KIRSCHSUPPE MIT SCHNEEKLÖßCHEN (GERMAN CHILLED CHERRY SOUP WITH SNOW DUMPLINGS, 1972)
We have been experiencing an unseasonably hot spring here in Germany, and therefore have been craving colder foods. I remembered that, in the Dr. Oetker Schul-Kochbuch (the branded teaching cookbook) from 1972 I had borrowed from a German friend, there was a whole section on cold fruit soups, or 'Kaltschale' in German. With the warmer weather, it was the perfect to time to make the chilled Kirschsuppe mit Schneeklößchen (literally translated as 'cherry soup with little snow dumplings'), since cherries have just come into season. So, I deviate from the Tasting History recipes I usually make once again. Interestingly enough, this recipe calls for Maizena, a brand of cornstarch which Dr. Oetker originally built their food empire on! While cold soups have a long history across Europe, cold fruit soups are usually associated with Scandinavian and northern European cuisine. In Germany specifically, there is evidence they were commonly eaten during the 19th century, and they remained a popular summer meal in Germany well into the 20th century. While they have lost some popularity in recent decades, they seem to have been included in the repertoire of many German Omas and most German cookbooks well into the 1970s, when this cookbook was printed. When it comes to the Schneeklößchen, or 'little snow dumplings', these are less dumplings and more like meringues. Although meringues are typically harder in texture, or at least stiff enough to hold tightly together, the meringues in this recipe, on the contrary, are only lightly poached in the soup, giving them a very unique texture: marshmallow-like on the very outside, but inside still 'raw' foam which dissolves in your mouth like snow. Because I was not familiar with this way of preparing them, I had to watch several videos on YouTube of people making them to ensure I knew what kind of texture and cooking method I was aiming for. It was a cool adventure to make something unique and new to me. And, of course, ever the diehard fan of cherry everything, I opted to make the cherry version of this cold soup, even though there are recipes in this cookbook using almost every type of fruit as the base. Very customizable! You can find the original and modern recipe (translated and interpreted by myself) at the end of this post.
Since I couldn't find the Dr. Oetker branded Maizena, I just used regular cornstarch (Speisestärke). For the white wine, I used a Pinot Grigio. I had a hell of a time trying to find vanilla sugar, and in the end, I couldn't find one that was white. The one I used was made of a brown cane sugar and had actual specks of vanilla in it, which is good for flavour, but not so good for pulling off the frosty look needed for 'snow dumplings'. So, if the meringues look a little 'schmutzig' (dirty) in colour, that is why.
I started working on this recipe early in the afternoon, since I had to de-pit the cherries myself, one by one. I watched a few videos online on how most efficiently to do this without a de-pitting tool, and I settled on the chopstick method. Doing my best to poke out the pits with a chopstick through where the stem comes out, I struggled to get the pits out cleanly. I theorize that this could have been because some of the cherries weren't completely ripe yet, so I prioritized poking pits out of the darker cherries first. Once my cherries were de-pitted, I measured out and prepared the rest of the ingredients. Unfortunately, my weigh scale was acting up by the time I was measuring out the cornstarch, and as a result, I think I measured out more cornstarch than stated in the recipe. I suspected so, but continued on anyways. After peeling the lemon peel successfully in one piece, I set a large pot on the stove on high heat, then added the peel, the cherries, sugar, and water in. I gave it a stir, then set up my bowls for sieving. Once the pot was at a rolling boil, I turned the heat off completely and let it simmer with the lid off. Then, I removed the lemon peel, took out all the cherries, and scooped out about half of the cherries into my sieve. I was careful to set aside the most whole-looking cherries and sieve the shredded looking ones that had either broken down in the boiling pot or been mangled by my haphazard chopstick de-pitting method. I pushed the cherries into the sieve with a spoon and a dark red juice flowed out the other side. In the original recipe, it did not say explicitly what to put back into the pot after, the squished cherries or the resulting juice, but common sense told me it was the juice for the sake of flavour. I added the juice back into the pot, turned the heat back on to high, and threw away the cherry husks. While the pot was coming to a boil again, I stirred the cornstarch into the water until all bits were dissolved, then added it to the pot once it was boiling. Turning off the heat again to let it simmer, I added the cherries I had set aside back into the pot. The original recipe doesn't say how much white wine or lemon juice to add at this point, it just says 'to taste', so I decided to try it first and then eyeball it based on what I thought it needed. I ended up adding about a 1/3 cup of white wine and juice from the entire lemon I had peeled. Tasting it briefly afterward, I think it was the right amount of lemon juice, but a tad too much wine, as you could pick out the alcohol flavour, which I don't think was intended for this dish.
Next, I set my sights on making the Schneeklößchen, or meringues, as I will call them. For some reason, I added the unwhipped egg white, the sugar, and the vanilla sugar to the mixing bowl and used my hand mixer to whip it all together, thereby completely ignoring the original recipe's instruction to first whip the egg white alone first. I made a crucial mistake there - the mixture never foamed up, and I had to toss it. Luckily, I had more of each ingredient, so on Round 2, I pre-whipped the egg white until it had stiff peaks, then lightly added the sugars bit by bit until incorporated and before the foam began deflating. Good save! By accident, I used a tablespoon instead of a teaspoon to scoop out spoonfuls of meringue to add to the soup, so my meringues ended up being larger than needed. I laid each on top of the soup surface (there were six overall), then covered the pot. The recipe here was not clear on how to know when the meringues were the right texture or 'doneness', but after my research online, I learned they should be warmed just enough to hold together when moved while the inside should still be foamy. After several minutes, I took the lid off the pot and poked them lightly. The foam disintegrated a bit, so I covered the pot and let them cook a couple more minutes. When I did the poke test again, the top remained firm enough that the foam bubbles did not disintegrate, so I called them done. The original recipe also does not mention any chilling or serving instruction, but considering this recipe was under the 'Kaltschale' chapter, which literally means 'cold bowls', I assumed the chilling was implied. I took the pot off heat, let it cool for a hour on the counter, then put it in the fridge to let it chill for several hours while we cooked and ate dinner. Even though this dish was traditionally eaten as a meal in itself, my husband and I prefer a more savoury meal and decided to have the Kirschsuppe for dessert. Fast forward a few hours: I took the soup out of the fridge and noticed a thick, slimy film had developed on top. I knew that this was probably because of using too much cornstarch earlier. Using a slotted spoon, I scooped up what I could of the film, avoiding the meringues as best as I could. I got most of it off, and the soup beneath was a deep pinkish red. I ladled some out into bowls, avoiding the meringues, then used a shallow spoon to scoop three meringues into each bowl, resting them atop the surface of the silky soup. The cherry soup was almost opaque, I could only faintly see a few of the full cherries beneath the surface, like sea creatures threatening to emerge. I was visually quite happy with how the soup turned out; not that I had a picture to compare it to, or anything. Despite their sandy, speckled look, the meringues seemed to be the correct texture, and the soup looked very cherry indeed. Time to chill out and dig in!
My experience tasting it:
We sat down to eat, and I could tell just from moving my spoon down and below the surface of the soup that the texture was a bit off. While it gave the soup a nice glossy shine, the texture was almost too silky, slightly gel-like. This is completely down to me adding too much cornstarch. As someone who struggles with strange food textures at times, I spooned a big cherry with some pink broth to my mouth with trepidation. Luckily, the texture was not so bad at all! My fears were not realized - it was simply silky. The flavour was cherry, but not in that strong, artificial way. Which would make sense, seeing as I used real cherries. The Kirschsuppe was still surprisingly not as sweet as I expected. I was expecting a punch of cherry, but it was more of a light caress of cherry, with just enough acidity from the lemon juice to make you want another spoon, and another spoon. Overall, it was very refreshing, and if it weren't for the thicker texture, I would say it felt like I was eating a cherry wine cocktail with a spoon. Indeed, the wine was more present than expected. I'm still not sure just how much you're supposed to be able to taste it in this dish. For my next spoonful, I tried one of the meringues with some broth. It was such a strange texture, I was again worried it wouldn't be my thing. Honestly, the outside had a jiggly, soggy texture to it that I was not the biggest fan of, but then, when the outside burst, the foam inside disintegrated in my mouth like snow (hence the name snow dumplings, I assume), since it was still a foam. This was a super cool texture that gave me the same exciting feeling when I first experienced cotton candy melting in my mouth for the first time. Not only was the texture interesting and fun, but the taste was soft and lovely, lightly sweet with vanilla. I wished I had made more! Strangely enough, my husband was not a fan of the texture of the meringues at all, so these might just be a divisive part of the dish. For my first time trying not only a cold soup, but a cold fruit soup, I was pretty impressed with it, and I can see why they were popular. Sometimes, the last thing you want on a hot day is to eat hot food, so this is a great solution for that. If I ever see a cold fruit soup or Kaltschale on a restaurant menu, I will now happily try it, and if I see Schneeklößchen listed anywhere, my eyes will brighten and I will order whatever they're in. Still, it took me a good half a day to make this recipe with all the de-pitting, boiling, cooling, and so on, so I can't see myself making it again, unless it was an easier fruit to deal with. Now that we have a few bowls of leftover cherry soup, I will savour it over the next few days, and then I will wait until we meet again on a traditional German restaurant menu somewhere. If you end up making this dish, if you liked it, or if you changed anything from the original recipe, do let me know!
Kirschsuppe mit Schneeklößchen original recipe (1972)
Sourced from a recipe in the Dr. Oetker Schul-Kochbuch (1972).
Kirschsuppe mit Schneeklößchen
Ingredients:
500 g cherries, de-pitted
the peel of 1 lemon
100-150 g sugar
1 1/2 L water
40 g Maizena
1 cup water
To taste:
White wine
Lemon juice
Ingredients for snow dumplings (meringues):
1 egg white, whipped until stiff
10 g sugar (1 tbsp)
1 package vanilla sugar
In a pot on the stovetop over high heat, bring the cherries, lemon peel, sugar, and water to a boil. Turn off the heat and let the fruit simmer for a few minutes. Remove the lemon peel and some of the cherries. Pass the remaining cherries through a sieve, return to the pot, and bring everything to a boil again on the stovetop on the highest heat level. Stir the cornstarch mixed with a cup of cold water into the boiling liquid. Turn off the heat and let the soup simmer for a bit without heat. Now add the reserved cherries to the soup and season to taste with white wine and lemon juice. Beat the egg whites with sugar and vanilla sugar until very stiff, scoop out small mounds with a teaspoon, add them to the hot soup, and let them simmer in the covered pot for a few minutes. The soup should not boil anymore.
Plums can also be used instead of cherries.
Based on a recipe from the Dr. Oetker Schul-Kochbuch (1972). Translated and interpreted by myself.
peel from 1 lemon (in one piece, ideally)
40 g cornstarch (you can always use less and add more incrementally if you worry about the soup being too thick)
1 cup of water to mix with the cornstarch
1 tbsp vanilla sugar (or a dash of vanilla extract)
In a large pot on the stovetop over high heat, bring the cherries, lemon peel, sugar, and water to a boil.
Once boiling, turn off the heat and let the fruit simmer for a few minutes, then remove the lemon peel and about half of the cherries.
Remove the rest of the cherries and pass them through a sieve. Add the resulting cherry juices back into the pot, then bring everything to a boil again on the highest heat level.
Stir the cornstarch into the cup of water and mix until well-combined, then stir this mixture into the boiling pot.
Turn off the heat and let the soup simmer for a bit. Now, add the reserved cherries to the soup
Taste the soup and season to taste with white wine and lemon juice (you can use the lemon that you peeled earlier).
To make the meringues: beat the egg whites until they become very foamy (if using a hand mixer, start on the lowest level, then bring it up to medium level as it foams). If you are having trouble getting the egg white to foam, add a drop or two of lemon juice.
Once the egg white is very foamy and leaves a stiff leak when you draw it up with a spoon, beat in the sugar and vanilla sugar. If you notice the foam collapsing and becoming liquid, stop beating immediately.
Scoop out small mounds of the foam with a teaspoon, and lay them to rest upon the surface of the hot soup. Cover the pot and let them simmer for a few minutes, just enough for them to hold their shape when lightly poked. The soup should not boil further.
Let soup cool completely, then store in the fridge for several hours, until chilled to suit your tastes.
To serve: avoiding the meringues, ladle the cherry soup into bowls, then use a shallow spoon to scoop up a few meringues to lay on the surface of each bowl of soup. Serve it forth!
