choosing our gourmet cake for Christmas dinner

[shootingstar]

Our Christmas dinner will be on Christmas Eve...as usual.  He and I come from families where each family did their own celebration during the lit darkness of Christmas Eve.  

As usual,  will choose a gourmet cake..probably a bouche de Noel (roll) from a well=known Vancouver pastry chef who has a very popular patisserie and cafe place. The chef also grew up and trained  in same part of southern Germany where dearie's family comes from, where German tradition of fine pastry making...6-layer tortes, delicate cookies are done.  It is not just apple strudel.

Baking it is too much effort, at this quality level, for us. His mother used to do and loved doing it before she died.  This is a woman who could make puff pastry …from scratch.  So in a small way, spending some money on quality gourmet Christmas cake is a nod to our memory of her fine gourmet baking creations for her family for decades.

https://www.thomashaas.com/collections/cakes-and-tarts

[Wilbur ★]

That all looks exquisite!  I have purchased items t Thomas hass  before.  I always go back to Valley Bakery in Burnaby for their Fruit/creme cake for special occasions.  It is a childhood treat. 

My favourite from Germany is Lebkuchen but they are regional to Nurenberg.

[shootingstar]

34 minutes ago, Don Cherry said:

That all looks exquisite!  I have purchased items t Thomas hass  before.  I always go back to Valley Bakery in Burnaby for their Fruit/creme cake for special occasions.  It is a childhood treat. 

My favourite from Germany is Lebkuchen but they are regional to Nurenberg.

It is interesting to know certain types of dishes of a culture very intimately and how they have evolved.  Dearie's mom did her Christmas baking in last wk. of November annually.  She made over 200 cookies, about 5 different types. Lebkuchen was one of them.  Certain cookies are kept fresh and aged for deepening flavour with lemon peel inside an air tight container.  

She also made linzertorte several times with true hazelnut crumb base...it was also aged for several wks. in airtight container to deepen the flavour.

Christmas was her season for her creativity and one she loved the most to celebrate in German style.  She was also a quietly devout Catholic.  I can see this in personality of dearie. in various facets.. though he vehemently denies me.  ?  

He can rightfully in a discreet way, can critique fine European gourmet baking.... and we probably experience more the delicacies this next summer.

https://cyclewriteblog.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/tour-de-gateau-torte-and-kugelhopf/

European Patisserie: Defining Stars for Quality

Simplified tortes in Copenhagen, Denmark June 2010. Photo by J. Chong.

More taste pointers for finely crafted, tasty cake, tortes and pasteries:  (Aided by memory of Jack’s mother’s fine cakes. She was trained in pastry-making in Germany and part of a familial line of pastry chefs and bakers for several generations.)

• Use of fresh ingredients with a light-handed taste result.
• No use of preservatives.
• More use of fresh plums, fresh whole cherries, hazelnut flour and other ground nuts.
• Icing if used at all, is very light-handed and never too sugary.
• Cake crumb is not gluey, but light and flavourful with any spices, fine nut flours.
• Deep fried pastries are not the norm. Exceptions would be beignets – a type of jelly-filled donut found in France and Germany.
• Common use of clear or fruit gelatins to finish off some cakes for dewy, jewel-like sparkle.
• Crème spreads between multiple cake layers are thin, and can vary throughout 1 cake.
• Multi-layered cakes are thin layers –as in a fine torte. 4-5 layered tortes are the norm.
• Light use of wine or liquor to sweeten whipping cream, pastry layer fillings. Occasionally for cake crumb itself.

Cycling by ceramic dishware. Kugelholpf decorative moulds were everywhere here and in southern Germany. Strasbourg, France June 2010. Photo by J. Chong

We found in the Czech Republic and Denmark, fewer places that served fine cakes and pastries. Often dessert menu did not venture too far beyond strudel.

[shootingstar]

36 minutes ago, Don Cherry said:

That all looks exquisite!  I have purchased items t Thomas hass  before.  I always go back to Valley Bakery in Burnaby for their Fruit/creme cake for special occasions.  It is a childhood treat. 

My favourite from Germany is Lebkuchen but they are regional to Nurenberg.

There is an Asian angle to Thomas Haas.....he is married to an Asian woman.  They have some kids.  She helps run the back end of the business at times, I think.

Haas invited dearie and his son into the bakery kitchen, to sorta tour it.  That was nearly a decade ago.  

Haas is also a consummate cyclist.  He has sold cycling jerseys with his business logo.  

[Airehead]

I would purchase both the stollen for breakfast and the pistachio cherry dessert.   Our experiences with tasty treats in Luxembourg and Germany have made it hard to eat others. Usually things are cloyingly sweet. 

[Wilbur ★]

5 minutes ago, Airehead said:

cloyingly

Word of the day!

[Wilbur ★]

1 hour ago, shootingstar said:

he is married to an Asian woman.

Hardbodied Asian chicks are hot!   

[BuffJim]

10 minutes ago, Airehead said:

I would purchase both the stollen for breakfast and the pistachio cherry dessert.   Our experiences with tasty treats in Luxembourg and Germany have made it hard to eat others. Usually things are cloyingly sweet. 

My mother thinks it’s not Christmas without Stollen. And she’s only a little German. Mostly Swedish. 

[Wilbur ★]

17 minutes ago, BuffJim said:

My mother thinks it’s not Christmas without Stollen. And she’s only a little German. Mostly Swedish. 

That is traditional suet based Christmas Pudding with Brandy hard sauce for me.   

[Dirtyhip]

https://www.thomashaas.com/collections/cakes-and-tarts/products/champagne-truffle

 

 

[Square Wheels]