German Fruit Square Pastry Recipes

Steps:

• Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl. Use a pastry blender or fork to cut in butter until pea-sized crumbs form. Add eggs and vanilla extract and mix dough well.
• Separate out 1/4 of the dough and chill in the refrigerator. Press remaining dough into the bottom and sides of an ungreased 15 1/2x10 1/2-inch jelly roll pan. Spread apricot preserves on 1/2 the mixture and raspberry preserves on the remaining 1/2.
• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
• Remove chilled dough from the refrigerator and roll out onto a lightly floured board. Cut into 1/2-inch strips and place diagonally across the preserves to form a lattice; press around edges to seal.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.
• Allow to cool and cut into squares. Dust the top with confectioners' sugar; this keeps cookies from sticking and looks nice, too.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• Combine quark, lemon juice and 3-4 tsp sugar. Taste and adjust juice and sugar to taste if necessary.
• Add egg and stir to combine.
• Unroll crescents and separate into large (roughly) squares (two per package of dough). Pinch together seams as much as possible.
• Measure out about 2 Tablespoons of cheese mixture and place in center of square.
• Take hold of two opposite corners of dough and bring to a point in the center, bringing the other two corners in to meet them, so that you are left with roughly a square filled pastry.
• Sprinkle squares with about 1/2 tsp sugar each and bake for about 14 minutes or until browned and puffed.
• Allow to cool and enjoy at room temperature.
• Refrigerate or freeze any leftovers.