149th Anniversary of Mahler's birth is coming soon!

[john haueisen]

Yes folks, in less than 3 weeks (July 7th) it will be the 149th anniversary of Gustav Mahler's birth.
I've already begun my preparations by making Marillenknoedl, one of Mahler's favorite desserts.  We might call it apricot dumplings.  I found the recipe on page 1716 of Henry-Louis de La Grange's "Gustav Mahler: a New Life Cut Short."

I chose variant #1, making my own adjustments to prevent the dough from becoming too sticky.  The result was delicious--something I can certainly imagine Mahler looking forward to.
It is basically a fresh apricot, with the pit removed and replaced by a sugar cube.  The apricot is then wrapped in pastry dough and boiled in water for 7 or 8 minutes.  Next, it is rolled in butter, followed by another roll in cinnamon sugar.  The result is an amazing cinnamon sugary apricot that few people today have ever tasted.

OK, I know of my own tendency to overdo things and go to extremes.
You don't have to make apricot dumplings to celebrate Mahler's 149th.
But please do at least set aside some time to celebrate this exceptional human being's life, by listening to some of his music or introducing someone else to it.

Think about it, and why not post how you choose to celebrate Mahler.

--John Haueisen

[vvrinc]

John,

Man, I celebrate this good-guy on a daily basis. I presume everyone 'round here does same. No? (My wife thanks you for the recipe tip.)

[James Meckley]

John,

I also recently experimented with Mahler's apricot dumplings now that apricots are in season again – I made a batch for some friends prior to a local performance of the Resurrection symphony. I used a generic recipe found on the Web, and bought some Panni Bavarian Potato Dumpling Mix for the pastry. I wanted to use the "authentic" recipe from de La Grange, but don't yet own the book ($110.00 or so) and couldn't find it at my university library or even through inter-library loan. If you think you can do so comfortably through the "fair use" copyright exception, could you please supply the specifics of the two recipe variants found in de La Grange, volume 4?

As to celebrating No. 149, I suspect I'll just listen to more Mahler recordings than usual, and hear them with an awareness of the importance of the day. Wouldn't you love to be able to hear the little "Polka with Introductory Funeral March" that was supposedly his first composition?

James

[john haueisen]

The recipes that Henry-Louis de La Grange cites were provided to him by Germana Nitz of South Tirol.

I would hesitate to list them directly, without La Grange's permission (which I don't know how to obtain), and because the conversion from grams to cups and ounces would be difficult for most Americans), but I would be happy to provide my own recipe based on extrapolations from the variations he listed. 

Here is the result of my experimentations:
By the way, for all you guys who would never consider yourselves cooks, this unique dessert item is not really very difficult to make.

Marillenknoedel  (Mahler's Favorite Apricot Dumplings Dessert)


Take 20 apricots, removing the pits and replacing them with sugar cubes.
Make dough by using 3 cups of flour, 3 eggs, 2oz of butter and 1 cup of milk.
Mix these ingredients into dough and chill the dough for 30 minutes to an hour.

Roll out the dough into a thin sheet (or divide it into thirds and roll a new sheet for each third of the dough).  and cut the dough roughly into squares.

Wrap each apricot in a square, pinching the seams together on all sides.
Next, lower (with a large spoon perhaps) each dumpling into a large pan of boiling water with a teaspoon of salt added to the water.

Simmer for about 8 minutes, as many dumplings as will fit in the pan.
Remove them and place them on a plate.  Next roll each in melted butter.  (a stick of butter will melt in a microwave in 30 to 40 seconds.)

After the "butter bath" roll each of the dumplings in a dish filled with cinnamon sugar (made by mixing a cup or two of sugar with 2 or more tablespoons of cinnamon).

That's all.  They're ready to eat, fairly easy to fix, and your friends will be impressed by your "Renaissance Man" cooking abilities.

Happy Mahler's birthday to all!
--John Haueisen

[James Meckley]

John,

Thanks very much.

James