Mürbchen

by Krysia
(Maryland)

I ran across an old recipe book from my mother recipe collection entitled "Frau Barbara erwartet Gaste". Inside this recipe was marked with an "x" beside it and then her typed English version of the recipe ingredients, but no instructions what to do with them after kneading the ingredients together.

What I don't know is if this is a cookie dough or a cake-like bread dough. Can you fill me in what the recipe title is and what the final product is? My mother died just over a year ago and I cannot find anything online. Thanks.

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Hi Krysia,

The translation of the book title is "Mrs. Barbara awaits guests".

Mürbeteig is a type of shortcrust pastry dough that needs to be handled quickly to prevent the dough from getting warm.

The term "Mürbchen" implies something small. The suffix "chen" is added to words to signify "small".

This makes me think these are little pastry-type cookies or squares. Do you have the recipe in German from the book that you could send? Perhaps a scan or photo of it would make it easier than typing it out.

In place of the umlauts, the letter "e" is added after any vowel so the word "Mürbchen" can also be written "Muerbchen"

When I checked for a recipe, there really isn't one. There are many, since the word is sort of a generic term, such as we would say "shortbread" -- there are many types of shortbread.

If you could pass on the recipe ingredients and instructions, I can translate and also try them out.

I love a mystery and that's what this is . . .

Blessings,
Gerhild