Baked Pastry Case for German Fruit Cakes

To make the German fruit cakes you need to have a baked pastry case. Here is the German recipe for the so called “Obstboden” that is made out of the so called “Muerbeteig” – in English it would be called short crust dough.  This is a dough that needs to be kneaded. It is a firm dough which can be used to make cookies as well.
This baked pastry case is used for many variations, you can use it with fruit on top or vegetable. It can be sweet or salty.
The Photo shows a cake that has been layered with strawberries and different fruit and is covered with a glaze on top.
The glaze can be made out of a Dr Oetker package (Tortenguss) or with red grape juice or any dark red juice, sugar and potato starch (- See the recipe for home made glaze at the bottom. Happy Baking!

Ingredients Baked Pastry Case

200 g flour
1 tsp baking powder – Dr Oetker – 
75 g butter
75 g sugar
1 Package vanilla sugar, 0.3 oz 
– How to make Vanilla Sugar –
1 egg
For the glaze: 1 package Dr. Oetker Cake glaze red or clear or Make it from scratch – See below

Cooking Instructions Baked Pastry Case

– Mix flour with baking powder and sieve it into a bowl.
– Place butter flakes on top; add sugar, vanilla sugar and egg.
– With your hands knead it until you get a smooth dough.
– Roll to a ball and wrap in plastic foil.
– Let rest for 30 min in the fridge.
– Roll the dough on a baking board with some flour and either cut out cookies (hearts, stars or moons or whatever cookie cutter you want to use) or place it into a greased tart form, diameter 11 inches or 28 cm.
– Bake it in pre-heated oven on 375 F for 15 minutes – watch it, it should not get too brown!

Make the Glaze

Find more information about the German base cake that we call Tortenboden