OP: The Viennese Pastry Cookbook

The Macmillan Company, 1970. Hardcover. Very Good Plus. First printing.

How did a renowned Austrian photographer—publishing in Life and Ladies' Home Journal, as well as newspapers like The Los Angeles Times—Lilly Joss Reich (1911–2006) come to write a three hundred-plus page book on Viennese pastry? 

Extolling the virtues of the afternoon Jause, or snack, Reich writes nostalgically of the pleasure of something homemade. Many of her recipes are derived from the handwritten recipes of her mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, which had been hidden in a Parisian safe-deposit box upon the 1940 German invasion of Paris, where Reich and her family were living at the time. Despite the box having been looted for “real” valuables, the recipes were left untouched and were retrieved after the war. 

With evident delight and authority, Reich shares recipes, ranging in difficulty, for:

• Husaren krapferl—jam-filled cookies, which Reich’s mother noted, “je länger je besser,” or, “the longer the better,” as their taste improves with aging
• Mohntorte mit äpfeln—apple torte with ground poppy seeds and walnuts
• Weihnachts striezel—yeasted Christmas bread, studded with rum-soaked dried fruit and nuts
• Zwetschgen knödel—boiled potato dumplings stuffed with plums and dusted with sugar

Much to delight in here! We’re pleased to offer a first printing in excellent shape. The interior is totally clean except for a stain where a Christmas card was laid in (we’ve put it in a plastic sleeve). The jacket has minor chipping along the top edge. Full color plate inserts, photographed, of course, by the author.