Leipziger Lerche

The Leipziger Lerche is a small baked pastry made in Leipzig, Germany. A crisp pastry shell is filled with a sweet almond filling, and two strips of dough are laid across the top in a cross. Some versions also contain fruit jam or a cherry.

Jam and Almonds in a Small Shell

The outside is a crisp, short pastry made with butter. The marzipan or almond filling inside is moist and densely packed, and when fruit is added, it brings a touch of tartness to the sweetness. The cross on top is the mark of a pastry that encloses a filling. The recipes for the pastry and the filling vary from shop to shop.

In one example presented in Leipzig tourism materials, small tins are lined with thinly rolled pastry and a little strawberry jam is added. A filling made with almonds and other ingredients goes on top, two thin strips of pastry are laid across it in a cross, and the top is brushed with egg yolk before baking. The materials also describe a finish that adds a maraschino cherry to the filling. The order is fruit at the bottom, then the nut filling, then the cross decoration on top.

A Pastry That Shares Its Name with a Bird

Lerche is the German word for lark. According to materials from the State of Saxony, Leipzig was once a center of the lark trade, and some people sold the birds as a prepared dish. The birds are said to have been stuffed, tied with string and served as a dish. One explanation holds that the cross of pastry on the pastry, too, represents that string.

Another story says that the pastry was invented as a substitute after catching the birds was banned in 1876. However, research by a Leipzig liquor producer suggests that the pastry Lerche may already have appeared in a newspaper advertisement in 1859. It still needs to be confirmed that the advertisement refers to the pastry rather than to the bird as a dish, but it cannot simply be said that a single confectioner first created it after the ban.

The same research notes that an 1883 confectionery book includes a Lerche made of laminated dough filled with apple jam and an almond filling, flavored with cinnamon and lemon peel. It seems that the crisp-pastry version commonly seen today has not always been the only form.

The Dresdner Eierschecke, also from Saxony, is a layered cake that is cut into slices. The Lerche, by contrast, is a small pastry baked individually in a tin.

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