This week’s challenge was to make Grumbeersupp mit Quetschekuche, or potato soup with plum cake. Rainer says this is one of the meals he grew up with, well actually, potato soup with pancakes is how his mom made it, and plum cake was something they had for coffee & cake. Rainer says Grumbeersupp is how it’s called in the local dialect where he grew up (near Wittlich in the Eifel). Grumbeersupp in high German is translated as “Grundbirnesuppe,” or in English, “ground pear soup.” He says even going a few miles to the Mosel Valley, and then continuing up to Cologne, changes what potatoes are called, there they are “ground apples.”
The dough is pretty easy to put together, and really rises a lot. You may also want to put gloves on if you’re sensitive to funky smells. After kneading and working with the dough, my hands had a very yeasty smell. It stuck with me all last night, but has faded by this morning. It was a little cool in the kitchen yesterday, so I set the dough to rise in my oven with the oven light on. It’s a trick I read somewhere a long time ago, but it keeps the dough at a steady, warm temp and you don’t have to worry about drafts.
To save time, Rainer and Oliver helped put the plums on the cake while I peeled the vegetables for the soup. This is a good project for the two and up crowd, Oliver really had fun. The plums were a little green still, some tasted good, some were still a little underripe, but I figured I’d throw on a little extra sugar at the end if needed.
As the plum cake came out of the oven, I sprinkled a generous amount of sugar on top. Rainer says his mom used a mix of cinnamon and sugar, which I bet would be tasty, but we stuck with the recipe this time around.
I decided to only make a half batch of the soup. 250 g of potatoes is only 3 small ones, which Rainer thought was way too few, so I went ahead and put 500 g of potatoes in. This made for a very thick soup at the end. Rainer loved it, but I think my preference would be to stick around 250-300 g of potatoes.
The bacon rind also only came in one size. I was going to cut it in half since I was doing a half batch, but Rainer said to throw it all in. It kind of made the soup really salty. Rainer, again, loved the soup, but I was slightly overwhelmed by the saltiness. We also cut up the bacon rind and pureed about 3/4 of it, and left 1/4 as little chunks in the soup. This might have contributed to the saltiness. The recipe didn’t really say what should be done with the bacon.
The soup was good and the cake was good, but it was a little weird eating soup and cake together. Rainer says this kind of soup (also green bean soup and other veggie soups) need something sweet on the side. He thought the cake was maybe overdoing it though and suggests pancakes instead.
The cake is very good, better than at the bakeries even. We made a whole cake, so we’re going to be eating it all this week, I guess!
Other participants:
- Stephanie at A Greenville Life
Next challenge!
- August 31 – Pumpernickeleis (Pumpernickel ice cream)
- September 7 – Flammkuchen mit Pilzen (Tarte flambee with mushrooms)
- September 14 – Hechtklößchen in Rieslinssauce (Pike dumplings in Riesling sauce)
See the post on upcoming challenges for more details on future recipes.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Excellent meal! I’m going to add this to my menu for next week! Thanks, as always, for the inspiration! Hmm… I wonder if I can convince my husband and CAT to help with the plums… I guess the latter wouldn’t be very hygenic, nor for that matter might the husband!! LOL! Looks delicious!
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Looks good – I definitely think that my dough didn’t rise as it should have – it did rise, but not as much as I would have thought. but that is me, I am sure, and not the recipe! The plums tasted wonderful on this – but I am going to use them for the compote for this week’s recipe.
Potato soup was good and very filling – not too salty for us since we used bacon and I removed it before pureeing.
My husband is German and we cook (he cooks LOL) 2-3 times a week “german” but most of your dishes I see for the first time, very interesting! I also make this cake but it as Nachtisch.
We also make Kartoffelsuppe like yours but with Würstchen.
I also never heard Germans eating pancakes with soup, I guess it is some regional custom?
.-= jja´s last blog ..Kozmetika petkom =-.
never ate Kartoffelsuppe in combination with Pflaumenkuchen or any other sort of cake either. but since you say that it is mighty tasty — and i trust you immensly with your cooking!!! — i shall give it a try in the future. and because i’d kill for a slice of Pflaumenkuchen at any time.
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