiss published her first cookbook, a mix of memoirs and recipes titled My Berlin Kitchen: A Love Story (with Recipes) – describing her journey back to Germany and German cooking. Her second book, Classic German Baking, is dedicated to baking traditions from German-speaking countries.
The book includes more than 100 rigorously researched and tested recipes, gathered from expert bakers, friends, family, and time-honored sources throughout Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. It’s an authoritative collection of recipes that provides delicious inspiration for any time of day, be it breakfast or afternoon coffee-and-cake break, an important aspect of everyday German life.
Amongst her favorite recipes, Weiss counts the lebkuchen-powidltatschkerln [plum-filled gingerbread pockets]. “They’re little rye cookies that you fill with plum paste and pull together and crimp,” she explains. “They’re delicious and chewy and fruity.” Another favorite of hers is the biberle, described as “a really thin gingerbread dough rolled around a log of almond paste. They look like [the snack food] Combos, and they’re spicy, gingerbread-y, rich from the almond paste, and just such a delight.”
The book also includes an entire chapter filled with the best recipes for Christmas cookies, sweet breads, and other holiday confections.
