One September anniversary is my parent's 52nd. For their 50th, I created three huge scrapbooks with photos and mementos of their lives. Not just their 50 years together, but growing up too. Mom sent me boxes of photos (and slides--ugh, had to get them made into pictures--pricey) and while a lot of the photos had the dates/event/people listed on the back, many were not in any order and I had to make some guesses on chronology.
I sorted and edited the photos, planned the layouts, bought all the materials. It was heaven because I love to scrapbook. Mom and Dad were really thrilled to have the books, which I presented at their anniversary party. But it was a lot of work and kind of burned me out on the whole scrapping thing for awhile.
I have some gift-giving immunity because of the scrapbook success, so lately, I've been sending them food gifts (no, not Fruit-of-the-Month-Club, fer chrissake!). Sometimes bake them treats (macaroons for dad who likes coconut and brownies for Mom.) They love to eat and since both of them are of German heritage I had a brilliant idea to send them a "tasty pastry from their past" ... a German stollen. From the Ya-Hoo Bakery in Sherman, Texas (what do Texans know about German pastries? We'll find out when it arrives in 5 days.)
For the uninitiated, a stollen is basically a fruitcake, only more bread-y and less cake-y nor sweet as the traditional candied fruitcake. Both have raisins and nuts and are usually baked only at Christmas time. This popular Christmas treat originated in Dresden, Germany in homage to the newborn Jesus--the stollen is liberally sprinkled with powdered sugar to suggest a baby wrapped in a blanket.
My mom used to make her own fruitcake back in the day. Baked a dozen or so as Christmas gifts for friends and neighbors. And believe it or not, contrary to the conventional wisdom regarding the fruitcake genre, mom's cakes were really, really good. I have never liked the taste of any other fruitcake. So much better than the crappy, gummy kind in the tin.
She made the tasty cakes late October and it was quite a production. So many ingredients were involved (all of which got too expensive so she stopped production decades ago). Each cake was as heavy as a brick and she stored them in the pantry closet, wrapped in rum-soaked cheese cloth to "cure" (I guess that's the word) over the long weeks leading up to the holidays.
So, good luck in trying to find a German stollen in Los Angeles in September. I called several German bakeries in the LA area. No one starts baking stollen until October. Trader Joe's stocks them, starting in November. No worries...that's why God invented the internet....With two clicks I found Ya-Hoo Bakery and they bake stollen (and fruitcake too) ALL YEAR 'ROUND!
I ordered the "King Stollen" which looked so pretty and powdered in the photo and appeared to be a lighter alternative to their "old school" stollen which is packed crust-to-crumbs with candied fruits and nuts and a rich almond nougat filling (marzipan). The King uses dried apricots instead of raisins which sounded delicious though somewhat blasphemous!
Yvonne took my order and we chatted about her preference and Yvonne told me to "definitely go with the King." So I went with the King. However, that night I had buyer's remorse. Second-guessing myself. Perhaps I shouldn't have strayed from tradition. My family doesn't take kindly to culinary risks. But what the hey, it's on it's way.
And even if Ya-Hoo Bakery's authentic German stollen doesn't pass the taste-test, I know mom and dad will think it was a NICE thing to do anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment